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| August 26, 2012 |
 US astronaut Neil Armstrong dead at 82 Washington (AFP) Aug 25, 2012 - Famed US astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, has died following complications from cardiovascular surgery, his family said Saturday. He was 82. Armstrong underwent cardiac bypass surgery earlier this month after doctors found blockages in his coronary arteries. Praising Armstrong as a "reluctant American hero," his family said they were heartbroken and in ...more |  |
Neil Armstrong: First man on the moon Washington (AFP) Aug 25, 2012 - With one small step off a ladder, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, making him the most lauded American of the Cold War space race. With that step, Armstrong, whose death was announced Saturday, became an instant hero - a status he would struggle to reckon with throughout his life. His first words upon stepping on the lunar surface have sinc ...more |  |
Obama hails 'great American hero' Neil Armstrong Washington (AFP) Aug 25, 2012 - A "deeply saddened" President Barack Obama on Saturday hailed late US space pioneer Neil Armstrong as one of the nation's greatest ever heroes, for having inspired a generation to reach for the stars. Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, died after suffering complications from cardiovascular surgery, his family said earlier. He was 82. "When he and his fellow crew members ...more |  |
 NASA Administrator Announces New Commercial Crew And Cargo Milestones Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Aug 27, 2012 - NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced Thursday new milestones in the nation's commercial space initiatives from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The latest advances made by NASA's commercial space partners pave the way for the first contracted flight of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) this fall and mark progress toward a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in th ...more |  |
 The Webb Telescope's 'Golden Spider' Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 27, 2012 - What looks like a giant golden spider weaving a web of cables and cords, is actually ground support equipment, including the Optical Telescope Simulator (OSIM), for the James Webb Space Telescope. OSIM's job is to generate a beam of light just like the one that the real telescope optics will feed into the actual flight instruments. Because the real flight instruments will be used to test t ...more |  |
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 Russian astronauts launch microsatellite Moscow, Russia (Voice of Russia) Aug 27, 2012 - Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko, working in open space, have successfully launched the microsatellite Sphere. During their spacewalk, Padalka and Malenchenko are also installing additional anti-meteor panels on the International Space Station. The two cosmonauts are also retrieving from the outside surface of the ISS samples of materials that were there for a length of time ...more |  |
 XCOR Aerospace to Establish Operations and Manufacturing Base in Florida Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Aug 27, 2012 - XCOR Aerospace announced its intent to establish an East Coast U.S. operational base in Florida and as market demand dictates, establish a manufacturing and assembly center for XCOR Lynx Mark II suborbital reusable launch vehicles as well. With the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as a backdrop, dignitaries from the space industry, Florida elected officials, XCOR senior executives and ...more |  |
South Africa to launch mini satellite Cape Town, South Africa (XNA) Aug 27, 2012 - A mini satellite weighing 1.2 kilograms will be launched from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in November to collect information about space weather, it was learned on Wednesday. Funded by the Department of Science and Technology, the satellite - ZACUBE-1-- will be South Africa's first nano- satellite running on the same amount of power used by a 5-watt light bulb, accor ...more |  |
 Supernovae of the same brightness, cut from vastly different cosmic cloth Berkeley CA (SPX) Aug 27, 2012 - Exploding stars called Type 1a supernova are ideal for measuring cosmic distance because they are bright enough to spot across the Universe and have relatively the same luminosity everywhere. Although astronomers have many theories about the kinds of star systems involved in these explosions (or progenitor systems), no one has ever directly observed one-until now. In the August 24 issue of ...more |  |
 Spacetime: A Smoother Brew Than We Knew Houghton, MI (SPX) Aug 27, 2012 - Spacetime may be less like beer and more like sipping whiskey. Or so an intergalactic photo finish would suggest. Physicist Robert Nemiroff of Michigan Technological University reached this heady conclusion after studying the tracings of three photons of differing wavelengths that had been recorded by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in May 2009. The photons originated about 7 ...more |  |
