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Sun Unleashes Biggest Solar Flare Yet

April 11, 2013 by Space.com

The most powerful solar flare of the year erupted from the sun on April 11, sparking a temporary radio blackout on Earth, NASA officials say. The solar flare occurred at 3:16 a.m. EDT (0716 GMT) and registered as a M6.5-class sun storm, a relatively mid-level flare on the scale of solar tempests. It coincided with an eruption of super-hot solar plasma known as a coronal mass ejection. "This is the strongest flare seen so far in 2013," NASA spokeswoman Karen Fox explained in a statement. "Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment, since the sun's normal 11-year cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum, which is expected in late 2013." … [Read more...]

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Obama Seeks $17.7 Billion to Lasso Asteroid, Explore Space

April 10, 2013 by Space.com

NASA unveiled a $17.7 billion spending plan for 2014 today that continues major ongoing space exploration projects, while including funds to kick-start an audacious new mission to capture a small asteroid and park it near the moon so astronauts can explore it by 2025. The proposed NASA budget is part of President Barack Obama's 2014 federal budget request and would restore the U.S. space agency's funding back near its 2013 levels. The request is about $50 million less than NASA's 2013 budget but would restore deep cuts from sequestration, leaving the agency with a roughly $1 billion increase from the $16.6 billion budget actually received for 2013. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: Barack Obama, budget, NASA, President Barack Obama

NASA to Launch Planet-Hunting Probe in 2017

April 8, 2013 by Space.com

NASA has picked two new low-cost missions for launch in 2017: a planet-hunting satellite and an International Space Station experiment designed to probe the nature of exotic, super-dense neutron stars. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) are the latest missions chosen under NASA's Astrophysics Explorer Program, which caps costs at $200 million for satellites and $55 million for space station experiments, officials announced Friday (April 5). The TESS spacecraft will use an array of wide-field cameras to scan nearby stars for exoplanets, with a focus on Earth-size worlds in their stars' … [Read more...]

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NASA to Get $100 Million for Asteroid-Capture Mission, Senator Says

April 7, 2013 by Space.com

NASA will likely get $100 million next year to jump-start an audacious program to drag an asteroid into orbit around the moon for research and exploration purposes, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson says. The $100 million will probably be part of President Barack Obama's federal budget request for 2014, which is expected to be released next week, Nelson (D-FL) said. The money is intended to get the ball rolling on the asteroid-retrieval project, which also aims to send astronauts out to the captured space rock in 2021. SEE ALSO: New Asteroid-Mining Venture Unveiled"This is part of what will be a much broader program," Nelson said Friday (April 5), during a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: NASA, President Bar, Senator Bill Nelson, ways

Curiosity Rover Goes Solo on Mars for First Time

April 4, 2013 by Space.com

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will be on its own for the first time over the next four weeks, thanks to an unfavorable alignment of the Red Planet, Earth and the sun. Curiosity's handlers don't plan to send any commands to the car-size robot from April 4 through May 1. The sun comes between Earth and the Red Planet during this time, in a formation known as a Mars solar conjunction. "The [communications] moratorium is a precaution against possible interference by the sun corrupting a command sent to the rover," NASA officials wrote last week in a Curiosity rover mission update. While some mission team members may take advantage of the break to lie on a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: First Time, NASA, Red Planet, Yellowknife Bay

Parachute on Mars Flaps in Wind

April 3, 2013 by Amanda Wills

We've known for years there's wind on Mars, but now you can see it on film. A new set of photos shows the parachute that helped Curiosity rover safely land on Mars last August shifting in the wind NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped seven photos between Aug. 12, 2012 and Jan. 13, 2013 that show the parachute changing shape at least two times due to wind. The major shift — as seen in the fourth and fifth images — took place sometime between Sept. 8, 2012 and Nov. 30, 2012. Around that same time, you'll notice a dark spot appear. NASA says this may due to airborne dust SEE ALSO: Mars Was Once Suitable for Life, NASA Confirms Read … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: Mars Parachute, NASA, Us World, you can

April Fools in Space: Astronauts Order Pizza

April 1, 2013 by Chris Taylor

It can get a little lonely up on the International Space Station — and there's a definite dearth of fresh-cooked pizza crust. So NASA astronaut Ron Garan took matters into his own hands. In this video, released April 1, Garan and his NASA colleague Mike Fossum can be seen calling up a pizza place that promises to deliver within 30 minutes to anywhere in the Houston area code — which, thanks to their Cisco IP phone, is what the astronauts have. It's a pretty awkward attempt at a prank call; thankfully, we discover at the end of the video, no call was actually placed, and the video was filmed during the astronauts' down time. (We're pretty … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: April Fools, Astronauts Order Pizza, International Space Station, NASA

NASA Trailer Will Play Before New ‘Star Trek’ Movie

March 30, 2013 by Vignesh Ramachandran

Before you watch Star Trek Into Darkness … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: NASA, Star Trek, twitter, U.S.

