NASA Sets Coverage for Axiom Mission 3 Briefing, Events, Broadcast

NeRD

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is pictured docked to the space-facing port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module. Editor’s Note: This advisory was updated Jan. 12, 2024 to reflect a change in start time for docking coverage. NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the third private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff of Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) is scheduled for 5:11 p.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 17, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The…

Read More

NASA Astronaut, Congresswoman Discuss STEM Careers with Students

NeRD

NASA/Brandon Torres NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren talk with students and families at Youth Alliance, a community organization in Hollister, California, on Jan. 5.  Mann, who was born in another small California community, spoke about her parents’ work as an auto mechanic and a manicurist and her own path to becoming a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. Later, she said, becoming the first indigenous woman from NASA to go to space helped her connect with people of other indigenous communities. Mann is registered with the Wailacki of…

Read More

Logros de la NASA en la estación espacial en 2023

NeRD

La Estación Espacial Internacional es un centro de investigaciones científicas y demostraciones de tecnología. Actualmente, en su tercera década de operaciones atendidas por seres humanos, este laboratorio orbital aprovecha las investigaciones previas para producir resultados fundamentales mientras lleva a cabo ciencia de vanguardia. Lee los aspectos más destacados de algunos de los innovadores avances científicos de la estación espacial realizados en 2023 que están beneficiando a la humanidad en la Tierra y preparando a los seres humanos para los viajes a la Luna y más allá. Brindando beneficios a las…

Read More

New Study Updates NASA on Space-Based Solar Power

NeRD

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 2:14 p.m. EDT on Oct. 20, 2012 NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of an M9-class flare on Oct 20, 2012 at 2:14 p.m. EDT. Space-based solar power offers tantalizing possibilities for sustainable energy – in the future, orbital collection systems could harvest energy in space, and beam it wirelessly back to Earth. These systems could serve remote locations across the planet to supplement the terrestrial power transmission…

Read More

Massive Mars dust storm spotted by China’s Tianwen-1 probe (photos)

NeRD

China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter spotted a massive dust storm on Mars near Olympus Mons, the biggest mountain in the solar system. The massive dust storm was captured by the medium-resolution MoRIC camera on Tianwen-1 in January 2022. The mission launched in July 2020 and arrived in orbit around Mars just ahead of the arrival of NASA’s Perseverance rover in February 2021.  An image of the storm was processed by Andrea Luck, using data from China’s Lunar and Planetary Data Release System. Luck then shared the images on X. A larger version…

Read More

China won’t beat US Artemis astronauts to the moon, NASA chief says

NeRD

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is unconcerned that China will beat the United States in returning astronauts to the moon.  Both China and the United States have plans to land astronauts on the moon before the decade is over, reviving talk of a new space race. “It is a fact: We’re in a space race,” Nelson said in a 2023 interview. “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond…

Read More

Axiom astronaut Peggy Whitson hangs up her flight suit — on public display

NeRD

The United States’ most experienced astronaut has hung up her flight suit. Peggy Whitson, who has spent 675 days in space over the course of four missions — three for NASA and one commercial — came to Space Center Houston on Monday (Jan. 8) for the reveal of her Axiom Space flight suit as it was placed on public display. She wore the emblem-adorned, blue and black garment as the commander of Ax-2, the second all-private astronaut flight to the International Space Station (ISS), which was organized by Axiom in…

Read More

NASA Selects Crew for Next Simulated Mars Mission

NeRD

NASA selected a crew of four for the agency’s next Human Exploration Research Analog mission, a simulated mission to Mars. From left are Abhishek Bhagat, Susan Hilbig, Kamak Ebadi, and Ariana Lutsic.  Credit: HERA C7 Crew    NASA selected a crew of four volunteers to participate in a simulated journey to Mars inside a habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.  Abhishek Bhagat, Kamak Ebadi, Susan Hilbig, and Ariana Lutsic will enter the ground-based HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) facility on Friday, Jan. 26, to live and work like…

Read More

This US-Indian Satellite Will Monitor Earth’s Changing Frozen Regions

NeRD

Satellite imagery shows a portion of East Antarctica on Jan. 9, 2022, before icebergs calved off the Glenzer and Conger glaciers. NISAR will observe nearly all of the planet’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days, monitoring Earth’s frozen regions, known as the cryosphere. USGS Much of the Glenzer and Conger glaciers had collapsed by March 23, 2022, spawning numerous icebergs, as shown in this satellite image. NISAR will document such changes around the globe, and its geographic coverage of Antarctica will be the most extensive for a radar…

Read More

Orbital-1 Launch: 10th Anniversary

NeRD

An Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket is seen as it launches from Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Thursday, January 9, 2014, Wallops Island, VA. Antares is carrying the Cygnus spacecraft on a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. The Orbital-1 mission is Orbital Sciences’ first contracted cargo delivery flight to the space station for NASA. Cygnus is carrying science experiments, crew provisions, spare parts and other hardware to the space station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Read More