Latest Jet Propulsion Laboratory Stories

[ Watch the Video "Seven Minutes of Terror" ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online As NASA's Mars Science Laboratory gets closer to the Red Planet by the second, other countries are preparing to help aid the space agency in the difficult landing. The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC), managed for NASA by CSIRO in Australia, will be the main tracking station for the landing. The Australian dishes will be the ones following MSL's mission when it...

JPL Infographics, a newly launched website and resource database from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is inviting space aficionados and graphic wizards to take on a visual challenge by grabbing NASA data and transforming them into a scientific work of art. The website provides extensive collections of NASA science and mission data, graphics and space images that members of the public can download and use to create their own infographics - creative illustrations of...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's social media followers at seven field centers around the nation will virtually come together at a NASA Social on Friday, Aug. 3, to preview the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory's (MSL) Curiosity rover on Aug. 6 EDT (Aug. 5 PDT). (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) NASA Socials are in-person meetings with people who engage with the agency through Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social...

SIT IN A SPACE SHIP, TOUCH A PIECE OF MARS, AND MEET BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY®, STAR TREK’S ROBERT PICARDO, NASA SCIENTISTS, MARS EXPERTS AND MORE 2-Day Event in Pasadena, Calif. and Around the World to Celebrate the Landing of NASA’s Rover Curiosity on Mars On August 4 and 5, the world’s attention will once again turn to space, as NASA prepares for the descent and landing of its newest rover Curiosity on Mars. In celebration of this historic event, The Planetary Society, the...

DENVER, July 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- After a journey of 245 days across 352 million miles, the moment of truth for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) begins late in the evening of August 5 when the spacecraft roars into the Martian atmosphere, traveling at 13,200 miles an hour. The final seven minutes ­- the entry, descent and landing (EDL) - will determine the fate of the mission, and a perfect performance of the Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) Space Systems aeroshell is absolutely...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online One of the most complicated landings ever performed on Mars will be taking place 354-million-miles away on August 5 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and it will be supported by the European Space Agency's Mars Express. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will be delivering the newest rover late-night on August 5, after encountering what has been tagged as "seven minutes of terror." The spacecraft will enter the Mars atmosphere...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A game just released by Microsoft gives users an experience that NASA engineers will have to deal with in real life: landing the new Curiosity rover on the Red Planet. Microsoft created the Mars Rover Landing game and made it available for download for free on Monday through Xbox Live. "We went to some pains to reflect some authentic details in the game experience," Jeff Norris of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told USA Today....

NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC of Englewood, Colo., to launch the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) and Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) spacecraft. The spacecraft will launch in October 2014, July 2014 and November 2016, respectively, aboard Delta II rockets from Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the SMAP and OCO-2 missions for NASA. The total value...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online If you want to study space and explore quantum worlds and computers in greater detail, you need an amplifier, something that will boost the weakest of signals. Now, researchers at Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have developed a new type of amplifier for boosting electrical signals, according to a joint statement issued by both institutions. "This amplifier will redefine what it is possible to measure," says Jonas...

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EDT Monday, July 16, to discuss the upcoming August landing of the most advanced robot ever sent to another world. A new public-engagement collaboration based on the mission also will be debuted. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The event for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft will be held in the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300...