Archive for February, 2014

CASIS Seeking New Proposals for Enabling Technologies at ISS; Cancer Cell Research in Zero G

CASIS Seeking New Proposals for Enabling Technologies at ISS; Cancer Cell Research in Zero G

Two items out of CASIS First, an interesting story regarding the observation that certain tumor cells which grow aggressively and are difficult to treat on Earth, appear to be a bit more docile in the environment of Zero-G.  The discovery gives scientists a possible window into devising new methods of understanding, and ultimately destroying some […]

Posted in: CASIS
Commercial Crew Update

Commercial Crew Update

NASA today released the following update regarding the Commercial Crew program. To a great extent, the fate and timing of the program are going to depend on whatever final budget emerges for FY 2015.  So far, the program’s budgeting history has not been a happy one. The process will formally get underway on Tuesday, March […]

Meteorite Helps Build the Case for Ancient Life on Mars

Meteorite Helps Build the Case for Ancient Life on Mars

For those who remember, the discovery of possible signs of ancient microbial life on Martian meteorite ALH 84001 sparked enormous debate in 1996,  temporarily convincing a great many people that we had at last found conclusive evidence of life on Mars. As the years rolled on, alternate explanations appeared to answer the questions raised by […]

Posted in: Mars
Can NASA Find its Way With Inspiration Mars ?

Can NASA Find its Way With Inspiration Mars ?

When Dennis Tito went to Washington last fall to lobby Congress to engage NASA in his Inspiration Mars concept for the 2018 crewed flyby of the Red Planet, the reception was cool at best. Hoping to salvage something from the idea, which had started off as a private mission concept using commercial hardware but quickly […]

Posted in: Inspiration Mars
GPM Lifts Off Aboard Japan’s  H-IIA Booster

GPM Lifts Off Aboard Japan’s H-IIA Booster

The joint NASA/JAXA GPM Core Observatory lifted off today from the Japanese Space Agency’s Tanagashima Launch Complex, successfully deploying from its carrier rocket moments later. Today’s launch took place aboard the H-IIA rocket, which is built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The H-II family consists of two boosters, the H-IIA and the larger and more powerful […]

Posted in: Japanese Space
NASA Mishap Investigation Report on Leaking Spacesuit

NASA Mishap Investigation Report on Leaking Spacesuit

Yesterday NASA held a media telecon to announce the preliminary findings of the Mishap Investigation Board which was convened to analyze the leak which nearly overwhelmed Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano during a spacewalk outside ISS on July 16. The incident took place early in the spacewalk when water began flooding his helmet, forcing an end […]

Posted in: NASA
GPM Core Observatory Ready for Thursday Launch

GPM Core Observatory Ready for Thursday Launch

Officials with NASA and the Japanese Space Agency JAXA have given the go ahead for tomorrow’s launch of the Global Participation (GPM) Core Observatory, a precipitation measuring satellite which will launch from Japan aboard a HII-A rocket. Liftoff is scheduled during a one hour window beginning at 1:37 pm EST, 3:37 am Japan Standard Time, […]

Posted in: Japanese Space, NASA
Kepler Data Confirms 715 New Planets

Kepler Data Confirms 715 New Planets

It is the biggest planet haul yet. NASA announced today the discovery of 715 new exo-planets orbiting 305 star systems, bringing the total number of confirmed worlds outside of our solar system to almost 1,700. The announcement is based on findings from data gathered during the first two years of the Kepler Space Telescope’s four […]

Posted in: Exo Planets
Stratolaunch Gets a New Executive Director

Stratolaunch Gets a New Executive Director

Although NewSpace companies are already revolutionizing some market segments such as the the smallsat industry, progress in other areas, notably launch systems, has been much slower, with the clear exception of SpaceX. Two companies which harbor long term crew capable orbital ambitions, Virgin Galactic and XCOR, are on the threshold of beginning suborbital passenger flights, […]

Posted in: Stratolaunch
Tesla Model S Wins Consumer Reports Best Overall Car 2014

Tesla Model S Wins Consumer Reports Best Overall Car 2014

Tesla continues to do to the rest of the automotive world what SpaceX is doing to the aerospace industry; make us all wonder if everyone has just been dialing it in for far too long now. Adding to its growing list of accomplishments,  the Tesla Model S has been named the Consumer Reports Best Overall […]

Posted in: Space Settlement
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