Final ground check on shuttle rocket completes: NASA

A Utah Company that makes powerful booster rockets for space travel has conducted its final ground test for the nation's vanishing space shuttle program.The firing, with the 38.4-metre rocket attached horizontally to the ground, ignited more than 450,000 Kg of propellant in a split second and took about two minutes to burn off, according to Alliant Techsystems and NASA.About 5,000 people came to northern Utah's cape near the Great Salt Lake to watch it fire, a company spokeswoman said.Anytime you...

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NASA preparing GOES-P for March 2 launch

NASA is all ready to launch the NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-P (GOES-P) aboard a Delta IV rocket which will be launched by United Launch Alliance for Boeing Launch Services.According to NASA, the spacecraft will be commences from Space Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The launch is embattled for March 2, during a launch window from 6:19 to 7:19 p.m. EST (3rd March, 04:49 to 05:49 a.m IST).GOES-P represents the latest generation of environmental...

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New NASA Web Page discards Light on Science of Warming World

PASADENA, Calif. -- Will 2010 be the warmest year on testimony? How do the latest U.S. "Snowmageddon" winter storms and record low temperatures in Europe fit into the bigger picture of long-term global warming? NASA has launched a new Web page to assist people better understand the causes and effects of Earth's changing climate.The new "A Warming World" page hosts a series of new articles, videos, data visualizations, space-based imagery and interactive visuals that presents unique NASA perspectives...

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NASA’s Cassini locates plethora of plumes and hotspots at Enceladus

Newly released images from last November’s swoop over Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have exposed a forest of new jets spraying from prominent fractures crossing the south polar region and yield the most full temperature map to date of one fracture.The new images from the imaging science subsystem and the complex infrared spectrometer teams also comprise the best 3-D image ever obtained of a “tiger stripe,” a fissure that sprays icy particles, water vapor and organic compounds.There...

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For NASA no easy reply for next space destination

For the record in decades, NASA has no particular space destination for its next stop, although it has lots of places it wants to go. Future space flight, NASA officials say, now depends on new rocket science and where it can acquire us.That ambiguity may not sit well with Congress, which will be grilling NASA chief Charles Bolden on Wednesday and Thursday in the first hearings since the George W. Bush moon mission was shelved.There are only little places in space where humans can go in the next...

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NASA | Piecing Together the Temperature Puzzle

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Station Crew have the benefit of Off-Duty Time

(NASA) – In the wake of problems Sunday with the International Space Station’s Command and Control computers, the crew had a typically off-duty day Monday, taking time for an emergency egress drill that is conducted occasionally to maintain crew proficiency.Space shuttle Endeavour is home behind two weeks in space, having delivered the final U.S. module and a “room with a view” to the station. STS-130 Commander George Zamka showed Endeavour to a landing at the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing...

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NASA Sets Coverage For Goes-P Weather Satellite Launch March 2

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-P, or GOES-P, is scheduled for launch aboard a Delta IV rocket on Tuesday, March 2, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The one-hour launch window extends from 6:19 to 7:19 p.m. EST.GOES-P will provide expanded capability for space and solar environment-monitoring instruments. The satellite will enhance forecasts and warnings for solar disturbances. GOES-P data will help protect billions of dollars in investments by the government...

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Shuttle program’s final launch - ATK, NASA to blaze last rocket motor

Alliant Techsystems and NASA will perform their last rocket test for the Space Shuttle program Thursday, marking the closure of a program that has spanned more than three decades.The event is scheduled for 11:55 a.m.; a public performance area on Highway 83 about 20 miles west of Corinne will open at 9:30 a.m.Spectators will obtain to see the horizontal firing of a solid rocket motor — a method that will allow engineers to look at 43 design objectives measured through 258 instruments. The ground...

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Media Get Shuttle Mission Update

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Endeavour foliage space station

The crews of the linked space shuttle and space station embraced and said farewell Friday as they equipped for Endeavour to begin its two-day trip home after a mission of Olympic proportions.There were hugs and handshakes all roughly as the six Endeavour astronauts floated one by one out of the International Space Station, where they installed a stunning seven-window observation deck that gives astronauts supreme views of Earth. The hatches between the craft were then conserved in preparation for...

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NASA astronomers loosen secret of the supernova

Supernovas have long been used as “cosmic mile markers” to measure the growth of the universe, but NASA scientists now claim that they have finally exposed what actually sparks the massive stellar explosions.A team of astronomers led by Marat Gilfanov used NASA’s Chandra X-Ray laboratory to study supernovas in five near elliptical galaxies and the central region of the Andromeda galaxy — a spiral galaxy nearby to our own, the Milky Way.They found that most Type 1a supernovas are sparked by the merging...

