(Discovery News) Two Chinese Satellites Have Close Encounter in Orbit
It would appear that China has successfully carried out a satellite rendezvous maneuver in orbit. And on August 19, the two satellites may have even touched, one probe being shunted aside by the other.(Space Fellowship) Boeing-built GOES-15 Weather Satellite Enters Service for NASA, NOAA
Boeing [NYSE: BA] today announced that GOES-15, the company's eighth Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, has completed on-orbit testing and has been accepted into service by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "GOES-15 completes the fleet of advanced meteorological satellites that Boeing designed, built and launched to provide enhanced weather monitoring over North America and refresh NOAA's operational fleet," said Craig Cooning, vice [...]
(AviationWeek) NASA Extends Contract For Last Two Missions
The extension will support the shuttle program's final scheduled missions, slated to launch Nov. 1 and Feb. 28.(Space Fellowship) Seven Things You Didn't Know About Mercury
Pity poor Mercury. The tiny planet endures endless assaults by intense sunlight, powerful solar wind and high-speed miniature meteoroids called micrometeoroids. The planet's flimsy covering, the exosphere, nearly blends in with the vacuum of space, making it too thin to offer protection. Because of this, it's tempting to think of Mercury's exosphere as just the battered remains of ancient atmosphere. Really, though, the exosphere is constantly changing and being renewed with sodium, potas [...]
(Space Fellowship) Science and Maintenance for Station Crew
As part of the ongoing Russian Seiner experiment, Expedition 24 Commander Alexander Skvortsov photographed and documented developments and conditions in the Earth’s oceans Wednesday. His unique perspective of the oceans provides scientists on the ground with current position coordinates of bioproductive water areas. Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko worked with the PILOT-M experiment. PILOT-M is an ongoing experiment that examines the effects of long-duration space flight and str [...]
(Space Fellowship) Herschel Finds Water in a Cosmic Desert
ESA’s Herschel infrared space observatory has discovered that ultraviolet starlight is the key ingredient for making water in space. It is the only explanation for why a dying star is surrounded by a gigantic cloud of hot water vapor. It is 500 light years away and while it is barely detectable at visible wavelengths, even in the largest telescopes, it is the brightest star in the sky at some infrared wavelengths. This is because it is surrounded by a huge envelope of dust that abso [...]
(Space Fellowship) Fly your experiment to the edge of space!
ESA is inviting students to propose experiments to fly on sounding rockets and stratospheric balloons. The winning teams will have the opportunity to design and build an experiment for the BEXUS balloons or the REXUS rockets. Applications The deadline for applications is 24 October 2010. The flight opportunity is open to students aged between 18 and 28 at the time of the deadline. Applicants must hold the nationality of an ESA Member State or Cooperating State* and must be enrolled as a [...]
(Discovery News) Dissecting Hurricane Earl: Big Pics
Satellites are giving us amazing new looks inside the guts of Hurricane Earl as it bears down on the U.S. coast.(Space Fellowship) Picture of the Day - A Bright Supernova
The explosion of a massive star blazes with the light of 200 million Suns in this Hubble Space Telescope image. The arrow at top right points to the stellar blast, called a supernova. The supernova is so bright in this image that it easily could be mistaken for a foreground star in our Milky Way Galaxy. And yet, this supernova, called SN 2004dj, resides far beyond our galaxy. Its home is in the outskirts of NGC 2403, a galaxy located 11 million light-years from Earth. Although the supernov [...]
(Space Fellowship) Cluster turns the invisible into the visible
Cluster has spent a decade revealing previously hidden interactions between the Sun and Earth. Its studies have uncovered secrets of the aurora, solar storms, and given us insight into fundamental processes that occur across the Universe. And there is more work to do. The aurora, those dancing lights in the polar skies, are but the visible manifestation of an invisible battle taking place above our heads. Supersonic particles from the Sun collide with our planet’s magnetic field every da [...]
