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Thursday, July 18, 2013

NASA's Hubble Shows Link between Stars' Ages and Their Orbits


Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have determined the orbital motion of two distinct populations of stars in an ancient globular star cluster, offering proof they formed at different times and providing a rare look back into the Milky Way galaxy's early days.

Spacecraft Processing Procedures at Kennedy Space Center



In the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane operator lifts a full-size mock-up of the Orion spacecraft high in the air for transfer to High Bay 4.

Crane operators and technicians practice stacking and destacking operations in order to keep processing procedures and skills current for the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program.

NASA Interplanetary Probes to Take Pictures of Earth from Space


Two NASA spacecraft, one studying the Saturn system, the other observing Mercury, are maneuvering into place to take pictures of Earth on July 19 and 20.

Kepler Mission: Recovery Begins


Over the next week, the team will attempt tests to explore recovery of the spacecraft's reaction wheels.

NASA's Sofia Investigates the Southern Sky from New Zealand

NASA's SOFIA airborne observatory will be based in New Zealand for the next two weeks, taking advantage of the Southern Hemisphere's orientation to study celestial objects that are difficult or impossible to see in the northern sky.

Earth from Space



Join us Friday, 19 July, at 10:00 CEST for an 800 km-high tour with spectacular images from Earth-observing satellite.

Before the leak



Luca Parmitano and Chris Cassidy took these photographs of each other during their spacewalk. Shortly afterwards Luca reported water floating behind his head inside his helmet and NASA Mission Control decided to end the spacewalk early.

Deep-space listening stations gain made-in-Europe hearing boost


Picking up ultra-weak signals from spacecraft exploring deep in our Solar System requires cooling a detector to within a few degrees of absolute zero. Thanks to ESA's support, the technology is now available in Europe for the first time.

Target asteroid tracked by European teams



In a recent close-ish flyby, asteroid 2002 GT was studied in detail for the first time by a network of European astronomers. The observations were coordinated by ESA's asteroid centre in Italy, and should prove crucial for a future spacecraft rendezvous.

Last look before launch



Alphasat is seen for the last time before being encapsulated by the Ariane 5 fairing, in preparation for launch on Thursday 25 July
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