NASA

Astronauts On Space Station Plan In Space Walk To Fix Amonia Leak

Submitted by News Desk 3 on Sat, 05/11/2013 - 11:24

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will conduct a space walk on saturday to fix an amonia leak. The leak is in a cooling system used by one of the stations large solar arrays that supply power to the station.

On thursday the crew noticed a steady stream of small white frozen amonia flakes from a cooling line outside the station. NASA officials advise that the crew is not in any danger.

NASA Wants To Lasso An Asteroid And Drag It Close To The Moon To Study

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 12:59

Washington, D.C. -

A 20-ish year old scientist from Italy, Marco Tantardini, has managed to convince NASA to launch a mission to lasso an asteroid and drag it close to the moon so that future missions can study the 25 foot wide, 55 ton object.

Marco Tantardini had proposed the mission while interning for Lou Friedman of The Planetary Society and after a lot of persistence, managed to get Friedman on board with the idea.

The mission will now be considered by the House science committee who's chair, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has said he want to hear more about the idea.

Scientist Thinks They've Finally Discovered 'Dark Matter'

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Wed, 04/03/2013 - 11:58

Scientists at Geneva's CERN research center using the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer that was delivered to the International Space Station, ISS, two years ago say they think they have finally discovered actual 'dark matter'.

The research team, headed by Nobel Prize winner Samuel Ting based in Geneva, say they have received preliminary evidence of actual dark matter, the stuff thought to hold the universe together.

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Astronomers Discover Moon Is Suddenly Loosing Orbit; Projected To Hit Earth In 30 Years

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Mon, 04/01/2013 - 09:23

Astronomers working with NASA have discovered that the moon's orbit has degraded sharply and is slowly loosing orbit. The discovery was first made by Jeff Harrington at American Lunar Institute and was subsequently confirmed by scientist in England and Australia.

Though Harrington said there is no explanation as to why the moon's orbit is degrading, based on calculation, the moon will impact earth in about 30 years.

NASA Releases Updated Hi-Res Map Of Universe, Discovers Its Older Than Previously Thought

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Fri, 03/22/2013 - 10:11

NASA has released the most up-to-date map of the universe in cooperation with the ESA and Planck space mission, and has discovered that the universe is older than believed, 13.8 billion years old, it was previously thought the universe was 13.7 billion year old, that's a 100 million year difference.

In fact, NASA says they also learned that the rate of the universe's expansion is slower than had been believed and is now expanding at the rate of 67.15 plus or minus 1.2 kilometers/second/megaparsec — is less than prior estimates.

SpaceX Dragon Launch Runs Into Trouble 9 Minutes After Liftoff

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Fri, 03/01/2013 - 13:24

SpaceX launched one of its Dragon rockets this morning on a resupply mission to the International Space Station, ISS, but ran into problems nine minutes after liftoff.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said three of the four thrusters did not ignite as planned.

Speaking from the company's Hawthorne, CA mission control, Musk said he wants at least two of the four sets to kick in before the solar panels are extended.

The rocket is due to arrive at the ISS carrying 1 ton of much needed cargo, such as air purifiers and other maintenance gear.

Large Meteorite Hits Russia Injuring 500, Separate Large Asteriod DA14 Passing Close To Earth Today

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Fri, 02/15/2013 - 12:22

A large meteorite has hit southern Russia near the border of Kazakhstan overnight last night injuring as many as 500 and causing significant damage across a wide area in Chelyabinsk Russia, about 900 miles east of Moscow.

Officials say it is unconnected with the asteroid DA14 that is to pass by the earth today around 2:24pm eastern time, coming as close as 17,200 miles. That is closer to earth than some satellites are orbiting the planet.

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Asteriod Renamed Wikipedia; It Was 274301

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Tue, 02/05/2013 - 17:40

The Committee for Small Body Nomenclature has officially taken the usual step and renamed the asteroid 274301 to Wikipedia, giving it an actual name.

Wikipedia orbits the sun every 3.68 earth years and is roughly a mile in diameter, and is not expected to approach earth.

Wikipedia was first spotted by the Audrushivka Astronomical Observatory in Ukraine in 2008 and was subsequently verified by three other observatories around the world.

New Cracks Discovered In Orion Space Capsule During Testing

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Sun, 11/25/2012 - 09:16

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -

According to NASA, three new cracks have appeared on the inside of the Orion space capsule following pressure tests earlier this month. The Orion is America's replacement to the retired shuttle fleet. Each of the cracks were located in the aft bulkhead on the lower half of the capsule.

Lockhheed Martin, the capsule's primary builder, said each of the cracks were found on three adjacent radial ribs of the machined aluminum bulkhead but did not penetrate the press vessel skin and the capsule held pressure after the anomaly occurred.

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Two Coronal Mass Ejections Headed Towards Earth Expected To Create Geomagnetic Storms

Submitted by News Desk 2 on Sat, 11/24/2012 - 17:14

NASA has reported that its SOHO, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, has detected two large Coronal Mass Ejections, CME, from the sun on November 23, travel as approximately 375 miles per second, or 1,350,000 mph.

The two earth directed CME's are expected to reach earth sometime on or about Nov 25-26 and are expected to create geomagnetic storms and auroras near the North and South poles as the CME particles make contact with earth's magnetosphere, or magnetic envelope.