NASA

NASA tests future deep space vehicle for water landings

As NASA closes the chapter on the Space Shuttle Program, a new era of exploration vehicles is beginning to take off.

Testing began this month at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, in the new Hydro Impact Basin to certify the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) for water landings. The Orion MPCV will carry astronauts into space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and ensure safe re-entry and landing. Read more

NASA'S proud as space program ends with final Shuttle flight by Atlantis

Wrapping up 30 years of unmatched achievements and blazing a trail for the next era of U.S. human spaceflight, NASA’s storied Space Shuttle Program came to a “wheels stop” on Thursday at the conclusion of its 135th mission.

Shuttle Atlantis and its four-astronaut crew glided home for the final time, ending a 13-day journey of more than five million miles with a landing at 5:57 a.m. EDT at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Read more

NASA awards Lockheed Martin Hubble Telescope follow up contract

NASA has awarded a follow-on contract to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Corporation (LMSSC) for Mission Operations, Systems Engineering and Software (MOSES-II) for the Hubble Space Telescope.

This is a five-year cost-plus-award fee sole source contract with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Corporation with a value of $133,070,796, which includes the maximum award fee. Read more

Space Shuttle Atlantis returns home after its final planned mission

Space shuttle Atlantis and six astronauts ended a 12-day journey of more than 4.8 million miles with an 8:48
a.m. EDT landing Wednesday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The third of five shuttle missions planned for 2010, this was the last scheduled flight for Atlantis. The mission, designated STS-132, delivered the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 to the International Space Station. Also known as Rassvet (“dawn” in Russian), the module provides additional storage space and a new docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. Read more

NASA's new eye on the Sun delivers stunning first images

NASA’s recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is returning early images that confirm an unprecedented new capability for scientists to better understand our sun’s dynamic processes. These solar activities affect everything on Earth.

Some of the images from the spacecraft show never-before-seen detail of material streaming outward and away from sunspots. Others show extreme close-ups of activity on the sun’s surface. The spacecraft also has made the first high-resolution measurements of solar flares in a broad range of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. Read more

Innovative NASA-JAXA partnership benefits global Earth science

In a unique collaboration between national space agencies, the United States and Japan began combining elements of their satellite resources on Monday to increase a critical type of Earth observation data. The partnership will more than double the quantity of this data that is used to explore earthquake hazards, forest declines, and changing water resources in the Americas. Read more

NASA Invites public to tweet their way into Space next week

The Twitterverse and universe will converge during space shuttle Endeavour's upcoming mission to the International Space

Station. NASA is inviting the public to send questions for the astronauts via Twitter and have them answered live from space. 



Astronaut Mike Massimino will be accepting questions for the crew from the public via his Twitter account until Thursday, Feb. 11. Massimino

will be a shuttle Capcom, or spacecraft communicator, at NASA's Mission Control in Houston during Endeavour's flight, scheduled for

launch Feb. 7.

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