Actor Jon Cryer Voices New NASA Film to Help Celebrate 50 Years of Spacewalks

On June 3, 1965, NASA astronaut Ed White became the first American to walk in space. NASA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United States’ first extravehicular activity (EVA) -- better known as a spacewalk -- through a number of commemorative features on NASA Television and NASA.gov.

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CometWatch 20 May

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta's NAVCAM on 20 May at a distance of 163.6 km from the comet centre. It is a single frame image with a resolution of 13.9 m/pixel, and measures 14.3 km across. The intensities and contrast have been adjusted to emphasise the activity of the comet. In this orientation, perhaps the most striking observation is the activity seen close to Hatmehit, the circular depression on the comet’s small lobe. There also appears to be activity associated with the Nut region, which lies below Serqet in this orientation. In both cases, the activity stands out against the shadowed portions of the comet in this area. On the large lobe, the comet is oriented with the relatively smooth face of Anubis towards the top left, making a distinct boundary with the neighbouring rugged Seth region to the right. In this view the comet also shows off the transition between the two lobes, with Anuket on the small lobe merging into Hapi at the neck. The original 1024 x 1024 pixel image is provided below:

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Cassini Prepares for Last Up-close Look at Hyperion

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will make its final close approach to Saturn's large, irregularly shaped moon Hyperion on Sunday, May 31.

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Dawn Spirals Closer to Ceres, Returns a New View

A new view of Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 23, shows finer detail is becoming visible on the dwarf planet.

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NASA to Hold Media Call to Discuss Surprising Observations of Pluto’s Moons

NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 3, to discuss the Hubble Space Telescope’s surprising observations of how Pluto’s moons behave, and how these new discoveries are being used in the planning for the New Horizons Pluto flyby in July.

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NAVCAM image bonanza: close orbits and comet landing

Today perhaps the most anticipated set of NAVCAM images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko have been released by the Rosetta Downlink & Archive Team via the Archive Image Browser and ESA’s Planetary Sciences Archive. The 1776 images cover the period between 23 September and 21 November 2014, corresponding to Rosetta’s close study of the comet down to distances of just 10 km from the comet centre – 8 km from the surface – and the images taken during and immediately following the landing of Philae on the comet. An animation illustrating Rosetta’s trajectory around this period can be found here, providing context for the range of distances covered by the images in this release. Because of the spacecraft’s proximity to the comet during much of this period, the nucleus overfilled the NAVCAM field of view, and therefore the majority of images are in 2 x 2 rasters to cover the whole comet. The single frames can certainly be admired individually (see the example above), but they can also be stitched together to create stunning mosaics, as we featured in many of our CometWatch releases from that period. We’re always impressed with the scenes that the image processing fans among you create, and we look forward to seeing what you generate from this release. In addition to images from the close orbit phase, there are some great gems in this release, such as the NAVCAM’s view of lander Philae shortly after separating from Rosetta on 12 November (below). Although not as detailed as the images captured by Rosetta’s scientific camera OSIRIS, Philae’s body and its three legs can still be made out in a number of NAVCAM images as the lander falls towards the comet. The NAVCAM also captured some wonderful views of Hatmehit, the large, 1 km-wide depression on the comet’s small […]

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Commercial Crew Milestones Met; Partners on Track for Missions in 2017

NASA has taken another step toward returning America’s ability to launch crew missions to the International Space Station from the United States in 2017.

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NASA Begins Testing Mars Lander in Preparation for Next Mission to Red Planet

Testing is underway on NASA’s next mission on the journey to Mars, a stationary lander scheduled to launch in March 2016.

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NASA Begins Testing Mars Lander for Next Mission to Red Planet

Testing is underway on NASA's next mission on the journey to Mars, a stationary lander scheduled to launch in March 2016.

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Astronaut Available to Discuss First, Next 50 Years of Spacewalking

NASA astronaut and veteran spacewalker Mike Foreman is available to discuss with media the dramatic history and exciting future of spacewalking live via satellite from the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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NASA/JPL Bring Sights and Sounds to World Science Festival

Exhibits, displays and presenters from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, are participating in this year's World Science Festival in New York, to be held from May 27 through 31.

