National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA's Kepler planet hunter appears broken

Agence France-PresseMay 15, 2013 17:15

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft appears to be hobbled by a faulty wheel and may be near the end of its four-year mission, space agency scientists said Wednesday. Kepler, a $600 million mission, was launched in 2009 on a search for other planets. So far, it has found 2,700 candidates, including a handful that may be habitable worlds, not too hot and not too cold. The problem is a reaction wheel that keeps the spacecraft pointed but has stopped working, said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA.

NASA astronauts on spacewalk to fix ammonia leak

Agence France-PresseMay 11, 2013 14:00

NASA astronauts on Saturday replaced a pump during an emergency spacewalk to stop an ammonia leak at the International Space Station's power system, NASA television showed. About three hours into the spacewalk, which was expected to last six and a half hours, flight engineers Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy had completed attaching a "spare pump and flow control sub assembly box," said a NASA commentator from mission control.

NASA astronauts on spacewalk to fix ammonia leak

Agence France-PresseMay 11, 2013 11:00

NASA astronauts on Saturday performed an emergency spacewalk to try to stop ammonia from leaking from the International Space Station's power system, NASA television showed. During the spacewalk, expected to last six and a half hours, flight engineers Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy will inspect and possibly repair the ammonia leak that affected the US segment of the orbiting laboratory on Thursday. "Spacewalk under way to repair ammonia leak," said the headline of a US space agency statement. Ammonia is used to cool the station's power system.

Skyrocketing inflation: Russia now charging NASA $70 million per seat to fly US astronauts

The Canadian PressApril 30, 2013 13:45

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA is paying $424 million more to Russia to get U.S. astronauts into space, and the agency's leader is blaming Congress for the extra expense. NASA announced its latest contract with the Russian Space Agency on Tuesday. The $424 million represents flights to and from the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, as well as training, for six astronauts in 2016 and the first half of 2017. That's $70.6 million per seat — well above the previous price tag of about $65 million.

NASA unveils plan to catch asteroid as step to Mars flight

AsianetApril 12, 2013 15:06

President Barack Obama wants NASA to start work on finding a small asteroid that could be shifted into an orbit near the moon and used by astronauts as a stepping-stone for an eventual mission to Mars, agency officials said on Wednesday.The project, which envisions that astronauts could visit such an asteroid as early as 2021, is included in Obama’s $17.7 billion spending plan for the US space agency for the 2014 fiscal year.It is intended as an expansion of existing initiatives to find asteroids that may be on a collision course with Earth, and preparations for a human exp

SpaceX capsule leaves ISS after resupply mission

Agence France-PresseMarch 26, 2013 11:31

An unmanned, privately-owned US space capsule which delivered supplies to the International Space Station undocked from the orbiting outpost on Tuesday and started heading home, NASA said. SpaceX's Dragon capsule was de-linked from the ISS by crew using a robotic arm, ending a mission of just over three weeks. At the point of disengagement, the capsule was 344 kilometers (210 miles) over southern Australia.

SpaceX capsule leaves ISS after resupply mission

Agence France-PresseMarch 26, 2013 11:31

NASA to train Mexican students

Agencia EFEMarch 21, 2013 11:31

Mexico City, Mar 21 (EFE).- NASA will train Mexican university students in space-related fields, giving science and technology a boost in Mexico, the Mexican Space Agency, or AEM, said. The AEM and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, signed a cooperation agreement "to promote the development of science, technology and competitiveness in the sector," the agency said. The agreement was signed by AEM director Francisco Javier Mendieta, NASA associate administrator for education Leland Melvin and NASA chief Charles Bolden.

NASA's Voyager 'appears' to have left solar system: study

Agence France-PresseMarch 20, 2013 14:16

More than 35 years after it launched on a mission to explore the cosmos, NASA's unmanned Voyager spacecraft appears to have left the solar system and is in a "new region" of space, said a study Wednesday. If confirmed, the mission would mark the first man-made object ever to venture so far. The Voyager 1 "appears to have traveled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere," or the magnetic bubble of charged particles that surround the solar system, said a statement on the American Geophysical Union's web site.

URGENT ¥¥¥ NASA rover finds conditions once suited to life on Mars

Agence France-PresseMarch 12, 2013 13:46

An analysis of a Mars rock sample by the Curiosity rover has unveiled minerals, including hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, that are the building blocks of life, NASA said Tuesday. "A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "From what we know now, the answer is yes." nss/dc