(Space Fellowship) The Superwind Galaxy NGC 4666
The galaxy NGC 4666 takes pride of place at the centre of this new image, made in visible light with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. NGC 4666 is a remarkable galaxy with very vigorous star formation and an unusual “superwind” of out-flowing gas. It had previously been observed in X-rays by the ESA XMM-Newton space telescope, and the image presented here was taken to allow further study of other objects detected in the earlier X-r [...]
(Space Fellowship) Three more GLONASS satellites put into orbit
MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) Russia's Proton-M carrier rocket put three GLONASS satellites into orbit on Thursday, a spokesman for the Russian Space Forces said. The rocket blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 4:53 Moscow time (0:53 GMT). "The launch and flight of the carrier rocket, as well as the separation of the satellites, took place on schedule," Alexei Zolotukhin said. He also said the satellites' onboard systems were working well. Glonass - [...]
(Discovery News) NPR: Keeping Trapped Chilean Miners Sane (Featuring Discovery News)
In response to the article "Can NASA Help Trapped Chilean Miners?", Discovery News space producer Ian O'Neill was asked to appear as a guest on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" program.(Space Politics) Garver: “a lessening of tensions” in the NASA budget debate
In a luncheon speech Tuesday at the AIAA Space 2010 conference in Anaheim, California, NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver sounded an optimistic and even a bit of a conciliatory note about the ongoing debate in Congress about the future direction of the space agency. “All four bills, I believe, do acknowledge that there are things [...](ScienceDaily) Recipe for water: Just add starlight
The European Space Agency's Herschel infrared space observatory has discovered that ultraviolet starlight is the key ingredient for making water in space. It is the only explanation for why a dying star is surrounded by a gigantic cloud of hot water vapor.(AviationWeek) Russian Cargo Craft Departs Space Station
Progress 38 departed the ISS Aug. 31 and will undergo a series of Russian engineering evaluations until Sept. 6.(Space Daily) Arizona Stands In For The Moon And Mars
Mesa AZ (SPX) Sep 02, 2010
For two weeks every year, NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies group (Desert RATS) conducts state-of-the-art technology development tests in the Arizona desert at Black Point Lava Flow in anticipation of future human and robotic exploration. Teams of engineers and geologists from several NASA laboratories and a variety of private and academic partners are participating in this year's te (Space Daily) NASA And ATK Test Five-Segment Solid Rocket Motor
Huntsville AL (SPX) Sep 02, 2010
With a loud roar and mighty column of flame, NASA and ATK Aerospace Systems successfully completed a two-minute, full-scale test of the largest and most powerful solid rocket motor designed for flight. The motor is potentially transferable to future heavy-lift launch vehicle designs. The stationary firing of the first-stage development solid rocket motor, dubbed DM-2, was conducted by ATK, (Space Daily) NASA And NOAA's Newest GOES Satellite Ready For Action
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 02, 2010
NASA and NOAA's latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-15, has successfully completed five months of on-orbit testing and has been accepted into service. The satellite has demonstrated operational readiness of its subsystems, spacecraft instruments and communications services. GOES-15 is the third and final spacecraft in the GOES N-P Series of geostationary environmental (Space Daily) Cluster Turns The Invisible Into The Visible
Paris, France (ESA) Sep 02, 2010
Cluster has spent a decade revealing previously hidden interactions between the Sun and Earth. Its studies have uncovered secrets of aurora, solar storms, and given us insight into fundamental processes that occur across the Universe. And there is more work to do. The aurora, those dancing lights in the polar skies, are but the visible manifestation of an invisible battle taking place abov (Space Daily) Herschel Finds Water In Cosmic Desert
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 02, 2010
The Herschel infrared space observatory has discovered that ultraviolet starlight is the key ingredient for making water in space. It is the only explanation for why a dying star is surrounded by a gigantic cloud of hot water vapor. Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with important participation from NASA. Every recipe needs a secret ingredient. When astronomers discovered an unex (Space Daily) Satellite Navigation Steers Unmanned Micro-Planes
Paris, France (ESA) Sep 02, 2010
