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Scott Kelly's Body Endured Another Surprise in Space

Astronaut's heart didn't have to work as hard in zero gravity and so it shrank 27%, scientists say

(Newser) - They called it the "perfect nature versus nurture" experiment : Astronaut Scott Kelly was sent to the International Space Station for nearly a year, while his identical twin, astronaut and now Sen. Mark Kelly, remained on Earth. When Scott Kelly came back home in March 2016, scientists compared his DNA...

NASA Nicks Near-Earth Asteroid From 'Risk List'

We're safe for 100 years

(Newser) - Whew, now here's some good cosmic news: NASA has given Earth the all clear for the next century from a particularly menacing asteroid, per the AP . The space agency announced this week that new telescope observations have ruled out any chance of Apophis smacking Earth in 2068. That’...

Space Station Rids Itself of 2.9 Tons of Trash

A pallet of used batteries will fall to Earth ... eventually

(Newser) - Last Thursday was apparently garbage day at the International Space Station, which rid itself of a 2.9-ton pallet of used nickel-hydrogen batteries. It's the biggest mass of space junk the ISS has unleashed, and NASA wrote that the pallet is "safely moving away from the station and...

Astronauts Deal With Toxic Ammonia
Astronauts Deal With
Toxic Ammonia
Mar 13, 2021 3:40 PM CST

Astronauts Deal With Toxic Ammonia

Mission Control feared cabin could become contaminated during spacewalk

(Newser) - Spacewalking astronauts had to take extra safety precautions Saturday after possibly getting toxic ammonia on their suits from the International Space Station's external cooling system. Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins had no trouble removing and venting a couple of old jumper cables to remove any ammonia still lingering in...

Asteroid 'Firework' Exploded With Force of 440lbs of TNT

It was seen from 4 US states and Canada

(Newser) - People in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and Quebec, Canada, claim to have witnessed an asteroid breaking up in the sky on Sunday, which turned out to be rattling. Many people reported hearing a rumble or sonic boom as a 10-pound bowling ball-sized chunk of an asteroid—traveling at...

Perseverance Takes First Spin on Mars

Rover travels 21 feet in a test drive

(Newser) - There's no chance of rain, so it might be a good time to wash Perseverance. Mission controllers took the rover out for a 33-minute test drive Thursday, covering 21 feet of the dusty surface of Mars, NASA reports. They liked the way it handled. "The rover’s six-wheel...

In NASA's Mars Parachute, a Coded Message

Internet sleuths uncover 'dare mighty things'

(Newser) - NASA slipped a hidden message into last week's Mars landing —the phrase "dare mighty things" encoded in a red-and-white parachute. The Telegraph reports that Internet sleuths deciphered the message, and NASA's chief engineer for the Perseverance project confirmed they got right. "It looks like the...

NASA Releases First-Ever Martian Audio, Video

They're the 'closest you can get to landing on Mars without putting on a pressure suit'

(Newser) - A big Red Planet first from NASA: The agency has released the first-ever video of a Mars landing and the first audio sent back from the planet. The high-definition video was recorded by videos on the entry capsule and the Perseverance rover itself during its successful landing Thursday. "The...

Stunning Mars Images Rival Moon Landing's

(Newser) - Photos sent back from Mars by NASA's Perseverance rover already are joining the album of iconic pictures of space exploration, putting them alongside such indelible images as Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon in 1969. "We can only hope, in our efforts to engineer spacecraft and explore our...

Here Are the First Images From NASA's Perseverance Rover

The black and white images show the surface of Mars

(Newser) - NASA's Perseverance, the biggest and most advanced rover the agency has ever sent, landed on Mars Thursday to cries of jubilation from ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Minutes later, the rover sent back its first two images from the red planet,...

Touchdown! NASA Lands Another Rover on Mars
Touchdown! NASA Lands
Another Rover on Mars
UPDATED
Feb 18, 2021 3:00 PM CST

Touchdown! NASA Lands Another Rover on Mars

Perseverance arrives safely

(Newser) - NASA successfully landed another rover on Mars Thursday. The Perseverance rover touched down about 4pm Eastern after a typically nail-biting descent. Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena cheered and exchanged fist bumps and high-fives in triumph—and relief—on receiving confirmation that the six-wheeled...

