(Reuters) – NASA chief Charles Bolden has advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City: Pray. That’s about all the United States – or anyone for that matter – could do at this point about unknown asteroids and meteors that may be on a collision course with Earth, Bolden told […]
U.S. astronaut, Russian cosmonaut to spend a year in space
(Reuters) – Two veterans of the International Space Station will return for an experimental year-long stay aboard the orbital outpost, a test run for future missions to the moon, asteroids and Mars, NASA said on Monday. Former U.S. space shuttle pilot and station commander Scott Kelly, 48, who last flew in 2011, will be paired […]
SpaceX rocket blasts off for space station
(Reuters) – An unmanned, privately owned Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday on a mission to restore a U.S. supply line to the International Space Station after the retirement of the space shuttle. Powered by nine oxygen and kerosene-burning engines, the 157-foot (48-meter) tall rocket, built by […]
Mars rover finds first evidence of water: a river of it
(Reuters) – NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity, dispatched to learn if the most Earth-like planet in the solar system was suitable for microbial life, has found clear evidence its landing site was once awash in water, a key ingredient for life, scientists said Thursday. Curiosity, a roving chemistry laboratory the size of a small car, touched […]
Shuttle Endeavour embarking on new mission to Los Angeles museum
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Sept 16 – The space shuttle Endeavour, built to replace NASA’s lost ship Challenger, prepared for a final flight this week, heading not into orbit but west to a Los Angeles museum. Riding piggyback on top of a specially modified 747 jet, Endeavour will be the second of NASA’s three surviving shuttles […]
Stuck bolt on space station stymies spacewalkers
(Reuters) – NASA on Thursday halted attempts to replace a power distributor on the International Space Station after spacewalking astronauts were repeatedly stymied by a jammed bolt, officials said. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide, both station flight engineers, had planned to spend 6.5 hours outside the orbital outpost to work on its […]
Newly discovered dust-obscured galaxies may be missing link
Scientists on Wednesday unveiled a new species in the cosmic zoo, a super-heated, dust-shrouded object called a “hot DOG,” which may represent a missing link in galaxy evolution. A full-sky survey by NASA’s wide-field infrared WISE telescope turned up about 1,000 hot, dust-obscured galaxies, or hot DOGs, each of which pump out as much light […]
Rocket blasts off, puts NASA radiation belt probes in orbit
An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket lifted off on Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, placing a pair of heavily shielded NASA science satellites into position to study Earth’s radiation belts. The 190-foot (58-meter) tall rocket, built by United Launch Alliance, blasted off at 4:05 a.m. EDT (0805 GMT), soaring out over the […]
Mars rover Curiosity aces first test drive
(Reuters) – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity took a 16-minute drive on Wednesday, its first since reaching the Red Planet to search for habitats that could have supported microbial life. The $2.5-billion, two-year mission, NASA’s first astrobiology initiative since the 1970s-era Viking probes, kicked off on August 6, with a risky, but successful landing on at […]
Mars rover Curiosity gears up for Wednesday test drive
(Reuters) – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, dispatched to study if the Red Planet could have hosted life, will take its first test drive on Wednesday. The one-ton, nuclear-powered robotic geologist, which landed inside a Martian crater on August 6, will get instructions for a 30-minute drive, mission manager Michael Watkins told reporters on a conference […]
