NASA, Internet Archive And Flickr Launch Historic Image Collection

WASHINGTON -- Three compilations of images from more than half a century of NASA history are available for comment on a section of the photo-sharing site Flickr known as The Commons.Visitors to NASA on The Commons can help tell the photos' story by adding tags, or keywords, to the images to identify objects and people. In addition, viewers can communicate with other visitors by sharing comments. These contributions will help make the images easier to find online and add insight about NASA's history.The...

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NASA Receives Spirit Of Houston Award

HOUSTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden accepted the Spirit of Houston Award from the city's Mayor Annise Parker on Thursday. The award was established in 2004 to honor Houstonians who motivated their fellow citizens with their everyday acts of leadership."It is an honor to accept the 2010 Spirit of Houston Award on behalf of all of the men and women of NASA," Bolden said. "Every one of us is absolutely committed to a vibrant future for exploration and improving life on Earth."Parker recommended...

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NASA Awards Facility Operating Services Contract Award Term Period 1

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., has exercised award term period 1 of the Facility Operating Services Contract (FOSC) with Jacobs Technology, Inc. of Tullahoma, Tenn. The FOSC provides a broad range of services to support NASA missions and more than 30 resident agencies sharing and using Stennis facilities and services.The cost-plus-incentive fee award term 1 is valued at $55.5 million. This is the first of seven award term periods in addition to the 3-year base...

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Pulverized Planet Dust May Lie Around Double Stars

PASADENA, Calif. -- Tight double-star systems might not be the best places for life to spring up, according to a new study using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The infrared observatory spotted a surprisingly large amount of dust around three mature, close-orbiting star pairs. Where did the dust come from? Astronomers say it might be the aftermath of tremendous planetary collisions."This is real-life science fiction," said Jeremy Drake of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,...

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"Avatar" Director And NASA Focus On Earth Science Exploration In Psa Campaign

WASHINGTON -- James Cameron, director of "Avatar," the most successful film ever released, is featured in a series of new NASA public service announcements that describe the many contributions of the agency's Earth science program to environmental awareness and exploration of our home planet."When NASA ventures into space, it remembers to keep a steady eye on home," Cameron said. "Its fleet of Earth-orbiting satellites constantly reveals our whole planet: its remotest places, its mysteries and the...

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NASA To Announce Latest Findings By Kepler Spacecraft

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media teleconference Thursday, Aug. 26, at 1 p.m. EDT to discuss the Kepler spacecraft's latest discovery about an intriguing planetary system.Kepler, a space observatory, looks for the data signatures of planets by measuring tiny decreases in the brightness of stars when planets cross in front of, or transit, them. In June, mission scientists announced the mission has identified more than 700 planet candidates, including five candidate systems that appear to have...

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Team to Investigate Launch Failure

An Alliant Techsystems suborbital rocket carrying two NASA hypersonic experiments was destroyed shortly after liftoff from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Friday, Aug. 22. No injuries or property damage were immediately reported.The exact launch time was 5:10 a.m. EDT. The anomaly that caused the failure occurred approximately 27 seconds into flight and is not known.Most debris from the rocket is thought to have fallen in the Atlantic Ocean. However, there are conflicting reports of debris...

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NASA Asks Public for Final Shuttle Missions' Wakeup Songs

HOUSTON -- If you like music, the space program and are a little nostalgic, NASA has the perfect opportunity for you. For the first time, the public can help choose songs to wake up the astronauts during the last two scheduled space shuttle missions.Traditionally, the songs played to wake up the astronauts are selected by friends and family of the crews. For the last two scheduled missions, NASA is inviting the public to visit the "Wakeup Song Contest" website to select songs from a list of the...

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Drought Drives Decade-Long Decline in Plant Growth

WASHINGTON -- Global plant productivity that once was on the rise with warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on the decline because of regional drought according to a new study of NASA satellite data.Plant productivity is a measure of the rate of the photosynthesis process that green plants use to convert solar energy, carbon dioxide and water to sugar, oxygen and eventually plant tissue. Compared with a 6 percent increase in plant productivity during the 1980s and 1990s, the...

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GRIP 'Shakedown' Flight Planned over Gulf Coast

The first flight of NASA's hurricane airborne research mission is scheduled to take off from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 17. NASA's DC-8 research aircraft will be making a planned five-hour flight along the Gulf Coast from western Florida to Louisiana primarily as a practice run for the many scientific instruments aboard.Mission scientists, instrument teams, flight crew and support personnel gathered in Fort Lauderdale this weekend to begin planning the six-week Genesis and Rapid Intensification...

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Space Coast Task Force Delivers Economic Strategies Report

WASHINGTON -- The President's Task Force on Space Industry Workforce and Economic Development, co-chaired by NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr. and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, today released its report to President Barack Obama with recommendations to enhance economic development strategies along Florida's Space Coast.The task force was charged with developing a plan for how best to invest $40 million in transition assistance from the federal government in the Space Coast region as...