Millie Hughes-Fulford Circled the Earth 146 Times

Researcher spent 9 days in orbit on the Columbia

(Newser) - Millie Hughes-Fulford, a trailblazing astronaut and scientist who became the first female payload specialist to fly in space for NASA, died last week after a yearslong battle with cancer, her family said. She was 75. Hughes-Fulford was selected by NASA for its astronaut program in 1983 and in June 1991...

Digger on Mars Just Couldn't Gain Traction

NASA gives up after the soil wasn't quite what it was expecting

(Newser) - NASA declared the Mars digger dead Thursday after failing to burrow deep into the red planet to take its temperature. Scientists in Germany spent two years trying to get their heat probe, dubbed the mole, to drill into the Martian crust. But the 16-inch-long device that is part of NASA'...

NASA Killed All Its Monkeys in a Day

27 primates were held at California research center

(Newser) - A few retired monkey astronauts lived long lives in sanctuaries after trips to space—but that wasn't the fate of 27 primates held at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. According to documents obtained by animal welfare group Rise for Animals under a Freedom of Information Act request,...

Astronomers: There&#39;s a Space &#39;Superhighway&#39;
Astronomers Find
Cosmic 'Superhighways'
new paper
Dec 12, 2020 3:40 PM CST

Astronomers Find Cosmic 'Superhighways'

Researchers call it a 'true celestial autobahn'

(Newser) - Think space travel is just too slow? Well, good news: Astronomers say they've uncovered an "autobahn" of invisible interactions that moves objects along—and might just speed up space exploration, Science Alert reports. The new research hinges on "manifolds," or gravitational regions that exist between orbital...

Bezos' Blue Origin Wants a Woman on the Moon

NASA getting ready to pick a company to build a moon lander

(Newser) - If NASA can put 12 men on the moon, Jeff Bezos' space company thinks it can put a woman on our lunar neighbor, reports the Guardian . With NASA getting ready to pick between three companies vying to supply it with a lunar lander, Blue Origin posted an Instagram video of...

NASA Confirms Mystery Object Is 54-Year-Old Rocket

Welcome home, Centaur

(Newser) - A mysterious object temporarily orbiting Earth is a 54-year-old rocket , not an asteroid after all, astronomers confirmed Wednesday. Observations by a telescope in Hawaii clinched its identity, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The object was classified as an asteroid after its discovery in September. But...

We May Have Been Visited by Relic of Early Space Age

Mysterious space object zipped by Earth, and NASA experts think it hails from the 1960s

(Newser) - In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, an object in space zipped by Earth at a distance of about 27,000 miles. The object has been given the not-so-descriptive designation of "2020 SO," and while nobody knows with certainty what it is, NASA researchers have an intriguing guess....

A Thanksgiving Prank Rattled NASA in 1991
A Thanksgiving Prank
Rattled NASA
in 1991
longform
Nov 26, 2020 7:30 AM CST

A Thanksgiving Prank Rattled NASA in 1991

It involved a Turkish satellite

(Newser) - He missed a key word in the phone call he answered at Mission Control in Houston in the early hours of Thanksgiving 1991. Lead Flight Director Milt Heflin picked up the phone and was given a warning by his flight dynamics officer: Air Force trackers who monitor orbital traffic had...

SpaceX Capsule Reaches ISS
SpaceX Capsule Reaches ISS
Nov 17, 2020 12:03 AM CST

SpaceX Capsule Reaches ISS

Historic first such 'taxi' ride is complete

(Newser) - SpaceX’s newly launched capsule with four astronauts arrived Monday at the International Space Station, their new home until spring. The Dragon capsule pulled up and docked late Monday night, following a 27-hour, completely automated flight from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the AP reports. The linkup occurred 262 miles...

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