NASA | Common News Update

Feb282021 by adminNo Comments

NASA spacewalk Sunday will prepare for new solar power

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover Jr. participated in a 7-hour space walk outside the International Space Station on Sunday. About 250 miles above the Earth, the spacewalk began at 6:12 a.m. ET and ended at 1:16 p.m. Advertisement They took the first steps toward a major addition to the International Space Station's solar panels. NASA plans to deliver six panels in a SpaceX cargo capsule starting in June. Glover and Rubins have conducted two spacewalks previously. For Glover all three were since his arrival to the ISS in November and Rubins both during her first time in 2016. In all, 235 spacewalks have been performed from the ISS. Rubins will also team up with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi for a spacewalk on Friday. Fo...

Feb222021 by adminNo Comments

NASA plans new test-firing of moon rocket

Business

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 22 (UPI) -- NASA plans to test-fire its moon rocket again Thursday to prepare for a potential uncrewed flight around the moon later this year, possibly by October. The test, planned for about 5 p.m. EST, would ignite four powerful engines on the 212-foot-tall core stage of the Space Launch System rocket for four to eight minutes at the John C. Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. Advertisement A previous attempt to complete a test-firing Jan. 16 ended prematurely when sensors shut the engines after a little more than one minute. The test for the planned Artemis moon missions was the most powerful rocket test since the Apollo era at the facility. Even the truncated test-firing in January created huge clouds of steam from cooling system, which uses 300,000 gallo...

Feb192021 by adminNo Comments

Perseverance rover moments before touchdown among new images of Mars released by NASA

Technology

NASA has released new images of the Perseverance rover two metres above the surface of Mars as it gave more details of the mission.The US space agency's robot successfully landed on the Red Planet just before 1pm local time on Thursday. Speaking at a news briefing in California on Friday, NASA officials revealed the rover landed 2km (1.24 miles) from the ancient river delta it was aiming for.The team also released the three first colour pictures of the landing, which they hope will go down in history with the likes of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Image: This is the first colour picture captured from the rover. Pic: NASA Image: Another new picture shows one of the wheels of ...

Feb162021 by adminNo Comments

NASA fears gap in astronaut crew at multibillion-dollar space station

Science

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Having spent well over $ 150 billion on the International Space Station, NASA fears a potential lack of launch vehicles could leave the orbiting platform without a U.S. astronaut and create a potential safety risk. Such a gap would occur only if a crew had a problem that forced them to leave the space station early, but it would represent a costly "lost opportunity that cannot be regained" for maintenance work and science, NASA spokesman Josh Finch said in an email. Advertisement "NASA's position is that at least one U.S. crew member on the International Space Station at all times is the best way to maintain safe operations," Finch said. To resolve the potential for a gap, NASA is considering buying an additional seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket and capsule p...

Feb112021 by adminNo Comments

NASA chooses SpaceX to launch lunar gateway

Business

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 11 (UPI) -- NASA's Lunar Gateway, a space station that will serve future lunar missions, is on schedule for launch by SpaceX in May 2024. Gateway is part of NASA's plan for ongoing moon missions and a lunar base. It will be about one-sixth the size of the International Space Station, in orbit around the moon, thousands of miles from the lunar surface. Advertisement NASA hasn't committed to using Gateway for the planned Artemis III crewed mission planned for 2024. That schedule is in doubt, however, because of a lack of funding from Congress. NASA awarded Elon Musk's company a $ 331.8 million contract Tuesday to launch the first two pieces of the outpost aboard the company's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. Those components are the human habitat or HALO, and the Power and...