NASA

Aug. 25, 2008 -- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, Aug. 30. Atlantis is targeted to lift off Oct. 8 to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

The first motion of the shuttle out of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building is scheduled for 12:01 a.m. EDT. The fully assembled space shuttle, consisting of the orbiter, external tank and twin solid rocket boosters, was mounted on a mobile launcher platform and will be delivered to the pad atop a crawler-transporter. The crawler will travel slower than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile journey. The process is expected to take approximately six hours.    » read more »

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. -- An Alliant Techsystems suborbital rocket carrying two NASA hypersonic experiments was destroyed by range safety officials shortly after liftoff from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia Friday. No injuries or property damage were reported.

Most debris from the rocket is thought to have fallen in the Atlantic Ocean. However, there are conflicting reports of debris being sighted on land. This debris could be hazardous. People who think they may have encountered rocket debris are advised not to touch it and to report it to the Wallops Emergency Operations Center at 757-824-1300.    » read more »

CONTRACT RELEASE : C08-055

Aug. 21, 2008 -- MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., Thursday awarded a cost plus fixed fee indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity task order contract valued at $42 million to ASRC Research and Technology Solutions (ARTS), of Greenbelt, Md. ARTS is a Alaskan Native Corporation under the Small Business Administration 8 (a) Business Development Program that will provide engineering, design and fabrication services for the center.

ARTS will provide services including project management, systems engineering, hardware and software design and development, mechanical and electronic fabrication services, integration and testing, technical writing, configuration management and other functions at Ames.    » read more »

CONTRACT RELEASE : C08-054

Aug. 19, 2008 -- MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., Monday awarded a contract modification valued at $34.8 million to Jacobs Technology Inc. of Tullahoma, Tenn.

The modification will allow additional support for testing and facility operation, development projects, as well as the required maintenance and repairs on wind tunnels and other facilities at Ames. All work will be performed at the center.

The cost-plus-incentive fee award fee contract will conclude July 31, 2009. This modification brings the total value of the contract, awarded in June 2004, to $123.8 million.

Source: NASA

Aug. 12, 2008 -- WASHINGTON -- NASA awarded a total of $97,000 in prizes at the 2008 General Aviation Technology Challenge. The challenge asked competitors to demonstrate innovations that would lead to aircraft that are safer, more affordable, easier to fly and also have less of a negative impact on the environment and on the communities that surround airports.

The challenge was managed by the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency, or CAFE, Foundation at the Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, Calif., from Aug. 4 through Aug. 10. All competitors had experimental licenses, as required by the Federal Aviation Administration, since aircraft were modified with new innovations for this competition.    » read more »

Governor joins with launch partners in wake of U.S. Air Force Space Command announcement

August 11, 2008 -- COCOA – Florida Governor Charlie Crist today, continuing his focus on strengthening Florida’s economy, met with space leaders to celebrate the commercial redevelopment of Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36

Under the landmark agreement announced by the U.S. Air Force, the 47-year-old complex will be rebuilt as a multi-use launch site for commercial business and research.    » read more »

August 12, 2008 -- If you could stand on Mars, what would you see? The robotic Phoenix spacecraft that just landed on Mars in May recorded the above spectacular panorama. The above image is actually a digital combination of over 100 camera pointings and surveys fully 360 degrees around the busy robotic laboratory.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Mars Panorama from the Phoenix Lander: Credit: Phoenix Mission Team, NASA, JPL-Caltech, U. Arizona    » read more »

Aug. 5, 2008 -- WASHINGTON -- NASA's Human Research Program will fund nine proposals from six states to investigate questions about the affects of space radiation on human explorers. The selected proposals from researchers in California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, New York and Utah have a total value of approximately $13 million.

The ground-based studies will address the impact of space radiation on astronaut health. Research areas will include risk predictions for cancer and models for potential damage to the central nervous system.    » read more »

CONTRACT RELEASE : 08-042

Aug. 4, 2008 -- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has selected Innovative Health Applications, LLC , or IHA, of Cape Canaveral, Florida, to provide medical and environmental services at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

The contract begins on Oct. 1, with a five-year base period, followed by two one-year options. It is a cost plus award fee contract. The maximum potential value of this contract is approximately $163.5 million.

Innovative Health Applications will provide medical services, environmental health services, environmental services, and agency occupational health program support at Kennedy.    » read more »

Aug. 4, 2008 -- WASHINGTON -- Scientists are analyzing results from soil samples delivered several weeks ago to science instruments on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander to understand the landing site's soil chemistry and mineralogy.

Within the last month, two samples have been analyzed by the Wet Chemistry Lab of the spacecraft's Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, suggesting one of the soil constituents may be perchlorate, a highly oxidizing substance.    » read more »

June 25, 2008 -- PASADENA, Calif. -- New analysis of Mars' terrain using NASA spacecraft observations reveals what appears to be by far the largest impact crater ever found in the solar system.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Global Surveyor have provided detailed information about the elevations and gravity of the Red Planet's northern and southern hemispheres.

Artist's concept of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: Image by NASA/JPL

A new study using this information may solve one of the biggest remaining mysteries in the solar system: why does Mars have two strikingly different kinds of terrain in its northern and southern hemispheres? The huge crater is creating intense scientific interest.    » read more »

June 23, 2008 -- HOUSTON -- NASA engineers and scientists completed a milestone review June 20 that will help determine the systems needed to return humans to the moon and establish a lunar outpost. The three-day Lunar Capability Concept Review capped a nine-month study led by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington that incorporated science and exploration objectives earlier developed by representatives of 14 countries as part of the Global Exploration Strategy.

NASA Lunar Crew Mobility Chassis Prototype: The Crew Mobility Chassis Prototype is NASA's new concept for a lunar truck. NASA graphic.    » read more »

How did the star Eta Carinae create this unusual nebula? No one knows for sure. About 165 years ago, the southern star Eta Carinae mysteriously became the second brightest star in the night sky. In 20 years, after ejecting more mass than our Sun, Eta Car unexpected faded.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day - Eta Carinae and the Homunculus Nebula: Photo by N. Smith, J. A. Morse (U. Colorado) et al., NASA    » read more »

CONTRACT RELEASE : C08-038

June 16, 2008 -- WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded Analex Corporation of Fairfax, Va., an option for the Expendable Launch Vehicles Integrated Support, or ELVIS, contract.

This second option period award is a hybrid performance-based, cost-plus-award-fee, fixed-price-award-fee, and fixed-price indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. It extends ELVIS through Sept. 30, 2011. The award has a potential value of approximately $90 million.

Analex Corporation currently is performing work under the contract's first option period, a three-year option that ends Sept. 30, 2008. The potential contract period, if all options are exercised, is nine years, three months, with a total approximate value of $258 million.    » read more »

June 16, 2008 -- Almost every object in the photograph below is a galaxy. The Coma Cluster of Galaxies pictured above is one of the densest clusters known - it contains thousands of galaxies. Each of these galaxies houses billions of stars - just as our own Milky Way Galaxy does.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Inside the Coma Cluster of Galaxies: NASA photo.

Although nearby when compared to most other clusters, light from the Coma Cluster still takes hundreds of millions of years to reach us. In fact, the Coma Cluster is so big it takes light millions of years just to go from one side to the other!    » read more »