Author: NeRD

New Video Series Spotlights Engineers on NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission

NeRD

Learn about some of the engineering work being done by five members of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which aims to launch Thursday, Oct. 10. NASA With NASA’s Europa Clipper just weeks away from launch, five short videos give a behind-the-scenes peek at some of the engineers dedicated to making the mission a success. What does it take to build a massive spacecraft that will seek to determine if a mysterious moon has the right ingredients for life? Find out in a new video series called “Behind the Spacecraft,” which offers…

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Expedition 71 Soyuz Landing

NeRD

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson is seen smiling and holding a gifted matryoshka doll outside the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft after she landed with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. Dyson is returning to Earth after logging 184 days in space as a member of Expeditions 70-71 aboard the International Space Station and Chub and Kononenko return after having spent the last 374 days in space. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Pavel Shvets)

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China launches 10 satellites on 2 rockets less than 6 hours apart (video)

NeRD

China launched separate sets of Earth-observation and “Internet of Things” satellites into orbit on Friday (Sept. 20) on two different missions. The action began at 12:11 a.m EDT (0411 GMT, or 12:11 p.m. Beijing time) on Friday, when a Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China. Insulation tiles fell away from the rocket’s payload fairing as it climbed into cloudy skies above the spaceport.  Aboard were six remote-sensing satellites for Changguang Satellite Technology (CGST), a commercial spinoff from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.…

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X-rays from a nuclear explosion could redirect an asteroid

NeRD

When asteroids hurtle towards Earth in Hollywood films, astronauts often deploy nuclear warheads against them in order to save humanity. Now, scientists have found this strategy could actually help deflect an incoming cosmic impact — not by blowing an asteroid up with a nuke, but by exploding one more than a mile above its surface to shower it with X-ray radiation. As the catastrophic end of the Age of Dinosaurs about 66 million years ago reveals, cosmic impacts can have disastrous effects for life on Earth. “Asteroids aren’t just history…

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Station Science Top News: September 20, 2024

NeRD

Researchers found that eddies, or swirling wind patterns, increased moisture evaporation in an alfalfa field. A better understanding of the complex exchange of water and heat between the ground and atmosphere could improve remote sensing products and their use in agricultural water management.   The station’s ECOSTRESS instrument takes high-resolution thermal infrared measurements of Earth’s surface that provide data on changes in water availability, vegetation water stress, and agricultural water use. Researchers use observations from the USGS Landsat 8 and 9 satellites and ECOSTRESS to validate climate models and update data…

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NASA Science Activation Program Wins Prestigious Award

NeRD

The NASA Science Activation (SciAct) Program has been selected to receive the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2024 Excellence in Earth and Space Science Education Award. This prestigious, annual award, established in 1995, honors a mid-career or senior scientist team, individual, or group that has demonstrated a sustained commitment to broad, positive impact on Earth and space science education at any education level from kindergarten through postgraduate studies. SciAct engages learners of all ages in all 50 states and 4 US territories with Earth and space science. Through an extensive network…

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NASA Astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Crewmates Return from Space Station

NeRD

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 71 NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko, Monday, Sept. 23. Dyson is returning to Earth after logging 184 days in space as a member of Expeditions 70-71 aboard the International Space Station and Chub and Kononenko return after having spent the last 374 days in space. Credits: NASA/GCTC/Pavel Shvets NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson completed a six-month research mission aboard the International…

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SpaceX’s Crew-9 astronaut flight for NASA launches this week. Here’s how it turned into a rescue mission

NeRD

This week, NASA is sending up a rescue mission to the International Space Station. On Thursday (Sept. 26), NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos will launch to the International space Station (ISS) on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission. Two other NASA astronauts, Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson, both mission specialists, were supposed to be aboard as well.  But Wilson and Cardman were cut from the flight in order to make room for two other NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who are currently stuck…

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How Canada is preserving what remains of its iconic supersonic Avro Arrow jet

NeRD

Six decades after the supersonic Avro Arrow suddenly stopped flying, Canada is working hard to preserve what few pieces of it are left. The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow (known as the Arrow among its fans) was one of the most advanced supersonic jets of its era in the 1950s. It even has a link with NASA across the border, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. But the Arrow program’s funding was nixed in 1959 in a still-controversial decision by the Canadian government of the day, led by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.…

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Watch NASA astronaut, 2 record-breaking cosmonauts head home to Earth on Sept. 23

NeRD

A NASA astronaut and two record-setting Russian cosmonauts are set to head back to Earth on Monday (Sept. 23), and you can watch their homecoming live. Russia’s Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, with Tracy C. Dyson, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub aboard, is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday at 4:37 a.m. EDT (0837 GMT) and land on the steppe of Kazakhstan about 3.5 hours later. You can watch all the action live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency. NASA’s coverage…

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