Month: September 2024

NASA Sets Coverage for Agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 Launch, Docking

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NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov walk across the crew access arm at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Credit: SpaceX NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff is targeted for 1:17 p.m. EDT, Saturday, Sept. 28, from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This is the first human spaceflight mission to launch from that pad. The targeted docking time is…

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NASA’s Art Program is Back

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The inaugural murals for the relaunched NASA Art Program appear side-by-side at 350 Hudson Street, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in New York City. The murals, titled “To the Moon, and Back,” were created by New York-based artist team Geraluz and WERC and use geometrical patterns to invite deeper reflection on the exploration, creativity, and connection with the cosmos.

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SpaceX launching 20 Starlink internet satellites to orbit early Sept. 25

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SpaceX plans to launch 20 more of its Starlink broadband satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, from California early Wednesday morning (Sept. 25). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, on California’s central coast, Wednesday at 3:01 a.m. EDT (0701 GMT; 9:01 p.m. on Sept. 24 California time). You can watch the action live via SpaceX’s X account; coverage will begin about five minutes before launch. If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come…

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‘We are close:’ SETI astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol on the search for life

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A leading astrobiologist melds her passion with the weighty nature of trying to grasp for answers to two key questions: Are we alone in the universe? How did life on Earth begin in the first place? Nathalie Cabrol’s book, “The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist’s Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life” (Scribner/Simon & Schuster), released last month, offers an insightful and reflective view of the search for life — a mind-stretching quest not only looking “out there” but also right here on Earth. Perhaps part of…

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Tropical Storm Helene delays SpaceX’s Crew-9 astronaut launch to Sept. 28

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SpaceX’s next astronaut mission has been delayed by a powerful storm. The company had been planning to launch the Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday afternoon (Sept. 26). However, that target date has slipped by at least two days, thanks to a maelstrom named Helene. Helene is a tropical storm at the moment, but it’s expected to slam into Florida’s Gulf Coast on Thursday as a Category 3 hurricane. Thus, NASA and SpaceX now aim to launch…

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Astronaut José Hernández Boards Discovery

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NASA/Jim Grossmann In this photo from Aug. 7, 2009, Jose Hernandez, mission specialist, smiles at the camera as he waits for his turn to enter the space shuttle Discovery as part of STS-128. It was the 128th Shuttle mission and the 30th mission to the International Space Station. While at the orbital lab, the STS-128 crew conducted three spacewalks. Hernandez joined NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in 2001. There, he was a materials research engineer in the Materials & Processes branch; eventually, he became branch chief. In 2004, he…

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NASA Awards Contract Extension for Solar Science Instrument

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NASA has awarded a contract extension to Stanford University, California, to continue the mission and services for the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument on the agency’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The cost-reimbursement, no fee contract extension provides for support, operation, and calibration of the HMI instrument, which is one of three main instruments on SDO. In addition, the extension provides for operating and maintaining the Joint Science Operations Center – Science Data Processing facility at Stanford as well as the HMI team’s support for Heliophysics System Observatory science. The…

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NASA Relaunches Art Program with Space-Themed Murals

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The inaugural murals for the relaunched NASA Art Program appear side-by-side at 350 Hudson Street, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in New York City. The murals, titled “To the Moon, and Back,” were created by New York-based artist team Geraluz and WERC and use geometrical patterns to invite deeper reflection on the exploration, creativity, and connection with the cosmos. NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA launched the next phase of its art program with two new space-themed murals in New York’s Hudson Square…

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