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NASA Brings Science of Space Down to Earth for 2015 World Science Festival

From mega space telescopes to space navigation, NASA is bringing a variety of interactive, hands-on activities and exhibits to the more than 100,000 visitors who will attend this year’s World Science Festival in New York Wednesday, May 27 through Sunday, May 31.

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NASA Sets New Launch Window for Supersonic Vehicle Test

The second flight test of NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) now will launch no earlier than 10:30 a.m. PDT (7:30 a.m. HST) Tuesday, June 2, from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kauai, Hawaii.

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NASA Television to Air U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony May 30

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the 2015 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame induction ceremony at 2 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 30. The ceremony will take place at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Space Shuttle Atlantis attraction in Florida.

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NASA's Europa Mission Begins with Selection of Science Instruments

NASA has selected nine science instruments for a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, to investigate whether the mysterious icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.

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NASA Sets New Launch Window for Supersonic Vehicle Test

The second flight test of NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) now will launch no earlier than 12:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 a.m. HST) Tuesday, June 2, from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kauai, Hawaii. NASA Television coverage will begin at 1 p.m. EDT (7 a.m. HST).

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NASA’s Europa Mission Begins with Selection of Science Instruments

NASA has selected nine science instruments for a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, to investigate whether the mysterious icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.

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Mars Rover's Laser-Zapping Instrument Gets Sharper Vision

Tests on Mars have confirmed success of a repair to the autonomous focusing capability of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.

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Space Station Module Relocation Makes Way for Commercial Crew Spacecraft

The International Space Station Program will take the next step in expanding a robust commercial market in low-Earth orbit when work continues Wednesday, May 27, to prepare the orbiting laboratory for the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew and cargo vehicles. NASA Television will provide live coverage of the activity beginning at 8 a.m. EDT.

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NASA's Curiosity Rover Adjusts Route Up Martian Mountain

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover climbed a hill Thursday to approach an alternative site for investigating a geological boundary, after a comparable site proved hard to reach.

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'Deep Web Search' May Help Scientists

Researchers at JPL have joined an effort to harness the benefits of searching the "Deep Web," which could prove useful for both law enforcement and science.

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CometWatch closeup: Looming over Aten

With today's CometWatch we take another trip back in time, to 27 October 2014 when Rosetta was in a bound orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At the time this single frame NAVCAM image was taken, the spacecraft was only 9.8 km from the comet centre. Due to the viewing geometry, most of the scene is in fact closer to the camera in this view. The image scale is about 75 cm/pixel, and the image spans 770 m across. This view highlights the dramatic boundary between two neighbouring but morphologically different regions, Babi and Aten, which are on the comet's large lobe. In the upper part of the image, the two seemingly smooth and bright areas covered in brittle material belong to the Babi region, which overshadows part of the narrow and elongated depression of Aten. The rougher terrains of Aten are visible just below the steep cliff that separates it from its neighbour. In contrast to Babi and the neighbouring Ash region – small portions of which are visible in the lower part of the image as well as towards the top right – Aten is not coated in smooth dust but appears to host many boulders. As suggested in a paper by Nicolas Thomas and colleagues, the depression of Aten might be the result of one or more episodes of major mass loss in the comet's history. The volume of the depression amounts to about 0.12 km3, which is equivalent to almost 50 times the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The regional map of 67P/C-G shows the shape of the Aten depression, wedged between the neighbouring regions of Babi, Ash and Khepry. The complete depression can be clearly seen in the images from some of our previous blog posts: CometWatch 28 February and 12 May. Lurking in the […]

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NASA TV to Air Announcement of Instruments for Europa Mission

NASA will announce on Tuesday, May 26, the selection of science instruments for a mission to Europa, to investigate whether Jupiter’s icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.

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NASA, Canadian Agency Renew Agreement to Reduce Aviation Icing Risks

NASA and the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada have renewed a partnership agreement to continue critical research in the area of aircraft engine icing.