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Move Over Caravaggio: Cassini's Light and Dark Moons

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has returned Saturnian moon images from its flyby late last week, revealing light and dark contrasts worthy of chiaroscuro painters like Caravaggio.The flyby on August 13 targeted the geyser moon Enceladus, but also brought Cassini close to two other moons--Tethys and Dione.The raw images include the best ones to date of Penelope crater on the icy moon Tethys . Penelope crater, which is 150 kilometers (90 miles) wide, is the second-largest crater on Tethys.Cassini was also...

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NASA Announces Commercial Crew Initiative Forum

WASHINGTON -- NASA is hosting a forum to present an overview of common themes captured from industry responses to NASA's Commercial Crew Initiative Request For Information (RFI). The forum is scheduled for 9 to 11:30 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 19 at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW, Washington.The RFI, issued on May 21, collected information from industry to help NASA plan the overall strategy for the development and demonstration of a commercial crew transport capability and to receive comments on NASA...

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NASA Plans Next Space Station Repair Spacewalk For Monday

HOUSTON -- The third spacewalk to restore full cooling capability to the International Space Station is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 16.Expedition 24 Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson will venture outside to install a replacement pump and connect its electrical and fluid lines. The two NASA astronauts conducted the first two spacewalks to remove the failed ammonia pump from the station's truss, or backbone.The pump removed during Wednesday's spacewalk failed on July 31, causing...

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NASA and Israel Space Agency Sign Statement of Intent for Future Cooperation

WASHINGTON --During a meeting Tuesday at NASA Headquarters in Washington, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Israel Space Agency Director General Zvi Kaplan signed a joint statement of intent to expand the agencies' cooperation in civil space activities.The signing followed a meeting between Bolden, Kaplan and Professor Daniel Hershkowitz, Israel's minister of Science and Technology. It advanced discussions that began when Bolden visited Israel in January.The agencies agreed to identify new joint...

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NASA Langley Selects Maryland Company For Information Tech Support

HAMPTON, Va. -- NASA has selected Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies of Greenbelt, Md., to provide the agency's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., with computing support services for complex information technology (IT) systems and applications.The five-year maximum value of the Langley Research Center Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES) task order contract is $183 million.The systems supported include unique and high-end systems used by mission and mission-support staff at Langley....

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NASA Selects Contractor For Wallops Island Protection Project

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) in Norfolk, Va., for the Launch Facilities Protection Project at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. The total contract value is not to exceed $49.5 million. The period of performance is five years.The USACE provides an array of services that will allow NASA to complete the Launch Facilities Protection Project. The project is scheduled to begin in fall 2010. The USACE will extend a seawall approximately...

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NASA Announces Next Opportunity for Cubesat Space Missions

WASHINGTON -- NASA has announced a second opportunity for small satellite payloads to fly on rockets planned to launch in 2011 and 2012. These CubeSats could be auxiliary cargo on previously planned missions.CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than 2.2 pounds.CubeSat investigations should be consistent with NASA's Strategic Plan or the Education Strategic...

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NASA - Spacewalks Delayed to Saturday and Wednesday

NASA International Space Station managers have delayed two spacewalks to replace a faulty cooling system component to Saturday and Wednesday.Saturday’s spacewalk now is officially scheduled to begin at 6:55 a.m. EDT, and will be followed by a second spacewalk Wednesday to complete replacement of the ammonia pump module that failed last Saturday.Teams of flight controllers, engineers, and spacewalk and robotics experts have made significant progress in preparing for the spacewalk, but need an additional...

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NASA Moves Space Station Repair Spacewalk To Friday, Sets Briefings

HOUSTON -- The first of two spacewalks by NASA astronauts to replace a failed ammonia pump on the International Space Station has been delayed by 24 hours to Friday, Aug. 6. A second spacewalk is planned for Monday, Aug. 9, to complete the repairs.Flight controllers and station managers made the decision Monday night after reviewing proposed timelines, final procedures for the repair work, and the results from a spacewalk dress rehearsal conducted in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory near NASA's Johnson...

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NASA Invites Media To View Space Station Cargo For STS-133 Mission

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will host a media event at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Aug. 12, to highlight the next hardware that will fly to the International Space Station. The permanent multi-purpose module, or PMM, will fly aboard space shuttle Discovery on its STS-133 mission, targeted to launch on Nov. 1.During the event, reporters at Kennedy's Space Station Processing Facility will have the opportunity to speak with mission managers and team members involved in...

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NASA Sets Briefing To Preview Updated Space Station Spacewalk Plan

HOUSTON -- NASA managers will discuss updated plans for two International Space Station spacewalks during a news briefing at 3 p.m. CDT on Monday, Aug. 2. The briefing replaces one originally scheduled for Tuesday.The news conference from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website. Journalists may ask questions from participating NASA locations.The briefers are:- Michael Suffredini, manager, International Space Station Program- Courtenay McMillan,...

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NASA's First Robotic Crew Member To Tweet From Space Station, Available For Interviews

Reporters are invited to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston at 1 p.m. CDT on Aug. 4 to see demonstrations of R2 in action. They can speak with members of the STS-133 space shuttle crew, who will deliver the robot to the station, and engineers who created R2. Interested news media representatives should e-mail Brandi Dean at brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov by noon on Aug. 3.The public will get the first chance to interview the robot when R2 and its team answer questions submitted via Twitter at 10 a.m....

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