Earth
SSEP: Sending student experiments to the ISS
On the morning of July 12, 2014, the Orbital Science Antares rocket sits on Pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Island facility awaiting to be hopefully be launched at 12:52 p.m. that afternoon. On top of the rocket is Orbital’s Cygnus ORB-2 spacecraft packed with cargo bound for the International Space Station. The spacecraft has been …
Antares rocket launches cargo to space station
A multitude of NASA research investigations, crew provisions, hardware and science experiments from across the country is headed to the International Space Station aboard Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Cygnus spacecraft. The cargo craft launched aboard Orbital’s Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on July 13, 2014. The mission is the company’s second cargo delivery …
OCO-2 studying the atmosphere
A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) payload for NASA lifts off from California. This launch marks the 51st Delta II mission for NASA and Delta II’s return to flight. Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) will be NASA’s first dedicated Earth remote sensing satellite to study atmospheric carbon dioxide from …
Project Morpheus: Flying a test bed for future landers
It’s May 22, 2014, another bright sunny day at Kennedy Space Center in Florida where a shiny four legged vehicle, dubbed Morpheus, stands in a special area at the north end of the Shuttle Landing facility awaiting the scheduled time to fly. This is the same facility where 78 of the 135 Space Shuttle missions …
HI-SEAS 2: Living on a simulated Mars
How will future astronauts live on Mars? This is the question asked by NASA and many of the organizations working toward the advancement of human spaceflight. The challenges of landing and living on another planet are difficult to recreate on Earth. In order to do this, NASA and other space organizations use analog studies to …
Meet the crew of HI-SEAS 2
Mission Psychologist: Dr. Ron Williams Dr. Williams was born and raised in Bloomington Indiana. He received his BA degrees in Psychology and Chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington in 1976. He received his MA degree in Experimental Psychology with a concentration in gerontological psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his PhD in Neuropsychology from …
NASA testing ‘flying saucer’ over Hawaii today
Mission managers are proceeding with preparations for a launch attempt this morning (Saturday, June 28) of a high-altitude balloon carrying the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) test vehicle to the edge of space. The test flight is being conducted from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. At present, weather conditions are favorable as the balloon …
NASA launches Earth science challenges for general public
NASA is launching two challenges to give the public an opportunity to create innovative ways to use data from the agency’s Earth science satellites. The challenges will use the Open NASA Earth Exchange. OpenNEX is a data, supercomputing and knowledge platform where users can share modeling and analysis codes, scientific results, knowledge and expertise to …
NASA testing supersonic parachute, inflatable decelerator
Force equals mass times acceleration – or in the case of NASA and JPL planning for a landing on Mars – deceleration. JPL is currently in the testing phase of the LDSD (Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator) for future, larger load trips to the Red Planet. The current limit of parachute and deceleration technology has been reached …
NASA selfie during Earth Day 2014
NASA Astronaut John Mace Grunsfeld takes a quick selfie with astronauts at the International Space Station at the NASA sponsored Earth Day event April 22, 2014 at Union Station in Washington, DC. NASA announced the “Global Selfie” event as part of its “Earth Right Now” campaign, celebrating the launch of five Earth-observing missions in 2014. …