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NASA Announces Opportunities to Advance ‘Tipping Point’ and Emerging Space Technologies

NASA announced Thursday two opportunities for public-private partnerships to achieve the agency’s goals of expanding capabilities and opportunities in space. Through both solicitations, NASA is seeking industry-developed space technologies that can foster the development of commercial space capabilities and benefit future NASA missions.

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Critical NASA Research Returns to Earth Aboard U.S. SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft

SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:42 p.m. EDT Thursday with almost 3,100 pounds of NASA cargo from the International Space Station, including research on how spaceflight and microgravity affect the aging process and bone health.

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Martian Reminder of a Pioneering Flight

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is studying an elongated crater called "Spirit of St. Louis" and a rock spire called "Lindbergh Mound" within the crater.

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NASA's WISE Spacecraft Discovers Most Luminous Galaxy in Universe

A remote galaxy shining with the light of more than 300 trillion suns has been discovered using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).

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NASA's WISE Spacecraft Discovers Most Luminous Galaxy in Universe

A remote galaxy shining with the light of more than 300 trillion suns has been discovered using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The galaxy is the most luminous galaxy found to date and belongs to a new class of objects recently discovered by WISE -- extremely luminous infrared galaxies, or ELIRGs.

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Media Accreditation Opens for Launch of Ocean-Measuring Satellite

Registration is open for U.S. and international media to cover the July 22 launch of Jason-3, the fourth mission in a series of satellite missions that measure the height of the ocean surface.

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NASA Invites Universities to Submit Innovative Early-Stage Technology Proposals

NASA is seeking proposals from universities for early stage technology development that will support the agency's long-term plans for human exploration of Mars and scientific study of our solar system and beyond.

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Ceres Bright Spots Seen Closer Than Ever

NASA's Dawn mission captured a sequence of navigational images of dwarf planet Ceres from a distance of 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) on May 16, 2015.

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NASA Opens Media Accreditation for Next SpaceX Station Resupply Launch

Media accreditation is open for the June 26 launch of NASA's next commercial cargo resupply mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida to the International Space Station.

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NASA’s CubeSat Initiative Aids in Testing of Technology for Solar Sails in Space

With help from NASA, a small research satellite to test technology for in-space solar propulsion launched into space Wednesday aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, as part of the agency’s CubeSat Launch Initiative.

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NASA Soil Moisture Mission Begins Science Operations

NASA's new Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission to map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed has begun science operations.

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NASA Soil Moisture Mission Begins Science Operations

NASA's new Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission to map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed has begun science operations.

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NASA TV Airs U.S. Cargo Ship Departure from International Space Station

After delivering more than two tons of supplies and research to the International Space Station that will help prepare NASA astronauts and robotic explorers for future missions to Mars, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is set to leave the orbital laboratory on Thursday, May 21. NASA Television will provide live coverage of Dragon's departure begi

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CometWatch 12 May

Today’s CometWatch entry shows a curious view of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that on first impression (see original image right) gives the illusion that the comet's head is missing. The image was taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on 12 May from a distance of 166 km from the centre of the comet. The scale is 14 m/pixel and the 1024 x 1024 pixel frame measures 14.5 km across. But bringing up the contrast, as we have in the image below, shows that the head is simply hidden in the shadow of the comet’s large lobe, its faint outline silhouetted against the brighter background activity. The processing also better reveals the vertical shadow cast by the large lobe at its left edge in this orientation, and the beautiful interplay between shadows and activity in this portion of the image. Meanwhile on the surface of the comet, the elongate depression of Aten dominates the view, with the quasi-circular shaped feature immediately to the left part of Ash. Smooth Imhotep extends into the distance in the centre, with distinct jets of activity dancing along the horizon.

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Dava Newman Begins Work as NASA’s Deputy Administrator

Dava Newman started her official duties as NASA’s new deputy administrator on Monday at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.

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NASA Seeks Additional Information for Asteroid Redirect Mission Spacecraft

NASA has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking ideas from American companies for a spacecraft design that could be used for both the agency's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) and a robotic satellite servicing mission in low-Earth orbit.