Petition Asks White House to Reverse NASA Outreach Sequester Cuts

March 28, 2013 by Space.com

A new online petition asks the White House to repeal budget cuts that have spurred NASA to suspend many of its education and public-outreach efforts. The petition was created on Friday (March 22), the same day that NASA issued two internal memos outlining how outreach activities are being scaled back as a result of sequestration, the set of across-the-board federal cuts that took effect March 1. The memos began circulating outside the agency Friday as well. "The sequester's recent cuts on NASA's spending in public outreach and its STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] programs must not be allowed," the petition states. "These cuts would end … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: budget, Friday March, NASA, White House

Apollo 13 Souvenir Fetches $84,100 at Auction

March 27, 2013 by Space.com

A keepsake from NASA's nearly disastrous Apollo 13 moon mission of 1970 nabbed top spot in an auction Monday (March 25) of more than 300 artifacts from the early years of the U.S. space program. The space history artifacts — sold by Bonhams — included an engine burn note detailing how the crew can return to Earth annotated by astronaut Jim Lovell during the Apollo 13 mission that went for $84,100 and various items from the space agency's first mission to the moon. "Documents from Apollo 11 also impressed bidders, including an Apollo 11 Command and Service Module maneuver card selling for $64,900 and a postal cover taken to the moon during … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: Jim Lovell, Monday March, NASA, U.S.

New Private Rocket to Launch First Test Flight in April

March 21, 2013 by Space.com

The maiden launch of a new private rocket that eventually aims to loft cargo toward the International Space Station is slated for the middle of April. The Antares rocket, which is being developed by aerospace firm Orbital Sciences Corp., will blast off for the first time April 16-18 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, NASA officials said. Antares will launch a simulated payload to a target altitude of 155 miles to 185 miles (250 to 300 kilometers). If all goes well with the test flight, which Orbital is calling A-One, the next step will be a demonstration mission to the space station using Antares and the company's robotic Cygnus capsule, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: International Space Station, NASA, Orbital Sciences Corp

NASA: Voyager 1 Has Not Left Our Solar System — Yet

March 20, 2013 by Amanda Wills

A new study suggests that Voyager 1 has left our solar system, but NASA denied this claim today, saying the far-flung spacecraft has not yet reached interstellar space. After the report spread throughout the science community, Voyager project scientist Edward Stone released an official statement: "The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA's Voyager 1 has left the solar system. It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called 'the magnetic highway' where energetic … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: Edward Stone, NASA

Asteroid Threat Collides With Budget Realities in Congress

March 19, 2013 by Space.com

In the wake of last month's meteor strike in Russia and a close asteroid flyby on the same day, members of Congress asked NASA, White House and Air Force officials what they're doing to combat the threat of near-Earth asteroids during a hearing today on Capitol Hill. By and large, the experts stressed that the two space rock events were a coincidence and that the chance of a catastrophic asteroid impact to Earth any time soon is remote. On Feb. 15, a surprise meteor exploded … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: Air Force, Capitol Hill, NASA, Russia

Vintage Moon Photo Project Seeks Public Support

March 19, 2013 by Space.com

A five-year effort to recover nearly 50-year-old images of the moon is seeking public support to keep the project going. Since 2008, Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) has been reprocessing data received from five unmanned NASA spacecraft in the 1960s. The Lunar Orbiters, tasked with imaging potential landing sites for the Apollo manned missions that were set to follow, made their own history by taking the first photos from lunar orbit. Started with funding from volunteers and initially supported financially by NASA, the LOIRP team of retired engineers and scientists, together with students, have recovered and enhanced 600 out of the more … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mashable News Tagged With: LOIRP, Lunar Orbiters, NASA

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