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NASA to launch Kepler spacecraft March 8

Fri, 20/02/2009 - 07:41 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- The U.S. space agency says its Kepler spacecraft is ready to be moved to its launch pad and soon will begin its search for other worlds that might host life.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Kepler is scheduled to be launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:48 p.m. EST, March 5.

"Kepler is a critical component in NASA's broader efforts to ultimately find and study planets where Earth-like conditions may be present," said Jon Morse, the director of NASA's Astrophysics Division. "The planetary census Kepler takes will be very important for understanding the frequency of Earth-size planets in our galaxy and planning future missions that directly detect and characterize such worlds around nearby stars."

NASA predicted Rift Valley fever outbreak

Tue, 17/02/2009 - 08:37 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Greenbelt, Md. -- The U.S. space agency says it used an early warning system, more than a decade in development to predict a 2006-07 outbreak of Rift Valley fever in Africa.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration researchers, including Assaf Anyamba, a remote sensing scientist with the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, used a blend of NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration measurements of sea surface temperatures, precipitation and vegetation cover to predict when and where an outbreak would occur.

The study's results gave public health officials in East Africa up to six weeks of warning for the outbreak -- a first-of-its-kind prediction, NASA said.

The researchers said they used a satellite-derived vegetation data set that measures the landscape's "greenness." Greener regions have more than the average amount of vegetation, which means more water and more potential habitat for infected mosquitoes.

Debris falling across Texas, satellite collision likely cause

Mon, 16/02/2009 - 14:29 by Pallavi Kulkarni

Dallas, February 16: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has received a number of calls stating that debris is falling in Texas. According to FAA officials, debris could be related to the U.S. and Russian satellites collision that took place last week.

NASA: Shuttle Discovery launch delayed

Sun, 15/02/2009 - 10:35 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Houston -- The next launch of the U.S. space shuttle Discovery has been pushed back a third time to allow for a review of shuttle fuel control valves, NASA officials say.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said Friday the latest delay would give engineers more time to inspect the spacecraft's fuel control valves, an item that malfunctioned during the launch of the Endeavor shuttle last November, Space.com reported.

A chip from an Endeavor valve broke free during the 2008 launch and entered an external tank's plumbing lines without causing any problems during takeoff.

Discovery's next launch initially was to have been this past Thursday. It was first delayed one week, then again to Feb. 22. With the third delay, the shuttle now is to take off no earlier than Feb. 27.

Martian winds help Earth's Spirit rover

Fri, 13/02/2009 - 08:26 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Pasadena, Calif. -- Martian wind gusts have removed some dust from the U.S. space agency's Mars rover Spirit, increasing its electrical output, NASA says.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said the cleaning boosts Spirit's daily energy supply to about 240 watt-hours from 210 watt-hours. The rover uses about 180 watt-hours daily for basic survival and communications.

The energy increase roughly doubles the amount of the rover's discretionary power, NASA said.

"We will be able to use this energy to do significantly more driving," said Colette Lohr, a rover mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Our drives have been averaging about 50 minutes, and energy has usually been the limiting factor. We may be able to increase that to drives of an hour and a half."

Martian winds help Earth's rover Spirit

Fri, 13/02/2009 - 07:06 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Pasadena, Calif. -- Martian wind guests have removed some dust from the U.S. space agency's Mars rover Spirit, increasing its electrical output, NASA says.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said the cleaning boosts Spirit's daily energy supply to about 240 watt-hours from 210 watt-hours. The rover uses approximately 180 watt-hours daily for basic survival and communications.

The energy increase roughly doubles the amount of the rover's discretionary power, NASA said.

"We will be able to use this energy to do significantly more driving," said Colette Lohr, a rover mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Our drives have been averaging about 50 minutes, and energy has usually been the limiting factor. We may be able to increase that to drives of an hour and a half."

U.S., Russian satellites collide

Thu, 12/02/2009 - 17:37 by Shruti Sharma

Washington -- For the first time, two intact communications satellites have collided in space above the Earth, NASA officials say.