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NASA Names Winners of Student Launch Challenge

For the third year in a row, Vanderbilt University of Nashville, Tennessee has been named the winning team in the NASA Student Launch challenge, earning the $5,000 prize.

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OSIRIS spots boulders in balancing act

Scientists from Rosetta’s OSIRIS team have discovered an unusual formation of boulders in the Aker region on the large lobe of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At first glance they are reminiscent of so-called "balancing rocks" on Earth. Of the three boulders, the largest (labelled with a ‘3’) has a diameter of approximately 30 metres. In an image taken on 16 September 2014 (below), it stands out as having only a very small contact area with the comet’s surface. It also seems to be perched on the rim of a small depression. “We had noticed this formation already in earlier images, however, at first the boulders did not seem to differ substantially from others we had seen,” says OSIRIS scientist Sebastien Besse from ESA, who first noticed the formation. Similar geological formations are also found on Earth. Balancing rocks touch the underlying ground with only a tiny fraction of their surface and often look as if they may tilt or topple over any moment. Some can actually be rocked back and forth and are then referred to as “rocking stones.” Many of these boulders are so-called “erratics” that travelled to their current location within glaciers. In other cases, wind and water eroded softer material in the local bedrock, leaving only the more resistant material behind. “How this apparent balancing rock on Comet 67P/C-G was formed is not clear at this point,” says OSIRIS Principal Investigator Holger Sierks from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany. One possibility is that transport processes related to cometary activity played a role, causing such boulders to move from their original site and reach a new location. Scattered boulders are seen in many places on the comet’s surface, sometimes in otherwise relatively smooth regions. One of the largest – Cheops – measures approximately 45 […]

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NASA Challenges Designers to Construct Habitat for Deep Space Exploration

NASA and the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, known as America Makes, are holding a new $2.25 million competition to design and build a 3-D printed habitat for deep space exploration, including the agency’s journey to Mars.

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NASA Opens Media Accreditation for New Horizons Pluto Flyby

NASA has opened media accreditation for the New Horizons spacecraft’s historic encounter with Pluto in mid-July.

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CometWatch closeup: Hathor, from Seth

Today’s CometWatch post delves back in time to October last year, when Rosetta was orbiting the comet at a distance of just 10 km. This single frame NAVCAM image was captured on 23 October, when the distance to the centre of the comet was 9.76 km. The average image scale is therefore about 83 cm/pixel and the image measures 850 m across (note that because of the viewing geometry, foreground regions are up to 2 km closer to the viewer, and therefore have an approximate scale of 67 cm/pixel). For reference, an image in a similar orientation was captured on 26 November. The scene highlights the hauntingly beautiful backlit cliffs of Hathor, the summit just catching the sunlight at top left. The image has been lightly processed to better bring out the details of this region, and also reveals the diffuse glow of the comet’s activity. Indeed, subtly brighter patches can be traced against the darker background, in particular at the right of the frame at the transition from the foreground terrain to Hathor in the background. If you were standing at the base of Hathor in the Hapi region – out of view in this image – these near-vertical cliffs would tower some 900m above you. As can be seen here, Hathor is characterised by sets of linear features that extend for much of the height of the cliff. In places, lineaments and terraces also cut across roughly perpendicular to them. As described by Thomas et al in an OSIRIS science paper earlier this year, Hathor may be an eroded surface and as such is showing us the internal structure of the comet’s head. In the foreground, contrasting terrains within the Seth region on the comet’s large lobe are observed. While the left-hand portion exhibits a smooth surface, the right-hand […]

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NASA Study Shows Antarctica’s Larsen B Ice Shelf Nearing Its Final Act

A new NASA study finds the last remaining section of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf, which partially collapsed in 2002, is quickly weakening and likely to disintegrate completely before the end of the decade.

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OPALS Boosts Space-to-Ground Optical Communications Research

Ever wonder why stars seem to twinkle? This effect is caused by variations in the density of our atmosphere that cause blurring in light coming from space.

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Asteroid Distant 'Flyby' Thursday

An asteroid, designated 1999 FN53, will safely pass more than 26 times the distance of Earth to the moon on May 14.

