Practice makes perfect, which is especially true for moon missions with astronauts on board. That’s why SpaceX and NASA recently completed more than 200 docking scenarios together with Starship hardware. Starship is the landing system that will bring astronauts to the lunar surface with the Artemis 3 mission, no earlier than 2026. Engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center spent 10 days using hardware from the Starship lander and NASA’s Orion orbiter (designed by Lockheed Martin) at “various approach angles and speeds,” NASA officials said in a release. “These real-world results,…
Read MoreOdysseus Lands on the Moon
Following a launch on Feb. 15, Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander touched down in the Moon’s south polar region on Feb. 22 and has since transmitted valuable scientific data back to Earth.
Read MoreMaine Educators Re-Energized After Gathering
2 min read Maine Educators Re-Energized After Gathering On February 28-29, 2024, 57 teachers, librarians, and out-of-school educators gathered for a two-day retreat organized and supported by members of the NASA Science Activation Program’s Learning Ecosystems Northeast project team. Based at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), Learning Ecosystems Northeast (LENE) supports regional peer communities of educators who are working to co-develop data-rich climate learning experiences that span learning contexts. This high-energy leap-day retreat was held on the campus of the University of Maine Orono (a project partner) and…
Read MoreAstrophysics Instruments
Science in Space – February 2024 Instruments on the exterior of the International Space Station provide data on astrophysical phenomena that are helping scientists better understand our universe and its origins. Crew members install and maintain these instruments robotically and scientific teams operate them remotely. One of the instruments, the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), measures X-rays emitted by neutron stars and other cosmic objects to help answer questions about matter and gravity. Neutron stars, the densest measurable objects in the universe, are the remains of massive stars that…
Read MorePrivate Odysseus moon lander broke a leg during historic touchdown. ‘He’s a scrappy little dude.’ (new photos)
Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus moon lander overcame a number of hurdles during its epic touchdown last week, including one or more broken legs. The 14-foot-tall (4.3 meters) Odysseus settled onto the gray dirt near the moon‘s south pole on Thursday (Feb. 22), pulling off the first American lunar landing since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. But Odysseus’ touchdown was a bit rough. Thanks to an issue with its navigation equipment, the six-legged lander came down faster than expected, onto a patch of lunar ground that was higher in elevation than…
Read MoreMAF Announcement – NEPA Public Notice
NEPA Public Notice 2023-11-06 Draft Environmental Assessment – Lease for 50 Acre Business Park. Click here to view PDF
Read MoreSpaceX to launch Crew-8 astronauts to the space station March 1: Watch live
What time is the Crew-8 launch? SpaceX is poised to launch three astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS) this week on the company’s Crew-8 mission for NASA. The crew members’ spacecraft, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavor, will ride atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the historic Launch Complex-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff is currently scheduled for no earlier than Friday, March 1 at 12:04 a.m. EST (0504 GMT). Crew-8 includes NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick (mission commander), Michael Barratt (mission pilot), Jeanette Epps…
Read MoreJames Webb Space Telescope sees the infrared skeleton of a galaxy (image)
The James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared vision has transformed our view of a large, barred spiral galaxy, revealing its skeleton of dust illuminated by the glow of young stars. Visible-light images of NGC 1559, such as those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, show a glowing whirlpool of light with bright, young star clusters scattered across spiral arms laced with lanes of black dust. The JWST has now peered past the glare, its infrared vision revealing the galaxy’s innards. The JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) sees starlight filtered through the obscuring…
Read MoreNASA Invites Media, Public to Solar Eclipse Events in April
This composite image shows the progression of a total solar eclipse over Madras, Oregon on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. A total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the contiguous United States from Lincoln Beach, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of South America, Africa, and Europe. NASA/Aubrey Gemignani On Monday, April 8, a total solar eclipse will cross North America, giving people in 15 states the opportunity to see the Moon completely block the…
Read MoreSplashdown 101: Joint Team to Recover Crew, Orion After Moon Missions
NASA’s Artemis II crew members are assisted by U.S. Navy personnel as they exit a mockup of the Orion spacecraft onto an inflatable “front porch” while NASA’s Exploration Ground System’s Landing and Recovery team and partners from the Department of Defense aboard the USS San Diego practice recovery procedures using the Crew Module Test Article, during Underway Recovery Test 11 (URT-11) off the coast of San Diego, California on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. NASA/Jamie Peer When Artemis II NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space…
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