nasa

NASA spent October hoisting a 103-ton simulator section onto a test stand to prep for the next Moon mission
25 Oct

NASA spent October hoisting a 103-ton simulator section onto a test stand to prep for the next Moon mission

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NASA spent the last two weeks hoisting a 103-ton component onto a simulator and installing it to help prepare for the next Moon missions. Crews fitted the interstage simulator component onto the Thad Cochran Test Stand at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The connecting section mimics the same SLS (Space Launch System) part that will help protect the rocket’s upper stage, which will propel the Orion spacecraft on its planned Artemis launches.The Thad Cochran Test Stand is where NASA sets up the SLS components and conducts thorough testing to ensure they’ll be safe and operating as intended…
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NASA’s newest telescope can detect gravitational waves from colliding black holes
23 Oct

NASA’s newest telescope can detect gravitational waves from colliding black holes

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NASA showed off for a new gravitational wave detection mission in space. The telescope is part of the mission led by the European Space Agency (NSA) in partnership with NASA.The goal of the LISA mission is to position three spacecraft in a triangular orbit measuring nearly 1.6 million miles on each side. The three spacecraft will follow the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Each spacecraft will carry two telescopes to track their siblings using infrared laser beams. Those beams can measure distances down to a trillionth of a meter.Gravitational waves are created during a collision between two black holes. They…
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A new report raises concerns about the future of NASA
16 Sep

A new report raises concerns about the future of NASA

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from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) expresses some serious concerns about the future of America’s space exploration agency.The NASEM report was written by a panel of aerospace experts and lays out what it sees as a possible "hollow future” for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It addresses issues of underfunding due to “declining long-term national emphasis on aeronautics and civil space,” that NASA itself is aware of and agrees with. The report also notes that NASA’s problems extend far beyond having enough funding to carry out its missions and operations.Some of the report’s “core…
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NASA confirms it’s developing the Moon’s new time zone
14 Sep

NASA confirms it’s developing the Moon’s new time zone

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NASA confirmed on Friday that it’s developing a new lunar time system for the Moon. The White House published a policy memo in April, directing NASA to create the new standard by 2026. Over five months later (government time, y’all), the space agency’s confirmation states it will work with “U.S. government stakeholders, partners, and international standards organizations” to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC).To understand why the Moon needs its own time zone, look no further than Einstein. His theories of relativity say that because time changes relative to speed and gravity, time moves slightly faster on our celestial neighbor…
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Now there’s a creepy, sonar-like sound coming through one of Starliner’s speakers
01 Sep

Now there’s a creepy, sonar-like sound coming through one of Starliner’s speakers

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Starliner is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station and make its return trip to Earth uncrewed in just a matter of days, but it apparently still has a few new mysteries left in it to throw at the team before it departs. On Saturday, astronaut Butch Wilmore alerted NASA’s Mission Control about an unexplained “strange noise” coming from a speaker in the spacecraft, which you can hear in an audio clip of the conversation shared on a NASASpaceflight forum by meteorologist Rob Dale (spotted by Ars Technica). It starts at around the 45-second mark, ringing out on a…
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Boeing’s Starliner is coming back without a crew on September 6
31 Aug

Boeing’s Starliner is coming back without a crew on September 6

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The Starliner is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station and to make its way back to Earth at 6:04PM Eastern time on September 6 at the earliest. If the weather cooperates and the spacecraft leaves the ISS as planned, it will be landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico with the help of parachutes to slow its descent and inflated airbags at around 12:03AM ET on September 7. While the ground teams at Starliner Mission Control in Houston and at Boeing Mission Control Center in Florida can control the spacecraft remotely if needed, it will be…
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Blue Origin targets mid-October for New Glenn’s inaugural flight and launch of NASA’s Escapade Mars mission
26 Aug

Blue Origin targets mid-October for New Glenn’s inaugural flight and launch of NASA’s Escapade Mars mission

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Blue Origin’s New Glenn heavy-lift rocket and its Mars-bound NASA payload now have a tentative launch date. The company on Friday that the inaugural flight will take place no earlier than October 13, carrying to help NASA study the effects of solar wind on Mars’ atmosphere. This will be the first time New Glenn flies in its development, and the date cuts well into the window of opportunity for travel to Mars, which occurs roughly every two years based on the planetary alignments. That launch period opens on September 29 and extends to mid-October, per .The mission will lift off…
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Starliner astronauts will come home in February on a SpaceX Crew Dragon
24 Aug

Starliner astronauts will come home in February on a SpaceX Crew Dragon

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After more than two months of tests and discussions, NASA has decided that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will come home in February 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon, and the Boeing Starliner they flew to the International Space Station on in June will return uncrewed. In a press conference on Saturday, Steve Stich, manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said “there was too much uncertainty” around the predictions for Starliner’s thrusters to move forward with a crewed return flight.The plan now is that Starliner’s first crew will return with SpaceX’s Crew-9, which is scheduled to launch to the…
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NASA will soon announce whether Starliner’s astronauts are coming back on a SpaceX vehicle
23 Aug

NASA will soon announce whether Starliner’s astronauts are coming back on a SpaceX vehicle

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On August 24, NASA will finally announce how Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the astronauts that flew to the ISS aboard Boeing's Starliner, will be coming home. Earlier this month, the agency said it was already in talks with SpaceX about the possibility of giving the astronauts two seats aboard an upcoming Crew Dragon mission. While NASA was making sure that the option was available, it continued asking Boeing for data to prove that the Starliner is safe to ride back to Earth. The Starliner's batteries won't last forever, though, and the agency needs to make a decision soon.In its…
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Scientists find evidence of liquid water deep underneath the Martian surface
13 Aug

Scientists find evidence of liquid water deep underneath the Martian surface

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Water exists on Mars, according to a team of geophysicists, and not just as ice on its poles or as vapor in its atmosphere. The scientists have found evidence of liquid water deep in its outer crust, based on their analysis of data provided by NASA's Mars Insight Lander. Specifically, they analyzed four years' worth of ground motions recorded by the lander's seismometer. By looking at seismic velocities, or how fast seismic waves travel on the planet, they were able to determine the materials that the waves moved through. What they found was that Mars' mid-crust has fractured igneous rocks…
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