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NASA Awards Grant to Manage “Swarmathon” Challenge

NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) has selected the University of New Mexico (UNM) for a cooperative agreement to manage the agency’s Swarmathon challenge, an innovative swarm robotics competition.

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CometWatch 3 May

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta's NAVCAM on 3 May at a distance of 135 km from the comet centre. It is a single frame image, with a resolution of 11.5 m/pixel, and measures 11.7 km across. The intensities and contrast have been tweaked to emphasise the ever increasing activity of the comet. In this “side-on” view of 67P/C-G, with the small lobe to the left and the large lobe to the right, the equator of the comet runs almost horizontally. The comet equator also passes through the famous Cheops boulder on the Imhotep region, on the underside of the large lobe (visible on the right-hand side of this image) and wraps around both lobes. In this orientation, the rotation axis of the comet runs roughly in the vertical direction, through the comet's “neck”. On the small lobe, we see parts of the Bastet region, along with neighbouring regions that were in darkness during earlier parts of Rosetta’s time at 67P/C-G. As the comet approaches the Sun, the “seasons” are changing, so these and other parts of the comet are emerging into sunlight. Hints of Hathor and Hapi are visible in the distance on the neck. On the large lobe, the slab-like feature comprising parts of Aker and Khepry, featured prominently in CometWatch 26 April and 28 April, takes up the upper part of the image. In the foreground, the landscape shows some particularly bright spots set against darker terrain, although at this relatively large distance it is not possible to see enough detail and help interpret what they are. To their right, Khepry ends in cliffs that border the curved, smooth region within Imhotep. The original 1024 x 1024 image is provided below:

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Kepler's Six Years In Science (and Counting): By The Numbers

NASA's Kepler spacecraft began hunting for planets outside our solar system on May 12, 2009.

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NASA Cohosts Forum on Managing Expanding Unmanned Aerial System Traffic

NASA and the Silicon Valley chapter of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) are partnering to cosponsor the 2015 Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Traffic Management Convention: A New Era in Aviation, July 28-30, at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

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International Space Station Partners Adjust Spacecraft Schedule

NASA and its international partners agreed Tuesday to set a new schedule for spacecraft traffic to and from the International Space Station.

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NASA Research Reveals Europa's Mystery Dark Material Could Be Sea Salt

NASA laboratory experiments suggest the dark material coating some geological features of Jupiter's moon Europa is likely sea salt from a subsurface ocean, discolored by exposure to radiation.

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NASA Research Reveals Europa's Mystery Dark Material Could Be Sea Salt

NASA experiments suggest the dark material coating some geological features of Jupiter's moon Europa is likely sea salt from a subsurface ocean, discolored by exposure to radiation. Sea salt on Europa's surface suggests the ocean is interacting with its seafloor - an important consideration in determining whether the icy moon could support life.

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Getting the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) Vehicle to Test Altitude

A balloon will launch the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) mission this June.

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NASA Selects Advanced Space Technology Concepts for More Study

NASA has selected 15 proposals, including one from JPL, for study under Phase I of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, which aims to turn science fiction into science fact through the development of pioneering technologies.

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Astronomers Take a New Kind of Pulse From the Sky

New video shows early results from a new array of radio antennas. The project is designed to catch things that flash, flare and explode.

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NASA Unveils Latest Technology Roadmaps for Future Agency Needs

NASA has released the agency’s 2015 technology roadmaps laying out the promising new technologies that will help NASA achieve its aeronautics, science and human exploration missions for the next 20 years, including the agency’s journey to Mars.

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Ceres Animation Showcases Bright Spots

The mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres are better resolved in a new sequence of images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 3 and 4, 2015.

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NASA Invites Media to Preview Day, Launch of Supersonic Vehicle Test

Reporters are invited to a media day Monday, June 1, at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kauai, Hawaii, to learn about NASA's second flight test of its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD).

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Quick Detour by NASA Mars Rover Checks Ancient Valley

After a brief side trip to inspect a Martian valley that filled with sand long ago, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is back on a route toward the next-higher layer of Mount Sharp.

