Cerebral Overload

A NASA study expands the search for life beyond our solar system by indicating that 17 exoplanets (worlds outside our solar system) could have oceans of liquid water, an essential ingredient for life, beneath icy shells. Water from these oceans could occasionally erupt through the ice crust as geysers. The science team calculated the amount of geyser activity on these exoplanets, the first time these estimates have been made. They identified two exoplanets sufficiently close where signs of these eruptions could be observed with telescopes. The search for life elsewhere in the Universe typicall...

Following a successful launch of NASA’s SpaceX 29th commercial resupply mission, scientific experiments and technology demonstrations, including studies of enhanced optical communications and measurement of atmospheric waves, are on their way to the International Space Station. SpaceX’s uncrewed Dragon resupply spacecraft, carrying about 6,500 pounds of cargo to the orbiting laboratory, launched on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket at 8:28 p.m. EST, Thursday, Nov. 9, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The cargo spacecraft is scheduled to autonomously dock at the spa...

Rocket Lab USA, Inc., a global leader in launch services and space systems, today announced it has signed a double-launch deal with NASA to deliver the Agency’s climate change research-focused mission, PREFIRE, to low Earth orbit in 2024. The two dedicated missions on Electron will deploy one small satellite each to a 525km circular orbit from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand from May 2024. The PREFIRE mission has specific LTAN (Local Time of the Ascending Node) requirements and a need for the second satellite to be deployed to space sho...

NASA is set to receive scientific research samples and hardware as a SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft departs the International Space Station on Thursday, June 29. The agency will provide live coverage of Dragon’s undocking and departure starting at 11:45 a.m. EDT on NASA Television, the NASA app, and online. Watch here: Ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, will command Dragon to undock from the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module and fire its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station. Undock is scheduled for 12:05 p.m.

Zero Zero Robotics, a leading robotics company, has launched its newest flagship product, the Hover Camera X1, a pocket-sized self-flying camera that is available today on Indiegogo. Like the rest of the Hover Camera product line, the X1 is focused on a user-centered flying experience, while featuring significant improvements in portability and usability. The Hover Camera X1 can be flown entirely hands-free, requiring neither a controller nor an app to operate. It leverages cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to enable a more effortless and enjoyable flying experience. With folded ...

NASA will provide live launch and docking coverage of the Roscosmos Progress 84 cargo spacecraft carrying about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 69 crew aboard the International Space Station. The unpiloted spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 8:56 a.m. EDT (5:56 p.m. Baikonur time) on Wednesday, May 24, on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA coverage will begin at 8:30 a.m. on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. The Progress spacecraft will be placed into a two-orbit journey to the station, leading to an automatic docki...

The dawn of a new era in astronomy is here as the world gets its first look at the full capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). The full set of the telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data, which uncover a collection of cosmic features elusive until now, released Tuesday, are available at: “Today, we present humanity with a groundbreaking new view of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope – a view the world has never seen before,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “These imag...

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 12 p.m. EDT on Friday, May 27, to discuss the status of the next wet dress rehearsal test of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission. The rehearsal is the final test needed before launch and calls for NASA to test the system including operations to load propellant into the rocket’s tanks, conduct a full launch countdown, demonstrate the ability to recycle the countdown clock, and also drain the tanks to give them an opportunity to pra...