Latest Space technology Stories
CANOGA PARK, Calif., May 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The X-51A WaveRider hypersonic vehicle, powered by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's SJY61 scramjet engine, achieved aviation history on May 1 by making the longest-ever supersonic combustion ramjet-powered flight, flying full duration and achieving mission success. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company. "This test flight brings aviation closer than ever to the reality of regular, sustained...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA has announced that it will stop using the rocket fuel that has been an aeronautics mainstay since the 1940s and switch to a greener, environmentally-benign propellant. The space agency says that the first space flight powered with this new fuel will take place in 2015. Hydrazine was used to power the first rocket-powered fighter plane in World War II, the Viking Missions of the 1970s, and more recently the Curiosity mission on...
Engineering Control Designed to Protect Against Carbon Nanotubes and Nanofibers FREDERICA, Del., May 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ILC Dover, the designer and manufacturer of NASA's space suits and a wide range of engineered film and fabric products, announced its innovative NanoPac(TM) flexible containment system, which exceeds new NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety) standards for nanoparticle containment. As nanotechnology continues to expand into every industrial...
[WATCH VIDEO: Vega Launch Sequence Replay] Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online After a delayed launch due to strong wind conditions on Saturday May 4, ESA's Vega rocket lifted off early Tuesday (02:06 GMT May 7) on a complex mission to set three payloads into two different orbits. The ESA successfully launched the rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, carrying Proba-V, VNREDSat-1 and ESTCube-1. Tuesday’s launch was the second mission for...
GREENBELT, Md., May 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has selected the winners of NASA's educational "REEL Science Communications" video contest. The three winning videos were created by students in New Jersey, North Carolina and California. There were also six videos chosen as runners-up. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) The three winning videos were "All About Ozone," produced by Michelle Goffreda and Ananya Joshi of Lincroft, N.J.; "Hurricanes,"...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Scientists at Princeton University and the Caltech believe that Mount Sharp on Mars was formed by wind, not water. NASA's Curiosity rover is sitting on Mars right now looking for signs of past life. The space agency chose Mount Sharp at the massive Gale Crater for its primary mission because of how eclectic the area is, potentially providing answers to questions regarding Mars' past. Mount Sharp is a roughly 3.5-mile high Martian...
KENTFIELD, Calif., May 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Adam Steltzner, NASA JPL lead engineer and College of Marin alumnus, led the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) Team for the NASA Mars Curiosity Rover. He has been a featured guest in variety of print stories, and on television and radio broadcasts, including the New Yorker, NPR, CNN and Nova. WHO: Dr. Adam Steltzner, lead mechanical engineer of the NASA Mars Rover Landing Project, guest lecturer WHAT: College of Marin Grand Opening,...
The Sun and our neighboring planet Mars are two destinations that the UK and US will be exploring together in the coming years, following recent agreements for collaboration on three big space projects. During a visit this week to space facilities and companies in the UK, Mason Peck, Chief Technologist at NASA, said, “Cooperation and collaboration are critical to meet increasingly global challenges, and our partnership with the United Kingdom in space exploration and technology...
Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will visit NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and testing facilities at the agency's Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss., Friday, May 3. These facilities are critical to the construction and testing of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Commercial Crew Program. Michoud and Stennis also are important to partnerships with private industry, which is helping maximize the use of NASA facilities. At 9 a.m. CDT, Garver will visit...
WASHINGTON, May 1, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will visit NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and testing facilities at the agency's Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss., Friday, May 3. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) These facilities are critical to the construction and testing of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Commercial Crew Program. Michoud and Stennis also are important to...
Latest Space technology Reference Libraries
The Pioneer Program is a series of American unmanned space missions designed for planetary exploration. The program included a number of missions, but the most well-known missions were Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. Both Pioneer 10 and 11 explored the outer planets and left our solar system. Both probes carry a gold plaque, depicting a man and a woman and information about the origin of the probes and their creators. The Pioneer probe was named by Stephen A. Saliga, who was chief designer of Air...
Project Constellation is a spaceflight program run by NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The program goals are to continue significant operations away from Earth's environment, to develop technologies needed for expanding exploration of space, and to continue conducting fundamental science. Project Constellation was developed by the Exploration Systems Architecture Study, which established how NASA would pursue the goals from the Vision for Space Exploration and the...
Wernher von Braun (March 23, 1912 - June 16, 1977) was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States. His work on the Nazi rocket program made him a controversial figure. The controversy was captured in a song by satirist Tom Lehrer, who described him as "A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience". He was born on in Wirsitz, Posen, Germany and his mother gave him a telescope upon his Lutheran confirmation. His interest in astronomy...
NEAR-Shoemaker Mission -- The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous - Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker), renamed after its launch in honor of Gene Shoemaker, is an unmanned spacecraft designed to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. The primary scientific objectives of NEAR were to return data on the bulk properties, composition, mineralogy, morphology, internal mass distribution and magnetic field of Eros. Secondary objectives include studies of regolith...
Terraforming -- Terraforming (literally, "Earth-shaping") is the process of modifying a planet, moon or other body to a more habitable atmosphere, temperature or ecology. The term was first used in a science fiction novel, 'Seetee Shock' (1940?) by Jack Williamson, but the actual concept is older than that. An example in fiction is 'First and Last Men' by Olaf Stapledon in which Venus is modified, after a long and destructive war with the original inhabitants, who naturally object to the...
