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| September 14, 2012 |
 NASA's Space Launch System Celebrates a Year of Powering Forward Huntsville, AL (SPX) Sep 14, 2012 - NASA is powering ahead toward new destinations in the solar system. This week marks one year of progress since the formation of the Space Launch System (SLS), the nation's next step in human exploration efforts. On Sept. 14, 2011, NASA announced a new capability for America's space program: a heavy-lift rocket designed to carry the Orion spacecraft and send astronauts farther into space th ...more |  |
 Up and Running: Just Hours After Launch, RBSP Takes First Science Steps Laurel, MD (SPX) Sep 14, 2012 - Washington DC (SPX) Sep 14, 2012 While the RBSP teams at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station celebrated a job well done following the 4:05 a.m. EDT launch of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes on Thursday, Aug. 30, another group of RBSP engineers and scientists celebrated at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. But for many of those at APL's Miss ...more |  |
 Russia's space industry needs quality control - Medvedev Moscow (Voice of Russia) Sep 14, 2012 - Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has proposed to create a quality control system in Russia's space industry. "Quality control is needed at all stages of development, production and exploitation of space equipment", he told the conference that focused on raising the reliability and quality of space manufacturing. Medvedev finds it necessary to set up centres for testing, certifying and checki ...more |  |
 DLR and NASA announce partnership in aeronautics research Berlin, Germany (SPX) Sep 14, 2012 - On 11 September 2012 at the ILA Berlin Air Show, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced a future collaboration in the field of aeronautics research. This bilateral agreement was signed by NASA's Associate Administrator for Aeronautics Jaiwon Shin and DLR's Executive Board Me ...more |  |
Gaia Service Module Thermal Balance Thermal Vacuum testing completed Paris (ESA) Sep 14, 2012 - The Protoflight Model of the Gaia Service Module has successfully completed thermal balance and thermal vacuum testing in the SIMLES chamber at Intespace Toulouse. These tests verify the thermal performance of the spacecraft module under space conditions. Once a spacecraft reaches space, its thermal environment changes dramatically compared to that experienced on Earth. The absence of air means ...more |  |
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 ESA and European Investment Bank launch Space for Mediterranean Countries Initiative Paris (ESA) Sep 14, 2012 - ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and EIB Vice President Philippe de Fontaine Vive Curtaz has signed the Space for Mediterranean Countries Initiative agreement. The two organisations will work together towards satellite-based services bridging the digital divide and aiming at bringing economic growth to the Mediterranean region. The European Investment Bank (EIB) assists the econom ...more |  |
 Countdown: a month to go to Galileo's next launch Paris (ESA) Sep 14, 2012 - After arriving at the launch site last month, the second pair of Galileo navigation satellites is being prepared for launch from Europe's Spaceport in October. This week will see the third Galileo satellite having its propellant tank filled with hydrazine fuel. The fourth recently had its final multilayer thermal insulation added, with its own propellant tank due to be filled next week. Th ...more |  |
 Mars Rover Curiosity Arm Tests Nearly Complete Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 14, 2012 - NASA's Mars Curiosity team has almost finished robotic arm tests in preparation for the rover to touch and examine its first Martian rock. Tests with the 7-foot (2.1-meter) arm have allowed the mission team to gain confidence in the arm's precise maneuvering in Martian temperature and gravity conditions. During these activities, Curiosity has remained at a site it reached by its most ...more |  |
Mars Rover Spectrometer Finishes Calibration-Target Reading Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 14, 2012 - On Sol 35 of its mission on Mars (Sept. 10, 2012) Curiosity continued activities for characterizing its arm and the tools on the arm. The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) completed a reading of the chemical ingredients in the instrument's calibration target. Then the arm moved the spectrometer away from the target and maneuvered to the arm's "ready out" position (http://photo ...more |  |
Going underground Paris (ESA) Sep 14, 2012 - ESA's CAVES training programme began its second phase last Friday as six astronauts ventured into the Sardinian caves in Italy that are their home this week. CAVES mimics elements of spaceflight to prepare astronauts and trainers for the real thing. Spending time underground might not be the most obvious environment to practise spaceflight procedures but Hans Bolender, Head of the European ...more |  |
