The first Orion mission will be an uncrewed lunar flyby in 2017, returning to Earth’s atmosphere at 11 km/s – the fastest reentry ever. Credit: NASA Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. is an American aerospace company. It is the prime contractor for the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle that is intended to carry astronauts into the […]
Solar storms are triggering X-ray auroras on Jupiter that are about eight times brighter than normal over a large area of the planet and hundreds of times more energetic than Earth’s “northern lights.” Credit: NASA/CXC/UCL/W.Dunn et al, Optical: NASA/STScI Jupiter’s already impressive auroral displays get a big boost from solar storms, a new study reveals. […]
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Ceres is coming into focus, but many mysteries about the dwarf planet remain. Newly released images captured by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft reveal a close-up look at Ceres’ odd bright spots and giant mountain, and hint at the existence of ice sheets at the dwarf planet’s poles. “Clearly, we have a lot […]
A new map of Mars’ gravity, which NASA is touting as the best one ever made, will make it easier for future spacecraft to make their way to the Red Planet. The new Martian gravity map also reveals clues into how the planet’s past was shaped, scientists say. The new map of Mars’ gravity was […]
<div data-cycle-pager-template=”” readability=”32.5″> Ceres Occator Crater Bright Spot Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI A close-up view of a strange bright spot in Occator crater on the dwarf planet Ceres, as seen by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. Observations of from ground-based telescopes suggest the spots undergo daily changes. <div data-cycle-pager-template=”” readability=”33.5″> Ceres’ Bright Spots Mosaic Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI Mosaic showing 130 […]
Sunita Williams (left), Peggy Whitson (top) and Sally Ride are known for breaking records among other female astronauts, but all three women have also accomplished spaceflight firsts among all astronauts, male or female. Credit: NASA Records set by women in spaceflight often come with the qualifier that those accomplishments are only among other women . […]
Nestled within the fractured rim of a vast impact basin on Mars are valley floors dusted in frost. To source
The Superman launch-abort system works yet again. In the new film “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” which hits theaters across the United States on Friday (March 25), the Man of Steel swoops in during a launch emergency and delivers the crewmembers of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from apparent certain death, as the highly anticipated […]
One of the technologies in the “Space Race” is the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR) excavator, which could mine for resources from hard-to-reach Earth mines, a moon or an asteroid. Credit: NASA A new NASA program rewards tech companies for building machines destined for Earth orbit — or even the moon. Dubbed “Startup […]
A new study, and some gorgeous simulations, may have revealed how order arises from disorder in the turbulent, chaotic body of the sun. In the sun, change is the norm. The body of the sun is a swirling cauldron of fluid, constantly in motion. Every 11 years , the suns magnetic poles migrate across the […]
This story was updated at 2:00 a.m. EDT on March 23. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A commercial Cygnus cargo ship launched into space late Tuesday (March 22), streaking into the Florida night sky on a mission to deliver a record-breaking load of NASA experiments and gear to the International Space Station. The Orbital ATK-built Cygnus blasted […]
A pair of comets zoomed past Earth over the past few days, and their historic one-two flyby punch was caught on video. A telescope in Chile operated by the online Slooh Community Observatory captured video of the comets 252P/LINEAR and 2016 BA14 as they cruised past Earth on Monday and Tuesday (March 21 and March […]
An image of the Earth taken from space by astronaut Scott Kelly. Credit: Scott Kelly NASA astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly both tweeted messages of mourning over the terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium. The bombings, carried out yesterday (March 22) at the Brussels airport and one of the city’s subway stations, left 31 people dead […]