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Ridgewood NJ, NASA is taking a step toward the next era of space communications with the launch of its Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) on Sunday, Dec. 5. Live coverage of the launch is scheduled to air on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA App beginning at 3:30 a.m. EST.
Continue reading NASA to Demonstrate Laser Communications in Space
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Ridgewood NJ, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has revealed that Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot extends hundreds of miles into the planet. The storm’s diameter is about 10,000 miles wide and between 186 and 310 miles deep. It is so large that the Juno spacecraft was able to measure the small perturbations in gravity produced by the storm as it passed over. These gravity signals were combined with previous microwave measurements to calculate the depth of the storm. While the storm is deep, it is not nearly as deep as some of the surrounding jet streams which extend up to 1,800 miles into the planet.
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Ridgewood NJ, Nanoracks, Voyager Space, and Lockheed Martin are planning to build a free-flying private space station in low Earth orbit by 2027. Starlab will be a tourist destination as well as a research and manufacturing hub. It will feature a habitat module with 12,000 cubic feet of internal volume, a power and propulsion element, a laboratory setup, and a large external robotic arm to service payloads and cargo. NASA wants commercial stations to pick up the slack from the ISS as the outpost is due to be retired near the end of the decade.
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Ridgewood NJ, September 20, bringing plenty of bright moonlight, and the harvest moon shine in the night sky tonight. According to the Farmers Almanac in 2021, the Harvest Moon rises on Monday, September 20! The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Sunday morning through Tuesday morning.
Continue reading The Harvest Moon Rises on Monday Evening September 20th
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Ridgewood NJ, as students across the country are saying goodbye to the summer and the new school year is kicking off, NASA is gearing up to engage students in exciting activities and thought-provoking challenges throughout the year ahead. The agency offers many resources to inspire the next generation of explorers, and help educators and students stay involved in its missions.
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Mars, Mars is calling! NASA is seeking applicants for participation as a crew member during the first one-year analog mission in a habitat to simulate life on a distant world, set to begin in Fall 2022.
Continue reading NASA is Recruiting for Yearlong Simulated Mars Mission
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Ridgewood NJ, its a bird ,its a plane no it’s NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) an experimental supersonic jet designed to reach speeds of Mach 1.4 (925mph). It is slower than the Concorde, but its cutting-edge design allows it to emit a sonic boom about as loud as the sound of a car door closing. Lockheed Martin was awarded a $247.5 million contract to assemble the aircraft in 2018.
Continue reading Its a bird ,Its a plane no It’s NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology
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Mars, NASA is making final preparations for its Perseverance Mars rover to collect its first-ever sample of Martian rock, which future planned missions will transport to Earth. The six-wheeled geologist is searching for a scientifically interesting target in a part of Jezero Crater called the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough.”
Continue reading Perseverance Mars rover to collect its first-ever sample of Martian rock
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Ridgewood NJ, Northrop Grumman Corp has acquired a $935 million contract from NASA to develop living quarters for its planned outpost in lunar orbit. The Habitation And Logistics Outpost (HALO) will be a vital component of NASA’s lunar Gateway. Gateway will support science investigations and enable surface landings on the moon. Eight countries have signed a pact as part of the Artemis program. NASA is aiming to launch the spacecraft in November 2024.
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Washington DC, As NASA continues plans for multiple commercial deliveries to the Moon’s surface per year, the agency has selected three new scientific investigation payload suites to advance understanding of Earth’s nearest neighbor. Two of the payload suites will land on the far side of the Moon, a first for NASA. All three investigations will receive rides to the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative, part of the agency’s Artemis approach.
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MARS, the science team is studying the clouds, which arrived earlier and formed higher than expected, to learn more about the Red Planet.
Cloudy days are rare in the thin, dry atmosphere of Mars. Clouds are typically found at the planet’s equator in the coldest time of year, when Mars is the farthest from the Sun in its oval-shaped orbit. But one full Martian year ago – two Earth years – scientists noticed clouds forming over NASA’s Curiosity rover earlier than expected.
Continue reading NASA’s Curiosity Rover Captures Clouds on Mars
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Ridgewood NJ, After nearly five years in space, NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft is on its way back to Earth with an abundance of rocks and dust from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.
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MARS, The growing list of “firsts” for Perseverance, NASA’s newest six-wheeled robot on the Martian surface, includes converting some of the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen. A toaster-size, experimental instrument aboard Perseverance called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) accomplished the task. The test took place April 20, the 60th Martian day, or sol, since the mission landed Feb. 18.
Continue reading NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Extracts First Oxygen from Red Planet
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MARS, Monday, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity team at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at 6:46 a.m. EDT (3:46 a.m. PDT).
Continue reading NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight
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Ridgewood NJ, based on data from the Ingenuity Mars helicopter that arrived late Friday night, NASA has chosen to reschedule the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s first experimental flight to no earlier than April 14.
Continue reading NASA Postpones Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s first experimental flight
