Enlarge / Canoo’s lifestyle vehicle will be too small to fit NASA’s needs, but perhaps the Artemis Crew Transport Vehicle will look like a stretched-out version of this van. (credit: Canoo) When astronauts finally return to the Moon with NASA’s Artemis project, their journey to the launchpad is going to be fully electric. The space […]
Enlarge / Wright Mons, at center. Note the lumpy nature of its flanks extends to other nearby areas. (credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research Institute) When we look at the features on other bodies in our Solar System, there are often obvious analogs much closer to home. For example, sets of parallel ridges on […]
Enlarge / NASA’s large rocket will undergo a dress rehearsal this weekend. (credit: NASA) After two weeks of preparatory work on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, NASA is ready to put its large new rocket and its complex plumbing system to the test. This will be the final major rehearsal before the space […]
Enlarge / NASA’s SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft are at the launch site in Florida, ready for a wet dress rehearsal in early April. (credit: NASA) President Joe Biden on Monday released his budget request for the coming fiscal year, and NASA is a big winner. The administration is asking Congress to fund $25.9 billion […]
Enlarge / With better alignment, the test star has been joined by a whole host of background stars and galaxies. (credit: NASA/STScI ) Today, NASA announced that it has successfully completed two further steps to align the mirrors of the Webb telescope. The resulting performance indicates that Webb will meet or exceed its design goals. […]
Enlarge / NASA administrator Bill Nelson will probably be pretty happy with NASA’s final budget, even if it’s late. (credit: NASA) Let’s face it, the US budgeting process is largely broken. The current budget year, fiscal year 2022, began back on October 1. This year is now nearly half gone, and the US Congress has yet […]
Enlarge / A technician works on the Orion spacecraft, atop the SLS rocket, in January 2022. (credit: NASA) NASA Inspector General Paul Martin serves as an independent watchdog for the space agency’s myriad activities. For nearly the entirety of his time as inspector general, since his appointment in 2009, Martin has tracked NASA’s development of […]
Humans have lived aboard the International Space Station for more than two decades. (credit: NASA) NASA’s senior official for human spaceflight operations said Monday that the US space agency continues to operate the International Space Station as usual with its partners, including Russia. “Our operations are nominal,” said Associate Administrator for Space Operations Kathy Lueders. She acknowledged […]
Enlarge / Artist’s impression of low Earth-orbit satellites like those launched by SpaceX and OneWeb. (credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / P. Marenfeld ) NASA has warned that SpaceX’s plan for 30, 000 more Starlink geostationary satellites could cause problems for science missions, human spaceflight, the Hubble telescope, and ground-based telescopes that look for […]
Enlarge / The International Space Station, as seen in November 2021. Prominent at center in this view are the cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar arrays of the Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter. (credit: NASA) The International Space Station is now more than two decades old. And while primary construction of the orbiting laboratory ended a little more […]