Tag: NASA
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NASA probe that will make round trip to asteroid and back sent to launch base
Credit: OSIRIS-REx project CAPE CANAVERAL — Equipped with a robot arm, sample collector and return capsule, NASA’s asteroid-bound OSIRIS-REx probe emerged from its pristine factory and flew to the launch site in Florida this evening. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will hurl the 4,650-pound spacecraft toward Asteroid Bennu on Sept. 8 for a…
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NASA probe that will make round trip to asteroid and back sent to launch base
Credit: OSIRIS-REx project CAPE CANAVERAL — Equipped with a robot arm, sample collector and return capsule, NASA’s asteroid-bound OSIRIS-REx probe emerged from its pristine factory and flew to the launch site in Florida this evening. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will hurl the 4,650-pound spacecraft toward Asteroid Bennu on Sept. 8 for a…
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NASA’s chief agrees with author of ‘The Martian’: The first Mars crews will steer robots from orbit
Is this how the first human missions to Mars will unfold? NASA’s chief favors an approach for extended operations from Martian orbit, rather than starting out with a crew landing on the surface. (Credit: NASA) The first humans to reach Mars almost certainly won’t go down to the surface, but will manage fleets of rovers…
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‘A Beautiful Planet’: Astronauts and space moviemakers reflect on film’s final frontier
NASA astronaut Terry Virts aims his camera through the Cupola, the best window on the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA) “A Beautiful Planet” is a 3-D visual feast for the eyes, but the astronauts who filmed the IMAX space extravaganza made sure that’s not all it is. For example, NASA astronaut Terry Virts said he recalled…
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More frontiers lie ahead as International Space Station makes its 100,000th orbit
The International Space Station has circled Earth more than 100,000 times. (NASA photo) The International Space Station registered its 100,000th orbit around the planet today, providing NASA with a news hook for looking at what humanity’s farthest-out outpost has done over the past 17 years. “During that time, over 1,922 research investigations have been performed,” NASA said in…
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MSNW’s magnetoshell aerobraking system gets in on NASA’s way-out research fund
MSNW’s magnetoshell aerocapture concept could help ease spaceships into orbit. (Credit: MSNW) A system that would use magnetic fields to ease a spacecraft into orbit after an interplanetary journey has won a $500,000 grant from NASA’s advanced research program for MSNW, a company based in Redmond. Wash. The money for MSNW is one of eight…
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SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule splashes down, returning Scott Kelly’s samples
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule descends toward the Pacific at the end of its parachutes. (Credit: SpaceX) A month after delivering an expandable prototype habitat and other goodies to the International Space Station, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean today with tons of equipment and scientific samples. Among the roughly 3,700 pounds of cargo are freezers…
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1,284 new worlds! Kepler mission doubles its tally of planets in one fell swoop
A graphic shows the diversity of planets. (Credit: NASA) The scientists behind NASA’s Kepler mission are using statistics to put their campaign to identify new planets into overdrive: New software that automates the process has verified 1,284 candidates as genuine planets rather than celestial “impostors,” more than doubling its database of confirmed worlds. “This is the…
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NASA keeps its eye on a trio of potentially habitable planets just 40 light-years away
An artist’s impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth. (Credit: ESO) Three potentially habitable and definitely weird planets have been detected orbiting an ultracool dwarf star that’s 40 light-years away from Earth. They’re too far to visit anytime soon,…
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Environmental testing underway for JPSS 1 launching in January
The next American polar-orbiting weather satellite that will feed long-range forecasts and track environmental trends has slipped into space-like testing ahead of launch. The Joint Polar Satellite System spacecraft No. 1 will be launched atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Jan. 20 at 1:47 a.m.…