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 Research and Technology Studies 2012 Houston TX (SPX) Aug 27, 2012 - This week, NASA's Research And Technology Studies (RATS) team will convene at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) to begin their 15th mission. In the past, RATS missions have been conducted in remote desert locations and dubbed "Desert RATS," but RATS 2012 will be conducted in JSC's Building 9, the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. Building 9 offers a medley of tools and simulators that would be d ...more |  |
Halo of neutrinos alters physics of exploding stars San Diego CA (SPX) Aug 27, 2012 - Sparse halos of neutrinos within the hearts of exploding stars exert a previously unrecognized influence on the physics of the explosion and may alter which elements can be forged by these violent events. John Cherry, a graduate student at UC San Diego, models stellar explosions, including a type called a core-collapse supernova. As these stars run out of fuel, their cores suddenly collaps ...more |  |
The Milky Way now has a twin or two Perth, Australia (SPX) Aug 27, 2012 - Research presented at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly in Beijing has found the first group of galaxies that is just like ours, a rare sight in the local Universe. The Milky Way is a fairly typical galaxy on its own, but when paired with its close neighbours - the Magellanic Clouds - it is very rare, and could have been one of a kind, until a survey of our local Universe fou ...more |  |
Ariane 5s are on the move for Arianespace's upcoming missions Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Aug 27, 2012 - Two Ariane 5 launchers have been positioned at the Spaceport for processing in preparation for Arianespace's upcoming flights from French Guiana, maintaining the company's mission pace in 2012. During separate activities on the same day, Flight VA209's Ariane 5 was transferred from the Launcher Integration Building - where its basic assembly was performed - to the Final Assembly Building f ...more |  |
Readying the "boost" for Galileo satellites on Arianespace's next Soyuz mission at the Space Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Aug 27, 2012 - The Fregat upper stage for Arianespace's upcoming Soyuz launch from French Guiana has been moved to the Spaceport's S3B facility, where it will be fueled and integrated with the mission's two Galileo navigation satellites. Fregat is an autonomous, highly flexible orbital vehicle that can be restarted up to 20 times in flight - enabling it to carry out a wide variety of complex mission profiles. ...more |  |
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 Chemcam Laser First Analyzes Yield Beautiful Results Los Alamos NM (SPX) Aug 24, 2012 - Members of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover ChemCam team, including Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists, squeezed in a little extra target practice after zapping the first fist-sized rock that was placed in the laser's crosshairs last weekend. Much to the delight of the scientific team, the laser instrument has fired nearly 500 shots so far that have produced strong, clear data ...more |  |
 Europe's ATV-3 Space Freighter Raises ISS Orbit to 420 km Moscow, Russia (RIA Novosti) Aug 24, 2012 - Europe's ATV-3 unmanned resupply spacecraft raised the International Space Station (ISS) orbit to about 420 kilometers, a mission control spokesman said on Wednesday. ATV-3 engines were fired up at 1:15 p.m. Moscow time [09:15 GMT] in the first of the two maneuvers to adjust the ISS orbit and remained switched on for 384 seconds, raising the ISS orbit to 414.8 km The second reboost b ...more |  |
Russia's ISS Crew Members Complete Spacewalk Moscow, Russia (RIA Novosti) Aug 24, 2012 - Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Yury Malenchenko completed a six-hour spacewalk having carried out all planned maintenance tasks on the International Space Station (ISS). It was the first spacewalk of the current ISS Expedition 32 and expedition's Commander Padalka and Flight Engineer Malenchenko completed it in six hours ahead of the scheduled almost 6.5 hours. The spacewalk ...more |  |
 Landsat Data Continuity Mission Environmental Testing is Underway Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 24, 2012 - Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) Observatory Electromagnetic Interference/Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMI/EMC) testing is underway at Orbital Science Corporation's Gilbert, Ariz., location. EMI/EMC testing is conducted in order to validate that while the Observatory is on-orbit in space, all Observatory components (including the instruments) can operate successfully together. ...more |  |
 Fourth Galileo satellite reaches French Guiana launch site Paris, France (ESA) Aug 24, 2012 - The next two Galileo satellites are now in place at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, being prepared for their shared launch this autumn. The fourth Galileo satellite flight model arrived at Cayenne Airport in French Guiana on Friday 17 August, flown from the Thales Alenia Space facility in Rome aboard an Ilyushin aircraft. Cocooned inside a protective air-conditioned container, the sat ...more |  |
