NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has provided images allowing scientists for the first time to create a 3-D reconstruction of ancient water channels below the Martian surface. The spacecraft took numerous images during the past few years that showed channels attributed to catastrophic flooding in the last 500 million years. Mars during this period had […]
NASA
Cassini Spies Bright Venus From Saturn Orbit
PASADENA, CA – A distant world gleaming in sunlight, Earth’s twin planet, Venus, shines like a bright beacon in images taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. One special image of Venus and Saturn was taken last November when Cassini was placed in the shadow of Saturn. This allowed Cassini to look in […]
NASA’s Van Allen Probes Reveal A New Radiation Belt Around Earth
NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission has discovered a previously unknown third radiation belt around Earth, revealing the existence of unexpected structures and processes within these hazardous regions of space. Previous observations of Earth’s Van Allen belts have long documented two distinct regions of trapped radiation surrounding our planet. Particle detection instruments aboard the twin Van […]
Blue Origin Tests BE-3 Engine
Blue Origin successfully fires the thrust chamber assembly for its new 100,000 pound thrust BE-3 liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen rocket engine. As part of the company’s Reusable Booster System (RBS), the engines are designed eventually to launch the biconic-shaped Space Vehicle the company is developing in collaboration with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
J-2X Engine ‘Goes the Distance’ at Stennis
J-2X rocket engine testing continues at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi with the second in a series of tests conducted on Feb. 27. The 550-second, full-duration test provided critical information on the combustion stability of the engine and on its performance with the nozzle extension. Engineers also continued evaluation of the test stand’s clamshell […]
A Window into Europa’s Ocean Right at the Surface
If you could lick the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, you would actually be sampling a bit of the ocean beneath. A new paper by Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and Kevin Hand from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, details the strongest evidence yet […]
Dragon Reaches ISS With Experiments, Supplies And Apples
The Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft was berthed to the International Space Station at 8:56 a.m. EST Sunday. The delivery flight was the second contracted resupply mission by the company under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. Space station Expedition 34 crew members Kevin Ford and Tom Marshburn of NASA used the station’s robotic […]
SpaceX Overcomes Glitch, Dragon Safely On Way To ISS
CAPE CANAVERAL, AFS – After overcoming a nerve-wracking crisis after successfully launching their fifth Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX appears to have salvaged the latest commercial International Space Station resupply mission. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 occurred on time at 10:10 a.m. EST, during an instantaneous launch window, under cloudy skies but otherwise perfect weather. […]
SpaceX Tests Falcon’s Engines Ahead Of Third ISS Mission
With a blast of smoke and flame, SpaceX fired up the first stage engines of a Falcon 9 rocket this afternoon during final pre-mission countdown practice in preparation for the company’s third NASA-contracted ISS resupply mission. At the end of the count, the 9 Merlin-1C engines roared to life for three seconds to test the […]
NASA Releases GLORY TAURUS XL Launch Failure Report Summary
NASA has released a summary report on findings from a panel that investigated the unsuccessful 2011 launch of the agency’s Glory spacecraft.