NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins, Crewmates Safely Return From the Space Station

NASA astronaut and Expedition 49 crew member Kate Rubins, who became the first person to sequence DNA in space, returned to Earth Saturday after a successful mission aboard the International Space Station.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2eI8niM
via IFTTT

NASA TV to Broadcast Agency Innovation Mission Day Keynote

NASA will host an agencywide event Tuesday, Nov. 1, highlighting innovation by NASA employees. NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman will discuss the importance of encouraging collaboration across the agency, and this keynote presentation will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website at noon EDT.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2dTtFFU
via IFTTT

Washington Students to Speak with NASA Astronaut on Space Station

Students will gather at National Geographic’s headquarters in Washington for an opportunity to speak with a NASA astronaut currently living and working aboard the International Space Station. at noon EDT Thursday, Nov. 3. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2eUG6DQ
via IFTTT

NASA Invites Media to Meet New Science Directorate Chief

Media are invited to meet Thomas Zurbuchen, recently named the associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, and ask questions in person or via phone during an informal brown bag lunch at noon EDT Monday, Oct. 31. The event will be held at NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street SW, Washington.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2eFKubR
via IFTTT

NASA Awards Contract for Sustainable Land Imaging Spacecraft

NASA has awarded a delivery order under the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition III (Rapid III) contract to Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Virginia, known publicly as Orbital ATK, for the Landsat 9 spacecraft.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2e8bBJm
via IFTTT

NASA Television to Air Return of Three Space Station Crew Members

Three crew members on the International Space Station are scheduled to depart the orbital outpost Saturday, Oct. 29, with coverage of activities beginning the day before on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2f4YugS
via IFTTT

NASA, Citizen Scientists Discover Potential New Hunting Ground for Exoplanets

Via a NASA-led citizen science project, eight people with no formal training in astrophysics helped discover what could be a fruitful new place to search for planets outside our solar system – a large disk of gas and dust encircling a star known as a circumstellar disk.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2eqi2to
via IFTTT

NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson Available for Interviews Before Space Station Launch

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will be available for live satellite interviews from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, on Thursday, Oct. 27, before her launch to the International Space Station. She will answer questions about her upcoming mission aboard the world-class orbiting laboratory from 7-8 a.m. EDT.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2enfpIE
via IFTTT

Media Invited to Rare View of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Mirrors

Media are invited to join NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Wednesday, Nov. 2, for an update about what’s in store for NASA’s next great observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, and a rare glimpse of the telescope’s mirrors.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2en8yin
via IFTTT

Last NAVCAM archive release

The last batch of NAVCAM images taken by Rosetta during the final month of its incredible mission at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko have been released to the Archive Image Browser.

The image set covers the period 2-30 September when the spacecraft was on elliptical orbits that sometimes brought it to within 2 km of the comet's surface (watch this video for a reminder of Rosetta's 'end of mission' orbits).

The archive release also includes the final five NAVCAM images that were published on 30 September, taken shortly after the spacecraft's collision manoeuvre was executed on 29 September.

The new image sets can be found in folders MTP034 and MTP035.

from Rosetta – ESA's comet chaser http://ift.tt/2eKe7dj
via IFTTT

NASA, Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum Host Discussion on Solar Hazards in Exploration

Understanding the hazards of space weather on crewed and robotic missions is vital to informing plans for NASA’s Journey to Mars and other missions into our solar system, and beyond. Veteran NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld and solar experts will discuss that and more during a panel discussion at 1 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, Oct. 25.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2e1YTgU
via IFTTT

NASA Astronaut Shane Kimbrough, Crewmates Launch to Space Station to Continue Research

Three crew members representing the United States and Russia are on their way to the International Space Station after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:05 a.m. EDT Wednesday (2:05 p.m. Baikonur time).

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2ejNR5f
via IFTTT

NASA Space Station Cargo Launches from Virginia on Orbital ATK Resupply Mission

The crew of the International Space Station soon will be equipped to perform dozens of new scientific investigations with cargo launched Monday aboard NASA’s latest commercial resupply services mission from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2enBrsl
via IFTTT

NASA’s Juno Team to Discuss Jupiter Mission Status, Latest Science Results

Team members of NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter will discuss the latest science results, an amateur imaging processing campaign, and the recent decision to postpone a scheduled burn of its main engine, during a media briefing at 4 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 19. The briefing will air live on NASA Television and stream on the agency’s website.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2eh9vvB
via IFTTT

Klim Churyumov (1937-2016)

Klim Churyumov and a 3D model of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, at Philae's comet landing event in ESOC, Germany, in November 2014. Credit: ESA/C.Carreau

We were saddened to learn the news yesterday that Klim Churyumov, who discovered Rosetta's comet together with Svetlana Gerasimenko in 1969, has passed away.

Many of us had the pleasure to meet him at various Rosetta Mission events held at ESOC, and we are certainly very glad that he could see 'his' comet up close, and follow the mission right through until its conclusion just a couple of weeks ago.

