Aurorasaurus Roars During Historic Solar Storm

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2 min read Aurorasaurus Roars During Historic Solar Storm During the peak of activity (May 10-11, 2024) the Aurorasaurus website showed widespread reports and real-time alerts. The largest geomagnetic storm in 21 years lit up the sky last weekend, and NASA’s volunteers were ready. Between May 10th and 12th 2024, NASA’s Aurorasaurus project received an unprecedented number of reports from around the world. It also helped eager aurora chasers get a better view. “Aurorasaurus made all the difference for me,” said volunteer Damon Tighe. “I was able to see it in Oakland, CA and knew it was coming…

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NASA Selects BAE Systems to Develop Ocean Color Instrument for NOAA

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NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected BAE Systems (formerly known as Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation) of Boulder, Colorado, to develop an instrument to analyze ocean data as part of NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program. This cost-plus-award-fee contract is valued at approximately $450 million. It includes the development of two flight instruments as well as options for additional units. The anticipated period of performance for this contract includes support for 10 years of on-orbit operations and five years of on-orbit storage,…

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NASA, Sierra Space Deliver Dream Chaser to Florida for Launch Preparation

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Dream Chaser Tenacity, Sierra Space’s uncrewed cargo spaceplane, is processed inside the Space Systems Processing Facility (SSPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, May 20, 2024. The spaceplane arrived inside a climate-controlled transportation container from the agency’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio. Final testing and prelaunch processing will be completed inside the high bay of the SSPF ahead of Dream Chaser’s inaugural launch atop a ULA (United Launch Alliance) Vulcan rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.   Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett As part of NASA’s efforts to…

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Astronaut Exercise

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Science in Space: May 2024 Future missions to the Moon and Mars must address many challenges, including preventing loss of bone and muscle tissue in astronauts. Research on the International Space Station is helping to address this challenge. Without Earth’s gravity, both bone and muscle atrophy, or become smaller and weaker. Early on, scientists realized that exercise is a critical part of maintaining healthy bones and muscles in space, just as it is on Earth. From simple elastic bands on early missions, exercise hardware has become increasingly advanced. Current equipment…

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Readying Apollo 10 for Launch

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Nighttime, ground-level view of the Apollo 10 space vehicle on Pad B, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center. This photograph of the 363-feet tall Apollo/Saturn V stack was taken during pull back of the mobile service structure. The Apollo 10 crew was astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young, and Eugene A. Cernan.

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Enchanting new Hubble Telescope image reveals an infant star’s sparkle

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Have you ever wondered what our sun looked like when it was young? Although we know the sun to be an unchanging, and even predictable source, of light in our skies, its youthful version some 4.6 billion years ago was quite active. During those formative years, our star spewed solar flares every week or so, despite shining only about a third as bright as it does now. Scientists also suspect that even though the early sun exhibited a dim stature, it kept the then-young Earth warm enough for life to…

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Blue Origin launches 1st Black astronaut candidate, age 90, and 5 space tourists on New Shepard rocket (video)

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Blue Origin’s nearly two-year human spaceflight drought is over. Jeff Bezos‘ aerospace company launched its NS-25 mission today (May 19), sending six people — including the United States’ first-ever Black astronaut candidate — on a brief trip to suborbital space aboard its New Shepard rocket-capsule combo. It was Blue Origin‘s first space tourism launch since August 2022. That previous mission went well, but the company’s next flight, an uncrewed research jaunt that launched a month later, did not: New Shepard suffered a serious anomaly, causing the destruction of the first-stage…

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‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’ at 25: Who are the angels on the moons of Iego?

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Yippee! “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” blows out the candles on its 25th anniversary birthday cake today.  After taking in a screening during its short return to theaters for Star Wars Day week, we can honestly say that this polarizing film still has its problems but honestly elicits enough thrills to warrant a repeat viewing, if only to hear John Williams sweeping musical score and see Ray Park’s acrobatic Darth Maul twirl his double-bladed lightsaber while seething with palpable hatred toward the gallant Jedi Knights.  “Episode 1” landed on May…

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NASA-funded pulsed plasma rocket concept aims to send astronauts to Mars in 2 months

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An innovative rocket system could revolutionize future deep space missions to Mars, reducing travel time to the Red Planet to just a few months.  The goal of landing humans on Mars has presented a myriad of challenges, including the need to quickly transport large payloads to and from the distant planet, which, depending on the positions of Earth and Mars, would take almost two years for a round trip using current propulsion technology. The Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR), under development by Howe Industries, is a propulsion system designed to be…

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NASA’s PREFIRE mission is ready to unlock the mysteries of Earth’s poles

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NASA is preparing to launch its latest climate science mission, the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-Infrared Experiment (PREFIRE), which aims to capture brand new data on how heat is lost to space from Earth’s polar regions. PREFIRE consists of a pair of cubesats that will launch separately into near-polar orbits. The first, “Ready, Aim, PREFIRE,” is set to launch no earlier than (NET) May 22, on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Pad B at the company’s Launch Complex 1, in Māhia, New Zealand. The second cubesat, “PREFIRE and…

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