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NASA Selects Advanced Space Technology Concepts for Further Study

NASA has selected 15 proposals for study under Phase I of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC), a program that aims to turn science fiction into science fact through the development of pioneering technologies.

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NASA’s Langley Research Center Named Vertical Flight Heritage Site

NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, was recognized Friday for its decades of contributions to the advancement of helicopters and other vertical flight aircraft.

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CometWatch 28 April

Today’s CometWatch entry is a single frame NAVCAM image obtained on 28 April, from a distance of 151 km from the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At this distance, the resolution is 13 m/pixel; the image has been cropped to 11 km (the original frame, provided at the end of the post, measures 13 km across). With the large lobe of the comet in the foreground and the small lobe in the background, this image provides another interesting view on the smooth area on the large lobe that was featured prominently in CometWatch 26 April. In today’s image, this portion of the comet, consisting of parts of the Aker and Khepry regions, appears as a bright, slab-like feature pointing upwards. Behind it, on the small lobe, are parts of the rougher Bastet region. The image has been processed to enhance the activity of 67P/C-G, with jets of material outflowing gloriously from the sunlit parts of both lobes. A bright, diffuse spot in front of the dark underside of the comet’s large lobe, home to the Imhotep region, seems to be strongly suggestive of activity there, too. From this distance, however, it is not immediately possible to know whether this is linked to the dust jet caught emanating from this side of the comet by Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera a few weeks ago. The original 1024 x 1024 image is provided below:

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NASA Hosts Media Call on Draft Solicitation for New Class of Launch Services

NASA’s Launch Services Program has issued a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS), which would be commercial launch services for small satellites and experiments on science missions using a smaller than currently available class of rockets.

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FINDER Search and Rescue Technology Helped Save Lives in Nepal

In the wreckage of a collapsed textile factory and another building in the Nepalese village of Chautara, four men were rescued, thanks to a NASA technology that was able to find their heartbeats.

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Star Explosion is Lopsided, Finds NASA's NuSTAR

NASA's NuSTAR, has found evidence that a massive star exploded in a lopsided fashion, sending ejected material flying in one direction and the core of the star in the other.

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How Dry Is Texas? SMAP, TxSON Network Aim to Find Out

NASA's SMAP and University of Texas scientists are rounding up critical soil information for managing the Lone Star State's limited water.

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Saturn Moon's Activity Could Be 'Curtain Eruptions'

New research using data from NASA's Cassini mission suggests most of the eruptions from Saturn's moon Enceladus might be diffuse curtains rather than discrete jets.

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DHS and NASA Technology Helps Save Four in Nepal Earthquake Disaster

Four men trapped under up to 10 feet of bricks, mud and other debris have been rescued in Nepal thanks to new search-and-rescue technology developed in partnership by the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate and JPL.

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NASA Test Materials to Fly on Air Force Space Plane

Building on more than a decade of data from International Space Station (ISS) research, NASA is expanding its materials science research by flying an experiment on the U.S. Air Force X-37B space plane.

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NASA Astronaut Kjell Lindgren Available for Interviews Before Space Station Mission

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, who is making final preparations for his launch this month to the International Space Station, is available for live satellite interviews from 8 to 9 a.m. EDT Tuesday, May 12.

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SpaceX Demonstrates Astronaut Escape System for Crew Dragon Spacecraft

A loud whoosh, faint smoke trail and billowing parachutes marked a successful demonstration Wednesday by SpaceX of its Crew Dragon spacecraft abort system – an important step in NASA’s endeavor to rebuild America's ability to launch crews to the International Space Station from U.S. soil.

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NASA's Chief Technologist Visits Pittsburgh; Available to Media

NASA Chief Technologist David Miller will be in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, May 13, to participate in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2015.

