In an attempt to further tighten the national belt, the U.S. House moved this week to cut the James Webb Space Telescope from the budget, effectively threatening NASA’s follow-up to the Hubble, and the future of our eyes-in-space program. There’s something poetic (poetically dismaying, that is) about the timing, too: Space shuttle …
NASA
Final Space Shuttle Launch Threatened by Bad Weather
Could the final launch of a space shuttle be derailed by rain and thunderstorms? It’s looking like it.
We’re heading into the space shuttle program’s final lap, the last NASA-based launch of a shuttle in history via the Kennedy Space Center this Friday, so it’s somehow poetic that the weather—a frequent cause of prior shuttle launch …
Open Mouth, Insert Star: Black Hole Devours Celestial Body
When it comes to interstellar smackdowns, I’d generally say bet on stars. But when it comes to stars versus black holes, you’ll probably want to bet on the infinitely dense singularity from which nothing—not even light—can escape.
Such an event apparently occurred on or around March 28th, when NASA’s Swift satellite captured a …
NASA ‘Messenger’ Spacecraft Changing Picture of Mercury
NASA’s Mercury-bound Messenger spacecraft dropped into orbit around the tiny, orbitally eccentric planet just a few months ago, and it’s already sent back enough data to notably alter our take on the first rock from the sun.
For starters, indiscernible features that previously resembled “bright, patchy deposits”
NASA: Supermassive Black Holes at Heart of Ancient Galaxies
Occasionally supermassive and always super-ominous, light-devouring black holes may be the most spectacular byproduct of our Newtonian universe, and now we know a little more about how long they’ve been out there and what they’re up to, thanks to NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Astronomers pointed Chandra at a strip of sky for over …
Watch: NASA Captures Video of ‘Vesta’ Asteroid
This big asteroid, called Vesta, doesn’t look THAT scary. Then again, it’s 300,000 miles away from the camera. I’m sure it’d look a whole lot scarier from, say, 30,000 miles away. And 3,000 miles away? No thanks.
As a tech guy that doesn’t normally cover space stuff, though, I’d say Vista was a hell of a lot scarier than Vesta, but …
Spectacular Solar Flare Impresses, May Disrupt GPS and Power Grids
It’s another startling picture of our very own Sun that might pass for a CGI still from a summer disaster flick. You know, right before our backyard star reaches across the void with fingers of fire and gobbles us up. But don’t worry, it’ll only strike us a “glancing blow,” says NASA.
The sun pitched a pretty impressive solar fit …
Incredible Photo of Space Shuttle Endeavour Docked in Space
It’s one of those shots that makes you go “holy word-I-can’t-say-here”: A space shuttle hanging from the International Space Station like a bird caught midflight, or a high diver reaching around about to leap backwards off a diving board. It’s also the first photograph of a shuttle—the very vehicle that helped assemble the space …
That’s It Folks: Space Shuttle Endeavour Sings Swan Song
Clear eyes, full hearts. It might as well be a NASA catchphrase, as the space shuttle Endeavour touched down at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning, completing its 25th and final mission (dubbed “STS-134″) and heralding the beginning of the end for over three decades of shuttle flight. Space shuttle Atlantis will carry the …
We’re Finally Going to an Asteroid and Bringing a Piece Back
Forget the Moon, we’re going to an asteroid, and this time, we’re bringing a piece of the rock back.
So sayeth NASA, who just announced they’ve approved a robo-spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx (that weirdly translates as “fertility king,” in case you’re wondering) to swing by near-Earth asteroid 1999 RQ36 and scrape a few bits …
Watch the Sun Eat a Comet and (Partly) Explode
What happens when a giant frozen ball of ice hurtling at over a million miles per hour suddenly smacks into our sun?
Maybe the sun blinks, or says “thank you, may I have another.” Who really knows, but in this NASA video captured by the SOHO satellite, the collision seems to trigger a massive explosion.
What looks like a solar …
Site Built in a Fort Turns Space Transcripts into Gripping Stories
What could possibly be cooler than reams of original radio transcripts chronicling spaceflight landmarks like the first human in space and the near-fatal Apollo 13 mission, the option to search it all at will, and everything wrapped in a gorgeous, elegant, easy-to-use web package?
I’ll tell you what: all of that, plus knowledge the …