An unmanned aircraft system guided by satnav has been developed within ESA's Business Incubation Centre to provide rapid monitoring of land areas and disaster zones. The planes have already helped Spanish farmers in Andalusia to fight land erosion. The German start-up company MAVinci has developed the new system that uses autonomous micro-air vehicles (MAVs) with a wingspan of less than tw (Space Daily) Sony unveils new e-readers, adds touchscreen to all models
Washington (AFP) Sept 1, 2010
Sony, battling Amazon and Apple in the electronic book reader race, unveiled its latest devices on Wednesday and expanded their availability to Australia, China, Italy, Japan and Spain. Sony cut the size and weight of all three of its e-readers while expanding the use of touchscreens to all models - allowing users to turn pages with a swipe of the finger like the Apple iPad. The Japanes (Space Daily) ISRO Finalises Chandrayaan-2 Payload
Bangalore, India (PTI) Sep 02, 2010
The payloads to be carried by India's second unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-2 targeted for launch in 2013 were announced Monday and there will be seven onboard instruments for a range of lunar experiments. The payloads finalised by a National Committee of Experts were announced by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Three of the seven payloads are new. The country's prestig (Space Daily) LockMart Advancing on Next-Gen Commercial Remote Sensing System For GeoEye
Sunnyvale CA (SPX) Sep 02, 2010
The Lockheed Martin team developing GeoEye's next-generation, high-resolution commercial Earth-imaging satellite system known as GeoEye-2, has successfully completed on-schedule a System Requirements Review (SRR), an important program milestone that precedes the Preliminary Design Review. With launch scheduled to support start of operations in 2013, Lockheed Martin is developing GeoEye-2 u (Space Daily) NIST Ultraviolet Source Helps NASA Spacecraft Measure Origins Of Space Weather
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 02, 2010
With a brilliant, finely tuned spark of ultraviolet (UV) light, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) helped NASA scientists successfully position a crucial UV sensor inside a space-borne instrument to observe a "hidden" layer of the Sun where violent space weather can originate. Dark spots on the Sun release particles and electromagnetic fields into spac (Space Daily) A Dusty, Cloudy Exoplanet
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Sep 02, 2010
Astronomers at the University of Hawaii have measured the temperature of a young gas-giant planet around another star using the W. M. Keck Observatory, and the results are puzzling. They have found that its atmosphere is unlike that of any previously studied extrasolar planet. By obtaining a spectrum of its emitted light, the astronomers determined the temperature of the planet. As a resul (Space Travel) NASA Provides Assistance To Trapped Chilean Miners
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 02, 2010 - On Aug. 5, the San Jose copper and gold mine near the northern town of Copiapo, Chile, collapsed, trapping 33 miners about a half mile underground.The Chilean government spoke with the United States Department of State to request NASA's technical advice related to the agency's life sciences research activities.
On Aug. 31, a NASA team of experts arrived in Santiago as part of NASA's commitment to provide U.S. assistance. NASA's assistance is only a small contribution to the Chilean government's overall rescue effort.
On Sept. 1, the team began three days' worth of meetings in Copiapo.
The NASA team includes two medical doctors, a psychologist and an engineer. Dr. Michael Duncan, deputy chief medical officer in NASA's Space Life Sciences Directorate at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, is leading the team. The other team members are physician J.D. Polk, psychologist Al Holland and engineer Clint Cragg.
NASA's long experience in training and planning for emergencies in human spaceflight and its protection of humans in the hostile environment of space may have some direct benefits that can be useful to the rescue.
Environments may very well be different, but human response both in physiology and behavioral responses to emergencies is quite similar. Some of the results acquired through NASA's research may be applicable to the trapped miners.
(Space Daily) Scientists create 'smarter' materials
Waterloo, Ontario (UPI) Sep 1, 2010
New "smart materials" could revolutionize the manufacture of diverse products ranging from medical devices to automotive components, Canadian researchers say. Scientists at the University of Waterloo in Ontario have developed a process dubbed Multiple Memory Material Technology that could allow engineers to incorporate far greater functionality into devices, a university release said We 