The space crash nearly 500 miles above ground created hundreds of pieces of debris Tuesday. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said its initial evaluation is the space garbage poses a "very small" though "elevated" risk to the International Space Station, which orbits about 220 miles above Earth, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

NASA and Pentagon officials said one satellite involved in this collision was an Iridium satellite launched in 1997 and used for the company's telephone network, the Post said. The other was a Russian Cosmos satellite launched in 1993 that hadn't been working for a decade.

Lunar spacecraft moves closer to launch

Thu, 12/02/2009 - 07:29 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Greenbelt, Md. -- The U.S. space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was en route Wednesday to the Kennedy Space Center for a scheduled April 24 launch.

The spacecraft was built by engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., where it recently completed two months of tests in a thermal vacuum chamber, exposed to the extremely high and low temperatures it will experience as it orbits the moon.

The satellite's mission is one of the first steps in NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon.

"LRO will spend at least one year in a low polar orbit on its primary exploration mission, with the possibility of three more years to collect additional detailed scientific information about the moon and its environment," NASA said.

NASA awards launch services contract

Wed, 11/02/2009 - 10:11 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Washington -- The U.S. space agency has selected the Orbital Sciences Corp. to launch the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, high energy X-ray telescope.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the spacecraft is to be launched by the Dulles, Va., corporation in 2011 from the Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site located on the Pacific Ocean's Kwajalein Atoll.

NASA said the total cost of the NuSTAR launch services is approximately $36 million dollars. NuSTAR is expected to become the first focusing, high energy X-ray telescope in orbit. It will search for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars.

The California Institute of Technology leads the mission, which NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages.

Gamma-ray bursts erupt from neutron star

Wed, 11/02/2009 - 08:50 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Washington -- Astronomers using the U.S. space agency's Swift satellite and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope report high-energy gamma-ray bursts from a neutron star.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said the object -- a rare type of neutron star known as a soft-gamma-ray repeater -- is emitting intense and frequent X-ray and gamma-ray flares.

"At times, this remarkable object has erupted with more than a hundred flares in as little as 20 minutes," said Loredana Vetere, who is coordinating the Swift observations at Pennsylvania State University. "The most intense flares emitted more total energy than the sun does in 20 years."

The object is in the southern constellation Norma. During the past two years, astronomers have identified pulsing radio and X-ray signals from it.

NASA plans Galileo's birthday celebration

Wed, 11/02/2009 - 08:46 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Washington -- The U.S. space agency is planning a special exhibit to celebrate Galileo's 445th birthday and 2009's designation as the International Year of Astronomy.

In conjunction with Galileo's birthday next Sunday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is releasing images from its Great Observatories -- the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes and the Chandra X-ray Observatory -- to more than 100 U.S. planetariums, museums, nature centers and schools.

"The selected sites will unveil a large 9-square-foot print of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 that combines the optical view of Hubble, the infrared view of Spitzer and the X-ray view of Chandra into one multi-wavelength picture," NASA said. Each image presents a different wavelength view of that galaxy, illustrating how far astronomy has come since Galileo first turned his telescope to the sky in 1609.

NASA assesses next shuttle mission

Tue, 10/02/2009 - 07:19 by Rakhi Kaptiyal

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- The U.S. space agency says it expects the launch of space shuttle Discovery's STS-119 mission to the International Space Station no earlier than Feb. 22.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said its managers are engaged in an ongoing review of the space shuttle's flow control valves.

"The Space Shuttle Program will hold a meeting Feb. 13 to review data and determine whether to move forward with a flight readiness review on Feb.
18," NASA said in a statement. "The official launch date will be set at the readiness review, but for planning purposes launch now is no earlier than Feb. 22."

One of three flow control valves that channel gaseous hydrogen from the shuttle's main engines to the external fuel tank was found damaged in space shuttle Endeavour after its mission in November. As a precaution, Discovery's three gaseous hydrogen valves were removed, inspected and reinstalled.