Tag: NASA
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Orion’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket moved to launch pad
The Delta IV Heavy rocket is lifted to the vertical position at Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral. Photo: NASA/KSC. The booster rocket that will launch NASA’s next-generation Orion space capsule on a two-orbit, four-hour shakedown cruise in December has been rolled to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. United Launch Alliance’s triple-body Delta…
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India, NASA plot science campaign for Mars orbiters
TORONTO – Officials working on India’s Mars orbiter project are finalizing plans for a six-month science campaign after the spacecraft arrived in orbit last week, an achievement that has already satisfied the mission’s primary objectives, the head of India’s space agency said Monday. Since the probe entered orbit around Mars, scientists have switched on four…
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Boeing wins $4.2B NASA contract to fly astronauts to Space Station; SpaceX lands $2.6B deal
Photo Credit: NASA Update: The bulk of the contract, $4.2 billion, was awarded to Boeing, with a $2.6 billion portion going to SpaceX. The contracts include certification and development and a maximum of six missions. NASA has scheduled a “major announcement” for 1 p.m. Pacific today to “regarding the return of human spaceflight launches to…
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Antares lofts ORB-2 Cygnus on a path to the ISS
Orbital Sciences launched an Antares rocket with their third Cygnus spacecraft Sunday afternoon, beginning a commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. The rocket launched at the end of a very smooth countdown at 12:52 local time (16:52 UTC) from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. Antares Launch with ORB-2 Cygnus: Cygnus was…
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Curiosity marks completion of first Martian year of operations
Tuesday marks a milestone anniversary for NASA’s Curiosity rover – one full Martian year on the surface of the red planet. In the span of just 687 short Earth-days, Curiosity has marked several firsts and important scientific discoveries on Mars as she heads toward her primary scientific target of Mount Sharp in the Gale Crater.…
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Following the decadal survey: NASA focus on Europa mission
In what is a significant step forward in planning for a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, NASA has released a Request for Information to the science and engineering communities for ideas regarding a mission to the Jovian moon to help address fundamental questions about the moon and the search for life beyond Earth. The Decadal…
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NASA and Planetary Resources offer cash bounty for asteroid detection software
Want to figure out how to save the Earth and make some cash at the same time? Thanks to a new partnership, that’s a possibility. NASA is teaming up with Bellevue-based Planetary Resources to offer $35,000 in prizes in a series of contests over the next six months to people who create software that can…
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Japanese H-IIA rocket successfully lofts GPM Core
The Japanese have launched the centrepiece of the Global Precipitation Measurement constellation, an international partnership aimed at providing a worldwide map of precipitation levels. The GPM Core satellite will serve to provide a reference point with which the rest of the constellation’s data can be calibrated. The launch of the H-IIA rocket took place at 18:37…
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NASA chooses SpaceX for launchpad lease, passing over Bezos-backed Blue Origin
In a victory for Elon Musk and a blow to Jeff Bezos, NASA said today that it has entered negotiations with SpaceX to hammer out an agreement that would allow the spaceflight company to lease the historic Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The news comes just one day after the Government Accountability Office ruled…
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Planetary Resources and NASA partner to crowdsource asteroid detection
Thanks to a Seattle-area company, programmers are soon going to have a shot at using NASA data to find asteroids. Asteroid mining company Planetary Resources announced today that it has signed an agreement with NASA to sponsor challenges to use algorithms to better detect asteroids and other objects that have orbits that pass close to…