space exploration

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NASA Lunar Launch Has Minor Tech Glitch

Agency says it won't affect flight to moon

(Newser) - NASA's newest robotic explorer ran into some technical trouble after last night's launch , but the agency says it's nothing to worry about. The LADEE spacecraft remains on track for the moon, though officials acknowledged the problem needs to be resolved in the next two to three weeks....

Watch NASA&#39;s Moon Launch Tonight
 NASA Launches  
 Moon Mission 
Sep 6, 2013 10:51 PM CDT

NASA Launches Moon Mission

Unmanned spacecraft to explore lunar atmosphere

(Newser) - NASA's newest robotic explorer rocketed into space late tonight in an unprecedented moonshot from Virginia. The LADEE spacecraft, which is charged with studying the lunar atmosphere and dust, soared aboard an unmanned Minotaur rocket about 11:30 Eastern. It was a change of venue for NASA, which normally launches...

New Telescope Will Be 10 Times Sharper Than Hubble

$700M Giant Magellan Telescope will be ready in 2022

(Newser) - Scientists are currently hard at work on a new telescope that promises to have 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope—but we're going to have to wait awhile. So far, only one of an eventual seven massive mirrors has been completely cast and polished for the...

Voyager May Have Left Solar System—a Year Ago

Blended magnetic fields at solar system's edge blurred crossing: study

(Newser) - The Voyager 1 spacecraft, expected to leave our solar system any day now , may actually have already done so—more than a year ago. Though similar reports were squashed earlier this year, a new study in Astrophysical Journal Letters suggests that the craft passed beyond the solar system's edge...

Kepler Telescope Can't Be Fixed

But NASA's planet-hunter may be repurposed

(Newser) - Sorry space fans, but NASA has come up with no miracles to save its beloved Kepler telescope , reports National Geographic . At least in its current iteration. Engineers discovered in May that another of the telescope's gyroscopic wheels had gone on the fritz, meaning it could no longer remain steady...

Astronomers Find Blue Planet

But you wouldn't want to live there

(Newser) - A space traveler might be forgiven for mistaking Earth for another planet known as HD189733b from a distance—they're both a pleasant shade of blue. As Space.com explains, astronomers have for the first time determined the color of a far-flung world, this one 63 light-years away. (They did...

Half of NASA's New Astronauts Are Women

Including the first female fighter pilot to become an astronaut in almost 20 years

(Newser) - NASA has eight new astronauts—its first new batch in four years. Among the lucky candidates: the first female fighter pilot to become an astronaut in nearly two decades. A female helicopter pilot also is in the group. In fact, four of the eight are women, the highest percentage of...

Big Asteroid Buzzes by Earth Tomorrow

No risk of collision, but astronomers should be happy

(Newser) - Backyard astronomers, ready your telescopes. A big asteroid is about to zip by Earth, with its closest approach coming at 4:59pm Eastern tomorrow, says NASA . The rock will be 3.6 million miles away at that point, meaning there's no chance for a collision, but that should allow...

Ecuador's Very First Satellite Has Very Bad Luck

3-pound cube satellite hits space debris, might be kaput after just a month

(Newser) - Ecuador's space agency achieved a big milestone a month ago when it launched its first-ever satellite into space. Little Pegasus, a cube-shaped device weighing less than 3 pounds, had been happily transmitting photos and playing the Ecuadorean national anthem in orbit ever since—until it apparently smashed into the...

Moon Smash Could Be Seen From Earth

Big rock slammed into it last month, says NASA

(Newser) - If you happened to be glancing skyward the night of March 17 and noticed a bright flash on the moon, NASA has your explanation: A meteor slammed into it, reports National Geographic . A 90-pound rock hit the moon at 56,000mph, creating an explosion 10 times brighter than any previously...

Moon's Water May Come From ... Earth

New study suggests it arrived via ancient meteorites

(Newser) - Scientists discovered water on the moon only a few years ago, and until recently, the prevailing theory was that it got there via comets. Now they're not so sure. New research on rocks brought back from the Apollo 15 and 17 strongly suggests a different possibility: The moon got...

Russia to Pump $52B Into Space Industry

And may create new space ministry

(Newser) - Russia is getting (even more) serious about space exploration. Vladimir Putin today announced a plan to pump roughly $52 billion into the country's space industry, and floated the idea of creating a special "space ministry," Russia Today reports. "Russia should preserve its status of the leading...

Hawking: We'll Have to Escape 'Fragile Planet' in 1K Years

He urges more space exploration

(Newser) - Stephen Hawking, the British physicist who has spent his career decoding the universe, is urging the continuation of space exploration—for humanity's sake. “We won’t survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet," said the 71-year-old Hawking. He made the remarks Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai...

Dark Matter News Might Be Space Station's Finest Hour

Experiment there yields what may be the first glimpse of the stuff

(Newser) - Astronomers are plenty excited today over the news that an experiment aboard the International Space Station may have caught the first glimpse of dark matter. You know, the "mysterious substance that may hold the cosmos together," in the words of USA Today . Or the "mysterious dark matter...

US Might Try to Catch an Asteroid

Plan would bring million-pound rock close enough for exploration

(Newser) - President Obama's budget proposal will include funds for a wild plan to use a robotic spacecraft to snag an asteroid and drag it close enough to Earth for astronauts to land on and study it, Aviation Week reports. The project, as dreamed up in a study last year by...

Voyager Hasn't Made Space History—Yet

NASA discounts report that craft has left the solar system

(Newser) - Space fans will have to hold off on popping the champagne cork. After the American Geophysical Union declared this morning that Voyager 1 had achieved the mind-boggling feat of leaving our solar system, NASA threw a wet blanket on the party, at least temporarily, reports Time . “It is the...

Sex in Space Won&#39;t Kill You After All

 Sex in Space 
 Won't Kill You 
 After All 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 17, 2013 12:23 PM CDT

Sex in Space Won't Kill You After All

But a new study raises concerns about reproduction in plants, and maybe humans

(Newser) - One of the week's most salacious stories got its start in the journal Plos One with this headline: "Cell Wall Assembly and Intracellular Trafficking in Plant Cells Are Directly Affected by Changes in the Magnitude of Gravitational Acceleration." Of course, it wasn't until the Daily Mail...

NASA: Yep, Mars Could Have Supported Life

Soil sample dug up by Curiosity proves it

(Newser) - NASA scientists examining their first sample of Martian rock dug out by the rover Curiosity found some remarkable things in there: sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and carbon. In other words, ingredients that show the planet once could have supported life. Lead scientist Michael Mayer sums it up thusly:
  • "
...

After Glitch, Space Station Delivery Back on Track

But SpaceX capsule won't arrive today as scheduled

(Newser) - The space capsule that was supposed to deliver fresh fruit and other supplies to the International Space Station won't be arriving today as planned thanks to yesterday's glitch after takeoff , reports Wired . But engineers at SpaceX say they have resolved the problem with Dragon's thrusters, and it...

Mars Mission Seeks Married Couple

Private group plans to launch husband and wife to planet in 2018

(Newser) - In less than five years, a husband and wife could be on their way toward Mars in an audacious but bare-bones private mission that would slingshot them around the Red Planet, according to a plan outlined today by a financial tycoon and his team. The voyage would be a cosmic...

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