Month: September 2023

SpaceX to launch 22 Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida this evening

NeRD

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is poised to launch from Florida’s Space Coast this evening (Sept. 29), carrying 22 Starlink satellites to orbit. The Falcon 9 is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 6:39 p.m. EDT (2239 GMT).  You can watch it live via SpaceX‘s account on X (formerly Twitter); coverage will start about five minutes before liftoff. Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will…

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8 tips to safely watch the annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14

NeRD

A solar eclipse will be visible across North, Central and South America on Oct. 14, and it promises to be a landmark event.  Everyone in the U.S. will see a partial solar eclipse, with those farther west seeing a much larger chunk taken out of the sun. Only from a path 125 miles (200 kilometers) wide running from Oregon through Texas — via California, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico — will observers get to see a “ring of fire,” as a slightly smaller-than-average new moon obscures about…

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NASA delays launch of Psyche asteroid mission by 1 week, to Oct. 12

NeRD

We’ll have to wait another week to see NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission take flight. Psyche had been scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Oct. 5. But that’s no longer the plan; the mission team has pushed the liftoff back to Oct. 12. “The change allows the NASA team to complete verifications of the parameters used to control the Psyche spacecraft’s nitrogen cold gas thrusters,” NASA officials wrote in an update on Thursday evening (Sept. 28). “The parameters were…

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NASA Publishes Beta Flagship, Science Websites as Improvements Continue

NeRD

NASA has switched its primary World Wide Web addresses to a beta version of the new NASA.gov and science.nasa.gov websites, continuing the long-term development and consolidation of its public web presence. The new sites will offer visitors an improved, intuitive web design and elevated user experience. The ongoing work on the agency’s upgraded website is the first step to a broad new digital experience from NASA, which will include a new on-demand streaming service called NASA + and an updated NASA app. This enhanced digital presence will allow the space…

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Commercial Law Resources

NeRD

The following resources relevant to the Commercial Law Practice Group are available on this site.Note: the information below is updated annually, and users of this web page will need to verify the accuracy of the citations and the information contained in the web links: 1. StatutesA. Commercial Commercial Space Competitiveness Act:Definitions — 51 U.S.C. § 50501Anchor Tenancy and Termination Liability — 51 U.S.C. § 50503Title 51 Chapter 509, formerly the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984– Commercial Space Act of 1998, Title II — P.L. 105-303Commercial Use of Government Facilities –15…

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SCaN STEM Navigation Activities

NeRD

Navigate Space: Space Communications and Navigation Workbook Grades 8 – 12  NASA navigates throughout the solar system and beyond, revealing the mysteries of the universe. In this workbook, you’ll use basic mathematics concepts to explore space navigation. We’ll use simplified, real-world examples supplied by navigation engineers to delve deep into the exciting world of space exploration. As NASA goes forward to the Moon and journeys on to Mars, maybe you could be the one to plan our next big mission! Navigate Space Workbook Workbook Answers NASA’s Search and Rescue Coloring Book …

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NASA astronaut Jan Davis recounts career, father’s POW experience in new book

NeRD

Davis: I was fortunate enough to be hired (at NASA) as an engineer in 1979, before the space shuttle flew in ’81. They were trying to ramp up people to work on not only the shuttle, but also things that flew on the shuttle, which is why I worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, which was amazing.  They had just selected the first group of astronauts to fly in the space shuttle in 1978: 35 astronauts, of which there were six women. So for the first time, the astronauts were…

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A giant moon collision may have given rise to Saturn’s iconic rings, study suggests

NeRD

A collision between two ancient icy moons that may have once orbited Saturn could have given rise to the planet’s iconic ring system, a new study reveals. Saturn is probably the most eye-catching planet in the solar system, but it may also be one of the most mind-boggling. Surrounded by a series of seven concentric rings and orbited by an army of 245 moons, the gas giant, second in size only to Jupiter, has puzzled astronomers for centuries.  A new study may have found an answer to one of Saturn’s…

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Radio telescope will launch to moon’s far side in 2025 to hunt for the cosmic Dark Ages

NeRD

A small mission to test technology to detect radio waves from the cosmic Dark Ages over 13.4 billion years ago will blast off for the far side of the moon in 2025. The Lunar Surface Electromagnetic Experiment-Night mission, or LuSEE-Night for short, is a small radio telescope being funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy with involvement from scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Minnesota. LuSEE-Night will blast off as part of NASA’s Commercial…

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