NASA
has selected Space Florida, the aerospace economic development agency
for the state of Florida, for negotiations toward a partnership
agreement to maintain and operate the historic Shuttle Landing Facility
(SLF).
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Earth from Space
Earth from Space
is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web-TV virtual
studios. Check out one of the first images from Proba-V over the border
region of northern Syria, southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq in the
seventy-first edition.
See also ...
to download the image.Aircraft Carrying IRIS Solar Observatory Takes Off
Friday, June 28, 2013
Meteorite science meets an artist’s dream of spaceflight
Live from Athens
Identifying Alzheimer’s using space software
NASA Ames Research Center News and Features Update
NASA Launches Satellite to Study How Sun's Atmosphere is Energized
Original Source
Stargazer Aircraft Carrying IRIS Takes Off
Thursday, June 27, 2013
NASA's Voyager 1 Explores Final Frontier of Our 'Solar Bubble'
Data
from Voyager 1, now more than 11 billion miles from the sun, suggest
the spacecraft is closer to becoming the first human-made object to
reach interstellar space.
European Space Agency Flickr Update
27-06-2013 02:34 PM CEST
This animation shows the Gaia spacecraft spinning in space scanning the sky.
Gaia's mission relies on the systematic and repeating observation of star positions in two fields of view. As the detectors repeatedly measure the position of each celestial object, they will detect any changes in the object's motion through space.
Gaia's mission relies on the systematic and repeating observation of star positions in two fields of view. As the detectors repeatedly measure the position of each celestial object, they will detect any changes in the object's motion through space.
To achieve its mission the spacecraft is spinning slowly, sweeping its two telescopes across the entire celestial sphere to make four complete rotations per day.
Gaia's telescopes point at two different portions of the sky, separated by a constant 106.5°. Therefore, objects arrive in the second field of view 106.5 minutes after they are observed in the first.
Gaia's telescopes point at two different portions of the sky, separated by a constant 106.5°. Therefore, objects arrive in the second field of view 106.5 minutes after they are observed in the first.
Meanwhile its spin axis precesses around the Sun with a period of about 63 days, allowing different parts of the sky to be scanned. This scanning strategy builds up an interlocking grid of positions, providing absolute – rather than relative – values of the stellar positions and motions.
The spacecraft spin axis makes an angle of 45° with the Sun direction, ensuring that the payload is shaded from the Sun, but that the solar arrays can still produce electricity efficiently.
Credits: ESA-C.Carreau
27-06-2013 10:36 AM CEST
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano snapped this view of moon-set from his privileged position on the International Space Station.
Luca is onboard the orbital outpost as part of ESA's long duration mission, Volare.
If you would like to see more of his images, please visit his dedicated Flickr photostream: Volare Mission.
Credits: ESA/NASA
Luca is onboard the orbital outpost as part of ESA's long duration mission, Volare.
If you would like to see more of his images, please visit his dedicated Flickr photostream: Volare Mission.
Credits: ESA/NASA
Nighttime Image of Texas Cities
One
of the Expedition 36 crew members aboard the International Space
Station, some 240 miles above Earth, used a 50mm lens to record this
oblique nighttime image of a large part of the nation's second largest
state in area, including the four largest metropolitan areas in
population.
Europe bids Gaia a safe journey
Tropical Storm Cosme (Eastern Pacific)
NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite captured the third named Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone as it grew to hurricane strength.
Earth from Space
Supernova Remnant G1.9+0.3
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Innovative Partnerships Expand NASA's Summer Education Reach
NASA has selected more than 170 educational organizations nationwide to receive Summer of Innovation mini-awards of as much as $2,500 each.
July Space Station Spacewalks to be Previewed and Broadcast on NASA TV
Two
Expedition 36 astronauts will venture outside the International Space
Station twice in July on spacewalks to prepare for a new Russian module
and perform additional installations on the station's backbone.
Launch of NASA's New Solar Mission Rescheduled to June 27
NASA Thruster Achieves World-Record 5+ Years of Operation
A
NASA advanced ion propulsion engine has successfully operated for more
than 48,000 hours, or 5 and a half years, making it the longest test
duration of any type of space propulsion system demonstration project
ever.
NASA Selects Student Teams For Microgravity Research Flights
NASA
has selected 14 undergraduate student teams from minority serving
institutions across the United States to test science experiments under
microgravity conditions.
IRIS Launch Set For Thursday
Live NASA Television launch coverage begins at 9 p.m. IRIS will open a new window of discovery by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the chromospheres and transition region into the sun's corona using spectrometry and imaging. The IRIS mission will observe how solar material moves, gathers energy and heats up as it travels through a largely unexplored region of the solar atmosphere.
The interface region, located between the sun's visible surface and upper atmosphere, is where most of the sun's ultraviolet emission is generated. These emissions impact the near-Earth space environment and Earth's climate.