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 Extreme Life Forms Might be Able to Survive on Eccentric Exoplanets Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 14, 2012 - Astronomers have discovered a veritable rogues' gallery of odd exoplanets- from scorching hot worlds with molten surfaces to frigid ice balls. And while the hunt continues for the elusive "blue dot"- a planet with roughly the same characteristics as Earth- new research reveals that life might actually be able to survive on some of the many exoplanetary oddballs that exist. "When we're talk ...more |  |
 ISRO's 100th space mission blasts off, PM witnesses historic event New Delhi (IANS) Sep 14, 2012 - An Indian rocket carrying two satellites blasted off from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here in Andhra Pradesh Sunday, with the launch being witnessed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The rocket carried two foreign satellites - SPOT 6, a French satellite and a Japanese micro satellite called Proiteres. Manmohan Singh along with Minister in Prime Minister Office, V ...more |  |
 Public maps out an A to Z of galaxies Oxford UK (SPX) Sep 14, 2012 - Members of the public have constructed an A to Z of galaxies in the night sky. Volunteers participating in the Galaxy Zoo project have been helping scientists gain new insights by classifying galaxies seen in hundreds of thousands of telescope images as spiral or elliptical. Along the way they've also stumbled across odd-looking galaxies which resemble each letter of the alphabet. The inte ...more |  |
Planets not like Earth could harbor life Pasadena, Calif. (UPI) Sep 13, 2012 - Extreme forms of life could exist on eccentric planets outside the solar system with conditions unlike those on Earth, U.S. scientists say. Extreme exoplanets, from scorching hot worlds with molten surfaces to frigid ice balls, could maintain some form of life even though they don't inhabit a star's so-called habitable or "Goldilocks" zone, they said. "When we're talking about a ...more |  |
Poland joins European Space Agency Warsaw (AFP) Sept 13, 2012 - Poland on Thursday becomes the 20th member of the European Space Agency, the country's economy ministry announced. Polish Economy Minster Waldemar Pawlak and ESA head Jean-Jacques Dordain were to sign an entry deal in Warsaw later Thursday, the ministry said in a statement on its website. Poland, which has been cooperating with the ESA since 2007, is the third country from behind the for ...more |  |
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Myanmar mulling satellite launch: Japan company Tokyo (AFP) Sept 13, 2012 - Myanmar is looking at launching a small Earth-observation satellite with Japanese aid, a company official said Thursday, as the country comes in from the cold after decades of isolation. Japan's Marubeni Aerospace Corp. has been conducting a feasibility study for the Myanmar government this year on the satellite launch, a company official said. He added that Myanmar's Minister for Transp ...more |  |
 Memorial service honors 'man on the moon' Armstrong Washington (AFP) Sept 13, 2012 - Top NASA officials, fellow astronauts, relatives and well-wishers paid a final tribute to Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, in a somber memorial ceremony Thursday in the US capital. A bagpiper led family members in a procession through the packed Washington National Cathedral, followed by a US Navy honor guard for Armstrong, who was a Navy pilot before joining the space program. ...more |  |
 Planets Can Form in the Galactic Center Cambridge MA (SPX) Sep 13, 2012 - At first glance, the center of the Milky Way seems like a very inhospitable place to try to form a planet. Stars crowd each other as they whiz through space like cars on a rush-hour freeway. Supernova explosions blast out shock waves and bathe the region in intense radiation. Powerful gravitational forces from a supermassive black hole twist and warp the fabric of space itself. Yet new res ...more |  |
Was Kepler's Supernova Unusually Powerful? Boston MA (SPX) Sep 13, 2012 - In 1604, a new star appeared in the night sky that was much brighter than Jupiter and dimmed over several weeks. This event was witnessed by sky watchers including the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler. Centuries later, the debris from this exploded star is known as the Kepler supernova remnant. Astronomers have long studied the Kepler supernova remnant and tried to determine exactly what happen ...more |  |
Next Mars Mission Enters Final Phase Before Launch Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 13, 2012 - NASA's Mars Atmosphere And Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission has passed a critical milestone, Key Decision Point-D or KDP-D. The project is officially authorized to transition into the next phase of the mission, which is system delivery, integration and test, and launch. "The spacecraft and instruments are all coming together at this point," said Bruce Jakosky from University of Colorado, ...more |
