Displaying items by tag: NASA

On Thursday morning, April 29, 2010, a NASA balloon carrying a multi-million dollar telescope went out of control during takeoff in the Australian outback and crashed into a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

The NASA STS-134 mission to the International Space Station will be delayed past its July 2010 launch date due to the replacement of a superconducting magnet in the mission's main instrument, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which will search for the universe's most exotic particles.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory has provided NASA, and now You, with some exceptional images of the Sun, with a resolution no one has seen before of our own life-providing star. Media reports state that even solar physicists are blown away by the amazing sights.

The crew of the NASA STS-131 mission has landed its space shuttle Discovery successfully and safety at the Kennedy Space Center, with the STS-132 crew preparing its mission of the space shuttle Atlantic, which already sits on its KSC launch pad 39A.

NASA announced on April 18, 2010, that it has extended the science operations contract for the Hubble Space Telescope through the date of April 30, 2013. An extended life for Hubble means more scientific discoveries of the universe await us here on Earth.

Space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member NASA crew are expected to land back on Earth on Monday, April 19, after a 14-day mission to the International Space Station. Their voyage home is not expected to be delayed due to the volcanic dust in the air, only by likely rainy weather.

The United States doesn't seem to like a long-range manned space program. And, it doesn't appear that it will be any different in the future. As NASA swings wildly in this direction and now that direction, the U.S. manned space program seems to be attached to a bungee cord provided by the U.S. Congress and the U.S. White House.

Researchers at Southwest Research Institute have used the Hubble Space Telescope to take images of the dwarf planet Pluto. Because of its tilt to the Sun, its atmosphere actually freezes and falls to the ground, forming large molasses-colored patches. Why? Don't know yet. But, New help is just over the Horizon!

According to an announcement made by Lori Garver, NASA's deputy administrator, on Tuesday, April 13, 2010, President Barack Obama has decided to use the Orion space capsule, one part of the now defunct Constellation Program, as an on-board emergency escape system for the International Space Station.

The NASA mission Apollo 13, which attempted to land on the Moon only to be turned back by a serious explosion, occurred forty years ago on April 11-17, 1970. The famously misquoted words 'Houston, we have a problem' come from the mission called a 'successful failure.'

The Sun has been gobbling up comets lately. The latest one being a unexpected comet going to its demise early on the morning of Saturday, April 10, 2010.

With Obama and Congress still unsure about how NASA should proceed with its manned space program, NASA continues with privately funded companies as a way to transport cargo and astronauts back and forth into space. As of April 2010, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is preparing for its maiden launch from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 30.

NASA has completed the first of five flights of an unpiloted aircraft system called Global Hawk. Its mission is to study atmospheric conditions over the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. It can stay in the air for up to 30 hours at altitudes twice as high as commercial airliners.

arlier this year, an astronaut on the International Space Station sent the first direct tweet from space. It's now been revealed that this was achieved by using a virtual desktop.

With a near-perfect countdown, the space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member STS-131 crew made a spectacular ascent into space with its on-time launch about one hour before sunrise on Monday morning, April 5, 2010.

If you are lucky enough to be in Florida to see the STS-131 launch on April, 5, 2010, you will also be able to see the International Space Station fly over just before the space shuttle Discovery lifts off. And, the Moon will be in the picture, too!

April 2010 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. To honor the vast accomplishments of this telescopic pioneer in space-based astronomy, NASA and Abrams Books have collaborated with the illustrated book 'Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time.'

The countdown for the space shuttle Discovery and its STS-131 crew began at 3 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time at the Kennedy Space Center for its April 5, 2010 launch to the International Space Station.

Fifty years ago, on April 1, 1960,  the first weather satellite was launched from the United States. Called TIROS-1, the Earth observation satellite saw a typhoon forming east of Australia. Today, NASA and NOAA celebrate the milestone in the history of weather observation from space.

NASA managers have given space shuttle Discovery a 'GO' to launch on April 5, 2010, for its STS-131 mission to the International Space Station.