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NASA's Curiosity rover to be back online next week

March 5, 2013 19:15
NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been exploring Mars since it landed to much fanfare last August, should be running at full capacity next week, after a memory glitch set the robot back. On February 28, controllers put the rover into "minimal activity safe mode," when they switched the machine's operations to a backup computer after detecting malfunctions in the primary computer's flash memory. "We are making good progress in the recovery," Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Richard Cook, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement late Monday.

SpaceX's capsule arrives at ISS

March 3, 2013 12:15
A privately-owned unmanned US space capsule docked Sunday at the International Space Station bringing food, scientific materials and crucial equipment to the space outpost. NASA said that SpaceX's Dragon capsule linked up with the ISS's Harmony module at 8:56 am (1356 GMT). The US space agency said a hatch between Dragon and the ISS's Harmony module would be opened Monday as the capsule commenced its three-week-long stay at the orbiting space station.

SpaceX's capsule nears ISS for rendezvous on Sunday

March 3, 2013 01:45
A privately-owned unmanned US space capsule neared the International Space Station early Sunday, preparing to dock to deliver food, scientific materials and other crucial equipment. "Dragon is scheduled to be captured Sunday at 6:31 am EST (1131 GMT) by NASA Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and NASA Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn," the US space agency NASA said in a statement. NASA said SpaceX's Dragon would be installed onto the Earth-facing port of the ISS's Harmony module by ground experts at mission control in Houston and bolted into place via commands by the ISS crew.

SpaceX's ISS rendezvous set for Sunday

March 2, 2013 18:15
SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule will dock Sunday with the International Space Station on a mission to deliver food, scientific experiments and other cargo, NASA said. "Dragon is scheduled to be captured Sunday at 6:01 am EST (1201 GMT) by NASA Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and NASA Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn," the US space agency said in a statement. NASA said Dragon will be installed onto the Earth-facing port of the ISS's Harmony module by ground experts at mission control in Houston and bolted into place via commands by the ISS crew.

NASA fixing computer glitch on Mars Curiosity rover

March 2, 2013 17:00
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has been temporarily put into "safe mode," as scientists monitoring from Earth try to fix a computer glitch, the US space agency said. Scientists switched to a backup computer Thursday so that they could troubleshoot the problem, said to be linked to a glitch in the original computer's flash memory. "We switched computers to get to a standard state from which to begin restoring routine operations," said Richard Cook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the project manager for the Mars Science Laboratory Project, which built and operates Curiosity.

Private US SpaceX rocket Falcon-9 launched

March 1, 2013 11:46
Private space firm SpaceX launched its Falcon-9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Friday, carrying a resupply capsule to the International Space Station, NASA television showed. The rocket rapidly reached orbital altitude where it deployed the Dragon vehicle, carrying 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of supplies, on what was the firm's third launch and second mission to the ISS.

SpaceX set for third mission to space station

February 28, 2013 17:45
As US firm SpaceX prepares for its third launch to the space station Friday, NASA said there was nothing "particularly challenging" about a mission that a few months ago was unprecedented. Liftoff is set for 10:10 am local time (1510 GMT) in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to launch the unmanned Dragon capsule into orbit carrying some 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of supplies to the International Space Station. Forecasts give an 80 percent chance of favorable weather conditions.

NASA briefly loses contact with space station

February 19, 2013 14:16
The International Space Station briefly lost contact with ground controllers on Tuesday because of a computer problem, but its commander said the crew was fine, NASA said. The glitch lasted just under three hours. The agency initially said flight controllers in Houston were updating software on board the station's flight computers when one of the station's data relay systems broke down.

NASA scrambles for better asteroid detection

February 18, 2013 16:15
NASA, universities and private groups in the US are working on asteroid warning systems that can detect objects from space like the one that struck Russia last week with a blinding flash and mighty boom. But the US space agency reiterated that events like the one in the Urals, which shattered windows and injured nearly 1,000 people, are rare. "We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years on average," said Paul Chodas of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Asteroid to whiz past Earth Friday

February 15, 2013 06:16
NASA is closely tracking an asteroid large enough to destroy a city that is set to whiz past Earth on Friday in what the US space agency says is the closest flyby ever predicted for such a large object. The 150-feet (45-meter) wide asteroid -- dubbed 2012 DA 14 -- is expected to pass about 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) above the Earth at the time of closest approach, about 2:25 pm EST (1925 GMT), NASA said.
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