Did NASA’s Viking landers accidentally kill life on Mars? Why one scientist thinks so

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In 1975, NASA’s Viking 1 spacecraft entered orbit around Mars, carrying a mission to unlock the secrets of the Red Planet. Soon, it released twin landers that drifted toward the Martian surface and eventually made history as the first American spacecraft to touch down on the world. For over six years, Viking 1 continued to orbit Mars’ Chryse Planitia region while its landers collected soil samples using robotic arms and onboard laboratories, marking a groundbreaking chapter in humanity’s exploration of the Martian environment. At the time, however, little was known…

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Aging and Fragility Biomarkers are Altered by Spaceflight

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Parallels between spaceflight and the aging process may extend to encompass frailty.Figure Left: Venn diagram of differentially expressed frailty genes in rodent and human samples shows the common differentially expressed genes between the two species.Figure Right: Schematic of the Inspiration4 experiments and samples.This study relied on data from the OSDR, including 7 rodent spaceflight datasets, 2 human space analog datasets, astronaut data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Inspiration4. Data on sarcopenia were mined from National Center for Biotechnology Information’s Gene Expression Omnibus. Spaceflight accelerates the symptoms of…

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La NASA y Perú acuerdan estudiar una posible campaña de lanzamiento de cohetes sonda

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El viceministro de Políticas para la Defensa del Ministerio de Defensa de Perú, César Medardo Torres Vega, el administrador de la NASA, Bill Nelson, y el director de la Comisión Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Aeroespacial del Perú (CONIDA), mayor general Roberto Melgar Sheen, se reúnen en Lima, Perú, el 14 de noviembre de 2024, donde EE. UU. y Perú firmaron un memorando de entendimiento acordando estudiar una potencial campaña de cohetes sonda. Crédito: Embajada de EE. UU. en Perú Read this release in English here. La NASA y la Comisión…

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Meet the Space Ops Team: Diana Oglesby

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3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Diana Oglesby’s love for NASA began long before she started working for the agency. A native of Decatur, Texas, Oglesby knew at the age of eight that she would make NASA her future destination. That dream became a reality when Oglesby joined the agency, first as an intern and later as a NASA full-time employee, marking the beginning of a career that would span over two decades.   Oglesby currently serves as director of the Strategic Integration and Management Division…

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Precision Pointing Goes the Distance on NASA Experiment

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4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The laser that transmits between NASA’s Psyche spacecraft and Earth-based observatories for the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment successfully reaches its target thanks, in part, to a vibration isolation platform developed by Controlled Dynamics Inc., and supported by several Space Technology Mission Directorate programs. NASA/JPL-Caltech One year ago today, the future of space communications arrived at Earth as a beam of light from a NASA spacecraft nearly 10 million miles away. That’s 40 times farther than our Moon. That’s…

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55 Years Ago: Apollo 12 Launches

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The 363-feet tall Apollo 12 space vehicle launches from Pad A, Launch Complex 39 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:22 a.m. EST, Nov. 14, 1969. Aboard the Apollo 12 spacecraft were astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., commander; Richard F. Gordon Jr., command module pilot; and Alan L. Bean, lunar module pilot. Apollo 12 was the United States’ second lunar landing mission.

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Blue Origin stacks huge New Glenn rocket ahead of 1st launch (photo)

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Blue Origin’s massive new rocket is getting closer to being ready to fly. The company shared a new photo of the two stages of its New Glenn rocket being joined together for the first time in the company’s facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. “GS-1 meets GS-2,” the company wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in a post accompanying the photo, in reference to the first (GS-1) and second (GS-2) stages of the new rocket. New Glenn is expected to make its maiden flight sometime in November, taking…

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Could a supernova ever destroy Earth?

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When the bright star Betelgeuse explodes, it will be an impressive sight. The stellar explosion, known as a supernova, will be brighter than any planet and almost as bright as the full moon. It will be visible during the day, and you could read a book to its light at midnight. It will last a few months before fading away, as all supernovas do. But it won’t be dangerous. For that, it would have to be much, much closer; Betelgeuse is roughly 650 light-years away. So are there any stars…

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SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on 2nd leg of spaceflight doubleheader

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SpaceX launched 24 of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida early this morning (Nov. 14) in the second half of a spaceflight doubleheader. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the 24 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 8:21 a.m. EST (1321 GMT.) The four-hour launch window opened at 5:33 a.m. EST (0933 GMT) just five hours after another Falcon 9 launched 20 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff…

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NASA Administrator to Visit, Sign Agreement with Peru’s Space Agency

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Continuing his engagement to deepen international collaboration and promote the peaceful use of space, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will travel to Lima on Wednesday. Nelson will meet with Maj. Gen. Roberto Melgar Sheen, director of Peru’s National Commission for Aerospace Research and Development (CONIDA) Thursday, Nov. 14, and sign a non-binding memorandum of understanding to enhance space cooperation. The memorandum of understanding between NASA and CONIDA will include safety training, a joint feasibility study for a potential sounding rockets campaign, and technical assistance for CONIDA on sounding rocket launches.  Nelson will…

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