The International Space Station’s “window to the world” is pictured from the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module.
Read MoreMonth: August 2024
NASA Tests Deployment of Roman Space Telescope’s ‘Visor’
In this clip, engineers are testing the the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Deployable Aperture Cover. This component is responsible for keeping light out of the telescope barrel. It will be deployed once in orbit using a soft material attached to support booms and remains in this position throughout the observatory’s lifetime. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center The “visor” for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope recently completed several environmental tests simulating the conditions it will experience during launch and in space. Called the Deployable Aperture Cover, this large…
Read MoreNASA to Launch 8 Scientific Balloons From New Mexico
4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A scientific balloon is inflated for the Salter Test Flight before being released during NASA’s 2023 fall balloon campaign. The test flight returns for the 2024 campaign in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, carrying several smaller payloads. NASA/Andrew Hynous NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program has kicked off its annual fall balloon campaign at the agency’s balloon launch facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Eight balloon flights carrying scientific experiments and technology demonstrations are scheduled to launch from mid-August through mid-October. The…
Read MoreHubble Spotlights a Supernova
2 min read Hubble Spotlights a Supernova This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the galaxy LEDA 857074. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy LEDA 857074, located in the constellation Eridanus. LEDA 857074 is a barred spiral galaxy, with partially broken spiral arms. The image also captured a supernova, named SN 2022ADQZ, shining brightly on the right side of the galaxy’s bar. Several evolutionary paths can lead to a supernova explosion. One is the death of a supermassive star. When…
Read MoreBig news! ‘The Orville’ is getting a 4th season, actor confirms
At the recent “Star Trek” Las Vegas convention, actor Scott Grimes, who plays Lt. Gordon Malloy on “The Orville,” revealed to a small — and stunned — crowd that season 4 of the show is set to begin pre-production at some point early in 2025. Absolutely no one was expecting this, so no video of the big announcement seems to exist on social media. But it has been confirmed on The Planetary Union Network: ‘The Orville‘ Official Fan Podcast. Moreover, that same group wrote on Reddit, “Seth [MacFarlane, the show’s…
Read MoreMars Express orbiter takes a deep dive into ancient Red Planet lake (images)
A Mars orbiter has just taken a “deep dive” into an ancient Martian lake, figuratively, at least. Larger than any lake currently on Earth, the dried-up remnants of this ancient lakebed were just captured in incredible detail by the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft, which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2003. “This patch of Mars — shown in a new view from Mars Express’s High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) — is known as Caralis Chaos,” ESA scientists wrote in a statement. “We believe that water, and a…
Read MoreThis Rocks! NASA is Sending Student Science to Space
4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) A Terrier Improved Malemute sounding rocket carrying RockSat-X student developed experiments being raised on the launch rail on Wallops Island NASA NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is scheduled to launch a sounding rocket carrying student-developed experiments for the RockSat-X mission on Tuesday, Aug. 13. The Terrier-Improved Malemute rocket is expected to reach an altitude of about 100 miles (162 kilometers) before descending by parachute into the Atlantic Ocean to be recovered. The launch window for the mission is…
Read MoreThese nearby star systems could be good targets in the search for alien life
NASA‘s Chandra X-ray space telescope has created a three-dimensional map of stars close to the sun that may help astronomers search for alien planets that could host life. The map created by Chandra — which just celebrated 25 years in orbit but is facing a troubling budget crunch — could inform scientists which exoplanets to direct future telescopes toward to conduct searches for habitable conditions. The stars mapped by the telescope are arranged in concentric rings around the sun, at distances between 16.3 light-years and 49 light-years. This is close…
Read MoreInterior of Vacuum Tank at the Electric Propulsion Laboratory
Interior of the 20-foot diameter vacuum tank at the NASA Lewis Research Center’s Electric Propulsion Laboratory. The Electric Propulsion Laboratory, which began operation in 1961, contained two large vacuum tanks capable of simulating a space environment. The tanks were designed especially for testing ion and plasma thrusters and spacecraft. The larger 25-foot diameter tank included a 10-foot diameter test compartment to test electric thrusters with condensable propellants. The portals along the chamber floor lead to the massive exhauster equipment that pumped out the air to simulate the low pressures found…
Read MoreCalling All Innovators: Apply for NASA’s 2025 Lunabotics Challenge
A college team dressed in protective clean room suits prepares their robotic rover to compete in the final round of NASA’s annual Lunabotics competition on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Teams score points when their rover completes challenging tasks inside the Artemis Arena – a simulated lunar landscape inside The Astronauts Memorial Foundation’s Center for Space Education at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. NASA/Derrol Nail NASA invites teams from colleges, universities, as well as technical and vocational schools around the country to test their engineering skills in the 2025…
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