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Mission manager hand-over

After nearly two years as Rosetta mission manager, Fred Jansen has handed the ropes over to colleague Patrick Martin. Here Fred recounts the highlights of his term, and introduces the new mission manager. Fred, we know from the last year that Rosetta is a complex mission and one that has achieved many firsts, but what were the greatest challenges for you in taking over the role of mission manager prior to Rosetta waking up from deep space hibernation? When taking over Rosetta one of the more urgent issues was the readiness of the science planning systems and the overall flow of information from the principal investigators to science planning to mission planning to spacecraft and back. This, along with a number of pending mission-wide decisions, posed some real challenges. What was the toughest decision that you had to make as mission manager? Well, decisions come in two types. The ones you really need to make and the ones you’d like to avoid having to make. In the first category, what sticks in my brain most is the decision, just three weeks into the job, to go for a double pyramidal mapping trajectory in front of the comet, knowing full well this would impact some in-situ science related to the so-called dust acceleration region. In the second category, it was the continuous push in the night before the landing to reach a “Go” decision. We had some very tense discussions in order for everyone to realise that opting for a “No-Go” would only make sense if you could analyse and recover from the known problems within just 2–3 weeks – the time required to orbit the comet and get back to the correct point in space to deploy the lander. What was the most memorable moment for you? Absolutely the immense […]

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NASA Announces Journey to Mars Challenge, Seeks Public Input on Establishing Sustained Human Presence on Red Planet

What do you need to bring, and how do you minimize the need for delivery of future supplies in order to establish a sustained human presence on a planet 140 million miles away from Earth?

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Public Event Will Celebrate NASA Mission to Dwarf Planet Ceres

NASA's Dawn mission will host the flagship event for its "I C Ceres" space festival at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena on Saturday, May 9, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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Traffic Around Mars Gets Busy

NASA's Mars Exploration Program has begun using systematic precautions to prevent Mars orbiters from flying too close to each other.

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NASA Announces New Director of Ames Research Center

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced Monday the selection of Dr. Eugene L. Tu as the next director of the agency’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, effective immediately.

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NASA Langley to be Recognized for Advancing Helicopter Research

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will be at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, Friday, May 8 to participate in a ceremony recognizing Langley’s decades of contributions to improving helicopters and other vertical flight aircraft.

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NASA Aids Response to Nepal Quake

NASA and its partners are gathering the best available science and information on the April 25 magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal to assist in relief and humanitarian operations.

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CometWatch 26 April

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken on 26 April and not only presents an incredible view of the comet’s activity, but also shows off some interesting new views of the comet’s nucleus.   The image was taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM from a distance of 98 km from the comet centre. The scale at this distance is 8.4 m/pixel and the image measures about 8.6 km across. One eye-catching region lies in the foreground of the comet’s large lobe, which appears as a smoother swath of material sandwiched between more rugged surrounds. This is also evident in an image taken last month from a different angle, and as such it is interesting to compare the two. Perhaps even more captivating is the intricate pattern of activity streaming in all directions from both the small and the large lobe. While many distinct bands of dust extend towards the edge of the field of view, more diffuse regions of activity can be made out close to the nucleus. This makes for a particularly beautiful scene along the boundary between the shadowed and sunlight region on the large lobe close to the neck. In addition, several straight-edged shadows can be seen as a result of the small lobe casting a shadow onto the comet’s neck and large lobe. The silhouette of the underside of the large lobe is also just visible. The original 1024 x 1024 pixel image is provided below:

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NASA Administrator Statement on House Authorization Bill

Statement from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the House of Representatives’ NASA authorization bill

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NASA Invests in Hundreds of U.S. Small Businesses to Enable Future Missions

NASA has selected research and technology proposals from 254 small businesses and 39 research institutions in the United States for grants to develop new technologies that will further NASA's journey to Mars.

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NASA Completes MESSENGER Mission with Expected Impact on Mercury's Surface

A NASA planetary exploration mission came to a planned, but nonetheless dramatic, end Thursday when it slammed into Mercury’s surface at about 8,750 mph and created a new crater on the planet’s surface.

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SpaceX Targets May 6 for Pad Abort Test of New Crew Spacecraft

SpaceX now is targeting Wednesday, May 6, for a pad abort test of its Crew Dragon, a spacecraft under final development and certification through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). The test window will open at 7 a.m. EDT.

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