Image Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
Earth’s northern biomass mapped and measured
ESA and student teams kick-off Fly Your Satellite!
Six student teams and their supervisors have gathered at ESTEC for the kick-off of the new Fly Your Satellite! Programme under the ESA Education Office. For the next three days, ESA experts will introduce the objectives and present the activities to be performed during the first phase of the programme.
Earthrise
Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts--Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders--held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. Said Lovell, "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth."
They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.
Image Credit: NASA
Ames Hosts Media for Rescheduled IRIS Launch
The launch of NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission has been delayed to 7:27 p.m. PDT, June 27, 2013.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Earth from Space: Special edition
Stepping into the Orion Crew Module
NASA
astronauts Cady Coleman and Ricky Arnold step into the Orion crew
module hatch during a series of spacesuit check tests conducted on June
13, 2013 at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at the agency's Johnson
Space Center in Houston.
The Orion crew module will serve as both
transport and a home to astronauts during future long-duration missions
to an asteroid, Mars and other destinations throughout our solar system.
Image Credit: NASA
A perfect sky
Original Source
NASA Ames Keeps the Dream of Space Exploration Alive
Early on, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., broke new ground in all flight regimes, from subsonic to hypersonic.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Bacteria Sent Into Space Behave in Mysterious Ways
Colonies of bacteria grown aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis behaved in ways never before observed on Earth.
European Space Agency Flickr Update
24-06-2013 01:55 PM CEST
Animation showing the deployment of Gaia's sunshade. During launch, the 10 m-wide sunshield is stowed against the spacecraft. Shortly after Gaia separates from its launch vehicle, the sunshield is deployed around the base of the spacecraft. It consists of 12 long rectangular panels covered with multilayer insulation blankets, and 12 triangular sections to fill in the gaps.
The shield has two purposes: to shade Gaia's sensitive telescopes and cameras, keeping them cool at a stable temperature below –100ºC, and to provide power to operate the spacecraft. Gaia will always point away from the Sun, so the underside of the skirt is covered with solar panels to generate electricity.
Credits: ESA/ATG Medialab
Unfolding Gaia
Gaia, ESA's billion-star surveyor, will be launched into space towards the end of this year.
In the meantime, ESA Space Science has launched a new 'minisite' focused on the Gaia mission.
Original Source
Supermoon in Washington
A
supermoon rises behind the Washington Monument, Sunday, June 23, 2013,
in Washington. This year the supermoon is up to 13.5% larger and 30%
brighter than a typical full moon is.
This is a result of the Moon
reaching its perigree - the closest that it gets to the Earth during the
course of its orbit. During perigree on June 23, the moon was about
221,824 miles away, as compared to the 252,581 miles away that it is at
its furthest distance from the Earth (apogee).
Image Credit: NASA/Bill
Ingalls
Earth from Space
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
NASA Ames Research Center News and Features Update
06/21/2013 12:00 AM EDT
NASA Announces Winners of 2012 George M. Low Award for Quality
06/21/2013 12:00 AM EDT
Two
companies that share a commitment to teamwork, technical and managerial
excellence, safety, and customer service have been selected to receive
NASA's premier honor for quality and performance, the George M. Low
Award.
Catch that bug!
21-06-2013 02:52 PM CEST
Spiders, beetles and worms might look creepy, but these creatures tell us a lot about biodiversity. Students are being challenged to count the creepy-crawlies' eyes, legs and antennae and compare them with specimens found by astronauts on an underground adventure in September.
Colliding Galaxy Pair
06/21/2013 12:00 AM EDT
The pair contains the disturbed, star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2936, along with its elliptical companion, NGC 2937 at lower left.
Once part of a flat, spiral disk, the orbits of the galaxy's stars have become scrambled due to gravitational tidal interactions with the other galaxy. This warps the galaxy's orderly spiral, and interstellar gas is strewn out into giant tails like stretched taffy.
Gas and dust drawn from the heart of NGC 2936 becomes compressed during the encounter, which in turn triggers star formation. These bluish knots are visible along the distorted arms that are closest to the companion elliptical.
The reddish dust, once within the galaxy, has been thrown out of the galaxy's plane and into dark veins that are silhouetted against the bright starlight from what is left of the nucleus and disk.
The companion elliptical, NGC 2937, is a puffball of stars with little gas or dust present. The stars contained within the galaxy are mostly old, as evidenced by their reddish color.
There are no blue stars that would be evidence of recent star formation. While the orbits of this elliptical's stars may be altered by the encounter, it's not apparent that the gravitational pull by its neighboring galaxy is having much of an effect.
Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team
Safe splashdown for Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle
European Space Agency United Kingdom (EN) Update
ESA’s Earth satellites are stars
Image of the week
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