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NASA fetches the Dark Side of the Sun to Your iPhone

As the sun reawakens from an anomalously calm period, keep track of solar flares, sunspots and coronal mass ejections with a new iPhone app that puts the real-time status of the sun in your hand. This is over cool, Dick Fisher, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, said in a press release. For the first time ever, we can observe the sun as a living, breathing 3-dimensional sphere.With the free 3D Sun app, you can set your phone to attentive you when a new solar flare erupts; watch video of a...

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Foremost images from Nasa's Wise infrared sky probe

NASA has published the foremost images from its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or Wise, which has been scanning the skies since January. Wise has worked beautifully, said the agency's Ed Weiler in Washington DC.The images include a comet, a "star factory" 20,000 light years away in our Milky Way galaxy and our adjacent large neighbour, the Andromeda spiral galaxy. Wise will search on until October when its provisions of frozen coolant for chilling instruments will run out.It's hoped it will...

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Patrick, Behnken comprehensive Final STS-130 Spacewalk

Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken begin the third and final spacewalk of the STS-130 mission at 9:15 p.m. EST Tuesday and finished at 3:03 a.m Wednesday.Behnken opened the second of two ammonia loops to allow coolant to flow during Tranquility and disconnected temporary power cables. Patrick installed heater and data cables from the new node to Pressurized Mating Adapter 3, now situated on Tranquility’s outboard docking port.Next the two spacewalkers removed the lagging from...

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Stars above the Coast astronomy column Feb. 14-20: the twin planets of Mardi Gras

PLANETS TO WATCH: If you have a clear view to the western horizon tonight through Wednesday, you should be able to see a conspicuous pairing of Venus and Jupiter, near the horizon in fading twilight.Mars, still very bright, will be almost straight overhead about 11:15 p.m., while Saturn will be in the east at midnight. Mercury is lost to view for at present.The best vision of the Venus-Jupiter pairing will be on Tuesday just as it gets dark. You'll need an open view to the west if you're downtown...

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Bay Window View fitted on Space Station

A multi-window cupola was effectively moved Monday from the new Tranquility module's outboard port to an Earth-facing hatch where the observation deck will provide bay-window views.After resolving problems with stuck bolts and sticky latches, Astronauts Kay Hire and Terry Virts - operating the space station's robot arm - moved the cupola into position for add-on at Tranquility's nadir port.The cupola features six canted windows and a middle overhead pane. While it will give station crews panoramic...

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NASA launched sun watching satellite

NASA has effectively launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory, a satellite that will take ultra-high-resolution pictures of the sun and help forecast solar storms. The investigate was launched aboard an Altas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Thursday at 10:23 a.m. An effort to launch the satellite Wednesday had to be scrubbed because of high winds. Once in synchronous orbit over its ground station in New Mexico, the SDO will beam back pictures of the sun at an exceptional...

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Keeping an eye on sun through solar observatory

A first-of-its-kind solar observatory, set to launch Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is intended at providing a better understanding of the sun and its role in space weather such as solar flares, which can wreak havoc on Earth, officials said. The Solar Dynamics Observatory and its Atlas V rocket rolled out Tuesday to the initiate pad.Because of high winds at the launch place, forecasters put odds of acceptable conditions for launch at 30 percent, NASA said on its Web site. The observatory...

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Astronauts examine shuttle on way to space station

Endeavour's astronauts inspected their ship early Tuesday for any launch damage as they raced toward a meeting with the International Space Station.Scarcely a day after blasting into orbit, the space shuttle crew used a 15-metre, laser-tipped boom held by the Canadarm to check the thermal shielding on the wings and nose.A few pieces of foam insulation broke off the exterior fuel tank during Monday morning's launch, as well as a narrow 30-centimetre strip. But there was no indication anything strike...

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Solar Dynamics Observatory Set intended for Launch

The Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is set to commence on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 10:26 a.m. EST as of Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Launch willingness Review was conducted Monday morning and the "go" was given to proceed, with no technical issues reported.Weather for launch day stands at 60 percent "no go" at liftoff time due to storm, cloud width and a slight chance of showers. Launch-time temperature ought to be a chilly 51 degrees.A prelaunch news meeting...

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Endeavour launches towards space station

Space shuttle Endeavour is rocketing toward the space station on one of the shuttle program's final scheduled missions.Endeavour and its crew of 6 blasted off early Monday at 4:14 a.m. ET.The pre-dawn launch was the final one in darkness if the rest of the shuttle schedule holds. Only four more shuttle flights are left over.Endeavour is carrying a latest room for the International Space Station and an observation deck. These are the last major pieces for the orbiting complex.The shuttle is scheduled...

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NASA Extends Security and Operation guarantee agreement at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama

NASA has exercised a second one-year option with Bastion Technologies Inc. of Houston for continued services in support of the Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The extension runs through Jan. 31, 2011.The contract is a cost plus award fee with award term arrangements. The current potential value of the contract, including this $36 million contract option, is $136 million. Subsequent unexercised options and award terms extend the...

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International Space Station Through the Years

View This Site: Car Shipp...

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