Earth
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. …
Land ho! Expedition 39 returns to Earth
Support personnel prepare to extract the crew from the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft shortly after it landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on May 14. Wakata, Tyurin and Mastracchio …
Bigelow’s promise: More space at less cost with inflatable space habitats
We’ve all seen or played in one of those inflatable bounce houses at a carnival or a friend’s birthday party. Now just imagine a bounce house that you can live inside of in outer space. While much more advanced than a bounce house, that’s what Bigelow Aerospace is pursuing. They are designing and building inflatable …