Our condolences to his family and friends in this time.

from Rosetta – ESA's comet chaser http://ift.tt/2e5vvXh
via IFTTT

Media Invited to First Test of Multiple Drones Flying Beyond Line-of-Sight

Media are invited to watch the first test of NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) research platform from noon to 2:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 19, at Reno-Stead Airport in Reno, Nevada.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2ekmxIb
via IFTTT

Next Space Station Crew Set for Launch, Live on NASA TV

Three crew members of Expedition 49/50 are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station at 4:05 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 19 (2:05 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Live launch coverage will begin at 3:15 a.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2e7sOlR
via IFTTT

Atlantic Storm System Delays NASA Resupply Launch to Space Station

NASA and its partner Orbital ATK have postponed the launch of the company’s next commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station to no earlier than Sunday, Oct. 16, as the agency prepares for Tropical Storm Nicole at its tracking site in Bermuda.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2dJ5SuK
via IFTTT

CometWatch from Kepler

During the last month of Rosetta's operations at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, it was no longer possible to observe the comet with telescopes on Earth because it was too close to the Sun's position in the sky and therefore not visible in the night-time. Fortunately, NASA's Kepler space observatory stepped in, taking images of the comet every 30 minutes from 7 to 20 September, providing important context to Rosetta's in situ measurements.

A series of 15 images of Comet 67P/C-G taken with the Kepler space observatory between 17 and 18 September 2016. The comet is seen passing through Kepler's field of view from top right to bottom left, as outlined by the diagonal strip. The white dots represent stars and other regions in space studied by Kepler. Credit: C. Snodgrass (The Open University) and E. Ryan (SETI Institute)

A world-class exoplanet hunter, Kepler is now in its second mission, called K2, which started on 30 May 2014. While still looking for exoplanets, it is now performing observations along the ecliptic and so observing a wealth of Solar System objects, from large bodies like Neptune and Pluto to smaller ones, like comets. For example, it took images of Comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) in October 2014.

“Observing Comet 67P/C-G with Kepler was a unique opportunity to get a global perspective of the gas and dust in the comet's environment while Rosetta was getting closer and closer to the nucleus,” says Colin Snodgrass of the Open University, UK, who coordinates a consortium of professional astronomers that observed the comet remotely during the time of Rosetta's mission.

“Together with the many ground-based observations of the comet performed over the last couple of years, these images will be instrumental to understand the link between the activity observed locally by Rosetta and remotely from Earth (or near Earth), providing crucial information for the study of other comets that we cannot visit with spacecraft.”

from Rosetta – ESA's comet chaser http://ift.tt/2dRJZrd
via IFTTT

Rosetta’s Earth ‘twin’ switched off

Just as the real Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission on the comet a week ago today, so this week Rosetta's 'twin', an engineering qualification model here on Earth, was also switched off.

The replica Rosetta had been used in the past decade to test and validate software and procedures before being uploaded to space. Switch-off was done by Rosetta Spacecraft Operations Manager Sylvain Lodiot on 6 Oct 2016, at ESOC.

This Flickr set records the occasion: http://ift.tt/2dA3lmy

from Rosetta – ESA's comet chaser http://ift.tt/2dEHiuv
via IFTTT

NASA TV Coverage Set for Orbital ATK Resupply Mission to Space Station

NASA commercial cargo provider Orbital ATK is scheduled to launch its sixth mission to the International Space Station at 9:13 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 13. Live launch coverage will begin at 8:15 p.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2dGVLFy
via IFTTT

Rosetta impact site named Sais

Rosetta's last image, taken 20 m from the surface of the comet. ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

In case you missed it during our live coverage on Friday, Rosetta's impact site has been named Sais.

Mission Manager Patrick Martin announced the name of the impact site after contact with the comet's surface was confirmed and the mission declared complete.

He said: “The Rosetta Stone was originally located in Sais, and we shall name the impact point as such so we can finally say that Rosetta has come home to Sais.”

The mission was named after the Rosetta Stone, itself so named because it was found in a town called Rashid (Rosetta), having thought to have been moved there from a temple in a town called Sais.

 

Rosetta's last image of the comet surface is highlighted today as Space Science Image of the Week.

 

 

 

from Rosetta – ESA's comet chaser http://ift.tt/2dKZpSR
via IFTTT

Alice’s last spectra

We were happy to spot this tweet from Rosetta's Alice instrument Principal Investigator Alan Stern over the weekend, showing the final spectrograph image obtained by the instrument moments before Rosetta impacted on to the surface of the comet on Friday:

Heading bk from Germany & the end of Rosetta's flight mission. Our Alice UV spectrograph's final image: made minutes b4 touchdown. #Proud http://pic.twitter.com/dLtvhtrKRl

— AlanStern (@AlanStern) October 1, 2016

We exchanged a brief email with Alan yesterday, who confirmed: "The spectrum shows the reflectance of the surface at close range with ~3m resolution — which is unprecedented for ultraviolet studies of comets."

Congratulations Alice!

We're looking forward to hearing more from the various instrument teams in due course as to what exciting measurements they achieved in the final hours of the mission.

 

 

from Rosetta – ESA's comet chaser http://ift.tt/2dosHUj
via IFTTT

Mission Complete

Mission complete: Rosetta’s journey ends in daring descent to comet

ESA’s historic Rosetta mission has concluded as planned, with the controlled impact onto the comet it had been investigating for more than two years.

Read the press release on the ESA website.

from Rosetta – ESA's comet chaser http://ift.tt/2dyKW8F
via IFTTT

NASA Awards Audit Services Contracts

NASA has awarded contracts to six companies to provide agencywide contract auditing support services, previously performed by the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

from NASA Breaking News http://ift.tt/2ddv78K
via IFTTT