NASA Tests in Simulated Lunar Gravity to Prep Payloads for Moon

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket system on Feb. 4, 2025. During the flight test, the capsule at the top detached from the booster and spun at approximately 11 rpm to simulate lunar gravity for the NASA-supported payloads inside. Blue Origin The old saying — “Practice makes perfect!” — applies to the Moon too. On Tuesday, NASA gave 17 technologies, instruments, and experiments the chance to practice being on the Moon… without actually going there. Instead, it…

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SpaceX to launch water-hunting moon probe ‘Lunar Trailblazer’ on Feb. 26

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LITTLETON, Colorado — A university-led lunar orbiter designed to pinpoint the location of ice or liquid water trapped in rocks on the moon’s surface is nearly ready for takeoff. The Lunar Trailblazer is slated to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Feb. 26 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will fly as a “rideshare” along with the primary payload — the Athena lunar lander, built by Houston company Intuitive Machines. Here within a Lockheed Martin clean room, where it underwent final grooming ahead of…

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Bullseye!

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NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, released on Feb. 4, 2025, shows the gargantuan galaxy LEDA 1313424, aptly nicknamed the Bullseye. A far smaller blue dwarf galaxy went through the Bullseye’s center, leaving nine star-filled rings. Astronomers using Hubble identified eight visible rings, more than previously detected by any telescope in any galaxy, and confirmed a ninth using data from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Previous observations of other galaxies show a maximum of two or three rings. Hubble and Keck’s follow-up observations…

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NASA Demonstrates Software ‘Brains’ Shared Across Satellite Swarms  

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5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Jeremy Frank, left, and Caleb Adams, right, discuss software developed by NASA’s Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy project. The software runs on spacecraft computers, currently housed on a test rack at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and depicts a spacecraft swarm virtually flying in lunar orbit to provide autonomous position navigation and timing services at the Moon. NASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete Talk amongst yourselves, get on the same page, and work together to get the job done! This “pep…

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SpaceX launches 2 Maxar Earth-observing satellites toward orbit (video, photos)

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SpaceX launched two Earth-imaging satellites today (Feb. 4), further building out Maxar Technologies’ sharp-eyed WorldView Legion constellation. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the WorldView Legion 5 and 6 satellites lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida today at 6:13 p.m. EST (2313 GMT). The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth about eight minutes after launch as planned, touching down at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door to KSC. The first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket heads back to Earth for a…

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Combustor Facilities

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9 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Sector Combustor Studies (CE-5B-1) Combustion studies are conducted in this two-test position facility specifically in support of the NOx-reduction research for the High Speed Research program and the Advanced Subsonic Technology program. CE-5B-1 is large enough to test sector arrangements of injector elements to include interactions of the elements and single larger elements. The facility receives filtered combustion air from the 450-psig system. The air is heated in a 1,100°F non-vitiated heater at flows up to 20 lb/s, which…

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Blue Origin to launch New Shepard moon-gravity mission on Feb. 4 after glitch

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Blue Origin is now targeting Tuesday (Feb. 4) for its first-ever moon-gravity mission. The company first tried to launch the NS-29 mission of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle on Jan. 28, but called off that try due to uncooperative weather and an issue with the rocket’s avionics. But everything appears to be in order now. Blue Origin, which is run by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, plans to fly the uncrewed NS-29 on Tuesday morning. If all goes according to plan, New Shepard — a reusable rocket-capsule combo — will lift…

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NASA Awards Contract for Airborne Science Flight Services Support

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NASA has awarded Dynamic Aviation Group Inc. of Bridgewater, Virginia, the Commercial Aviation Services contract to support the agency’s Airborne Science Program. The program provides aircraft and technology to further science and advance the use of Earth observing satellite data, making NASA data about our home planet and innovations accessible to all. This is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum potential value of $13.5 million. The period of performance began Friday, Jan. 31, and continues through Jan. 30, 2030.  Under this contract, the company will provide ground and flight crews…

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NASA Presses Forward Search for VIPER Moon Rover Partner

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NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) sits outside a testing chamber after completing its thermal vacuum testing in the fall of 2024. Credit: NASA/JSC David DeHoyos To advance plans of securing a public/private partnership and land and operate NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission on the Moon in collaboration with industry the agency announced Monday it is seeking U.S. proposals. As part of the agency’s Artemis campaign, instruments on VIPER will demonstrate U.S. industry’s ability to search for ice on the lunar surface and collect science data.…

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Station Science Top News: Jan. 31, 2025

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Seeds survive space A close-up view of the Materials International Space Station Experiment hardware housing materials for exposure to space. NASA Researchers found that plant seeds exposed to space germinated at the same rate as those kept on the ground. This finding shows that plant seeds can remain viable during long-term space travel and plants could be used for food and other uses on future missions. Materials International Space Station Experiment-14 exposed a variety of materials to space, including 11 types of plant seeds. The work also evaluated the performance…

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