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Showing posts with label Space. Show all posts

Monday, December 8, 2014

NASA and Houston hospital work on spacesuit issue

HOUSTON (AP) — The empty spacesuit that sat on the operating table in a lab at Houston Methodist Hospital's research institute made for an unusual patient.

Saturday, December 6, 2014

NASA's Orion Spaceship Test a 'Textbook Spaceflight'

NASA's first capsule built to take humans to Mars aced a seemingly flawless first test flight on Friday (Dec. 5), with the space agency overjoyed with the spacecraft's performance. The Orion spacecraft appeared to function spectacularly during the risky unmanned test flight in space, and also as it came back through Earth's atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Some people are comparing this historic capsule to the capsules flown during the Apollo program that brought NASA astronauts to the moon for the first time. "It was just such a textbook spaceflight," said NASA astronaut Rex Walheim, who worked with the Orion team to develop the spacecraft.

For Pluto-Bound NASA Probe, It's Wake-Up Time in Space

A NASA spacecraft will wake up from its final nap today (Dec. 6) to begin preparations for an epic encounter with Pluto and its moons in 2015 that will cap a nine-year trek to the edge of the solar system. The New Horizons spacecraft left Earth in January 2006 and has traveled about 2.9 billion miles (4.6 billion kilometers) on its way to study Pluto and its largest moon Charon, a few smaller moons and more objects in the Kuiper Belt. Read More http://ift.tt/1ACiqrK

Friday, December 5, 2014

Artificial intelligence: Hawking's fears stir debate

There was the psychotic HAL 9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey," the humanoids which attacked their human masters in "I, Robot" and, of course, "The Terminator", where a robot is sent into the past to kill a woman whose son will end the tyranny of the machines.

NASA tries again to launch new Orion spacecraft

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA was getting ready to take another shot at launching its new Orion spacecraft Friday, a day after gusty wind and sticky valves held up the critical test flight.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

China Has Big Plans to Explore the Moon and Mars

China continues to ramp up its space activities, which include a new launch complex, more powerful boosters and the construction of a large space station, as well as plans for complex robotic missions to the moon and Mars. For example, China's "little fly" spacecraft looped around the moon and returned to Earth Nov. 1 (Beijing time) after eight days of flight, parachuting safely down in northern China's Inner Mongolia. The capsule used seven kinds of thermal protection materials, returning data that will be applied to China's Chang'e 5 robotic lunar sample return mission, which is slated to launch in 2017 from the new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. In the human spaceflight arena, China's manned space agency is readying the Tiangong 2 space lab for liftoff around 2016, which will be followed by the crewed Shenzhou 11 spacecraft and a Tianzhou cargo vessel that will rendezvous with the lab.

Volcanic Eruptions on Mars Could Have Caused Water to Flow

Volcanic eruptions on Mars could have warmed that world, potentially helping solve the mystery of how water could have flowed across the surface of the Red Planet long ago, researchers say. Although the surface of Mars is now cold and dry, there is ample evidence suggesting that rivers and lakes covered the Red Planet billions of years ago. "The problem of explaining the evidence for liquid water on early Mars has defied attempts to solve it for a very long time," lead study author Itay Halevy, a planetary geochemist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, told Space.com. On Earth, widespread volcanism often leads to cooling rather than warming, because ash and sulfuric acid particles can reflect the sun's rays.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

NASA to Launch First Orion Deep-Space Capsule Flight Today: Watch Live

They call it Orion. The Orion spacecraft, a capsule destined to fly NASA astronauts on deep-space missions to asteroids and Mars, is counting down to a planned 7:04 a.m. EST (1204 GMT) liftoff Thursday from a pad here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A massive Delta 4 Heavy rocket, the most powerful booster in use today, will launch the uncrewed test flight. You can watch the Orion launch live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 4:30 a.m. EST (0930 GMT).

NASA counts down to Orion's first step to Mars

The Orion spacecraft, designed to carry humans farther in deep space than ever before, is poised to blast off Thursday in what NASA hailed as a first step in mankind's journey to Mars.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Japan Launches Asteroid-chasing Probe to Bring Space Rock Samples to Earth

A Japanese spacecraft has launched on an ambitious mission to blast a hole in an asteroid and return samples of the space rock back to Earth. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa2 asteroid mission blasted off Tuesday (Dec. 2) at 11:22 p.m. EST (0422 GMT Dec. 3) from the country's Tanegashima Space Center, where the local time at liftoff was 1:22 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 3. If all goes well, the spacecraft should return samples of the asteroid 1999 JU3 to Earth in late 2020, JAXA officials said. Hayabusa2 is JAXA's bigger, bolder follow-up to its historic Hayabusa mission, which brought the first pristine samples of an asteroid to Earth in 2010 after its own seven-year mission.

Japanese space explorer to blow crater in asteroid

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese space explorer has departed on a six-year roundtrip journey to blow a crater in a remote asteroid in hopes of gathering clues to the origin of earth. Read More http://ift.tt/1yHS6fg

Japan launches rocket carrying asteroid probe

Japan on Wednesday launched a rocket carrying a space probe destined for a distant asteroid, just weeks after a European spacecraft's historic landing on a comet.

Friday, November 28, 2014

Japan asteroid probe to lift off Monday after delay

Japan on Monday will launch a space probe on a six-year mission to mine a distant asteroid after the event was postponed due to bad weather, officials said.

Bad weather delays Japan asteroid probe lift off

Bad weather will delay the launch of a Japanese space probe on a six-year mission to mine a distant asteroid, just weeks after a European spacecraft's historic landing on a comet captivated the world.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

DNA may survive trip to suborbital space and back

DNA molecules attached to the outside of a rocket may be able survive a trip to suborbital space and back into the Earth's atmosphere at extremely high temperatures, according to a study.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Space station's 3-D printer pops out 1st creation

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The first 3-D printer in space has popped out its first creation.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Russian Soyuz Delivers Crew of 3 to International Space Station

NASA astronaut Terry Virts, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov blasted off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:01 p.m. EST (2101 GMT, 3:01 a.m. local time in Baikonur). The trio reached the space station about six hours later after a quick trip through space. Virts is planning on sharing his experiences in space via social media websites like Twitter.

Multi-national crew reaches space station

By Irene Klotz (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan on Sunday to deliver three new crew members to the International Space Station, including Italy's first female astronaut. A Soyuz capsule carrying incoming station commander Terry Virts from U.S. space agency NASA, Soyuz commander Anton Shkaplerov from the Russian Federal Space Agency and first-time flier Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency lifted off at 2101 GMT Sunday. ...

Italy's first female astronaut arrives at space station: NASA

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Italy's first female astronaut has safely docked with the International Space Station, NASA said.

New Space Station Crew Launches Today: Watch Live

A new three-person crew is launching to the International Space Station atop a Russian rocket today (Nov. 23), and you can watch the liftoff live online. NASA astronaut Terry Virts, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov are scheduled to launch to the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:01 p.m. EST (2101 GMT) on Nov. 23. You can watch the launch live on Space.com starting at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) via NASA TV. NASA will also air live coverage of the Soyuz as it docks to the space station at 9:53 p.m. EST (0253 Nov. 24 GMT), with coverage beginning at 9:15 p.m. EST (0215 Nov. 24 GMT).

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