21-05-2012 09:21 The most recent evaluations of NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) project confirmed all systems go for TDRS-K, a third generation upgrade of the orbiting communications network. TDRS-K is scheduled for launch aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida during the 2012 holiday season. The launch of TDRS-K will begin the replenishment of the fleet through the development and deployment of the next generation spacecraft. These satellites will ensure NASA's Space Network continues to provide around-the-clock, high throughput communications services to NASA's missions and serving the scientific community and human spaceflight program for years to come. This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: Like our videos? Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast: Or find NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on Facebook: Or find us on Twitter:

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NASA | TDRS: Heart of Communication - Video

22-05-2012 05:16 NASA Administrator Charles Bolden addressed media representatives (Tuesday May 22) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida following SpaceX NASA demonstration flight launch to the International Space Station.

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NASA ADMINISTRATOR TALKS WITH MEDIA AFTER SPACEX LAUNCH - Video

According to The Wall Street Journal, NASA is considering sanctioning stays by private space tourists on the International Space Station. If the change is implemented, it will represent a change in NASA's attitude toward space tourism.

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NASA May Sponsor Its Own Space Tourism Program

On May 21, 1965, NASA released the Gemini 4 press kit. It opened with the standard mission description, in this case for a four-day orbital flight that would send commander Jim McDivitt and pilot Ed White around the Earth 62 times to evaluate "the effects of extended spaceflight on crew performance and physical condition."

Then there was an intriguing page that hinted at something bigger: "No decision has been made whether in the Gemini 4 mission the crew will engage in extravehicular activity... A decision to undertake the extravehicular test can be made as late as the day before the launch." The possibility of an EVA on Gemini 4 came as a surprise not only the American people that day, but to many within NASA as well.

PHOTOS: The Gemini Missions: Paving the Path for Apollo

EVAs, colloquially known as spacewalks, were one of the three main program goals for NASA's Gemini program designed to support the Apollo program. If NASA was going to send men all the way to the moon, there was no point in having them sit inside and look out the window. They were going outside.

The original Gemini program plan called for a tight schedule with launches every eight to ten weeks. Every mission would add something new to NASA's repertoire with EVAs expected sometime after Gemini 6; Gemini 4 was designed for a week long endurance test using new fuel cells instead of batteries around June of 1965.

But mid-way through 1964 that schedule was starting to slip. The fuel cells weren't going to be ready for Gemini 4. The US Air Force Agena target vehicle destined for orbital rendezvous practice was also too far from flight ready to be counted on for Gemini 4.

With the mission plan in tatters, Robert Gilruth, the director of the Manned Spaceflight Center, proposed that Gemini 4 be reconfigured into the first EVA flight. It was a bold plan, moving the EVA goal forward by two flights. But if all the hardware could be certified and the crew trained in time, why not?

The new mission was already percolating when White and McDivitt were announced as the crew on July 24, 1964. The astronauts were two among the very select group of people who knew about the EVA goal for their flight. As pilot, White would be the one stepping out.

ANALYSIS: The Case of the Contraband Corned Beef Sandwich

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NASA's Bold 'Plan X' Changed Spaceflight History

In a pivotal moment for private spaceflight, a towering white rocket lifted a cone-shaped capsule into space early Tuesday on a mission to the International Space Station.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carried the unmanned Dragon capsule into space after a 3:44 a.m. EDT launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking the first time a private company has sent a spacecraft to the space station.

The mission is considered the first test of NASA's plan to outsource space missions to privately funded companies now that its fleet of space shuttles is retired. SpaceX aims to prove to NASA that its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are ready to take on the task of hauling cargo -- and eventually astronauts -- for the space agency.

INTERACTIVE: SpaceX's demonstration mission

"Today marks the beginning of a new era in exploration; a private company has launched a spacecraft to the International Space Station that will attempt to dock there for the first time," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a speech at the cape. "And while there is a lot of work ahead to successfully complete this mission, we are certainly off to good start."

In a separate news conference, Elon Musk,SpaceX's 40-year-old billionaire founder and chief executive, spoke at company headquarters in Hawthorne. It was there that SpaceX employees had gathered, watched and cheered as the Falcon 9 climbed toward the heavens.

"There's so much hope riding on that rocket," he said. "When it worked ... and they saw their handiwork in space and operating as it should, there was tremendous elation. For us, it's like winning the Super Bowl."

But the launch is just the beginning, and the toughest tasks in the mission lie ahead.

The Dragon capsule will rendezvous with the space station as it circles the Earth at about 17,000 mph. Once the Dragon catches up to the station, it must complete a series of complicated tests to determine if it is ready to dock.

If all goes well, the crew aboard the station will snag the spacecraft with a robotic arm and lead it in. SpaceX hopes to dock the Dragon, which is designed to carry up to seven astronauts, as early as Friday.

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NASA hails SpaceX launch as 'a new era' for spaceflight

ScienceDaily (May 22, 2012) Final pre-launch preparations are underway for NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. The mission, which will use X-ray vision to hunt for hidden black holes, is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 13 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The observatory will launch from the belly of Orbital Sciences Corporation's L-1011 "Stargazer" aircraft aboard the company's Pegasus rocket.

Technicians at Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California are busy installing the rocket's fairing, or nose cone, around the observatory. A flight computer software evaluation is also nearing completion and should be finished before the Flight Readiness Review, which is scheduled for June 1. A successful launch simulation of the Orbital Sciences' Pegasus XL rocket was conducted last week.

The mission plan is for NuSTAR and its rocket to be attached to the Stargazer plane on June 2. The aircraft will depart California on June 5 and arrive at the Kwajalein launch site on June 6. The launch of NuSTAR from the plane is targeted for 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT) on June 13.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar .

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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NASA's NuSTAR gearing up for launch

ScienceDaily (May 22, 2012) Magnetometers built by scientists and engineers at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. for NASA's Mars Atmosphere And Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission have been delivered to the University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory for integration into the Particles and Field Package.

"The team worked hard and completed delivery of the magnetometers on schedule," said Jack Connerney, Magnetometer Instrument Lead from NASA Goddard. "We are looking forward to launch, orbit insertion and seeing the data come back."

The pair of flux gate magnetometers measures the magnetic field at the location of the spacecraft. As part of the Particles and Fields Package, the magnetometer sensors are positioned at the outermost ends of the solar panels to keep them as far away as possible from stray magnetic fields generated by the spacecraft. Since the motion of escaping charged particles is governed by the magnetic field, this measurement is important in understanding how the solar wind interacts with the planet's atmosphere and causes loss to space.

"The geometry of the magnetic field determines where particles go to and where they come from," said Connerney."If we want to understand particle motion, we need to visualize how the magnetic field behaves throughout the Mars environment."

Scheduled for launch in late 2013, MAVEN will be the first mission devoted to understanding the martian upper atmosphere. The goal of MAVEN is to determine the history of the loss of atmospheric gases to space through time, providing answers about Mars climate evolution. By measuring the current rate of escape to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes, scientists will be able to infer how the planet's atmosphere evolved in time.

The instrument is powered on during the spacecraft cruise to Mars. Once powered, it has a heart that beats once per second. Every second, the instrument sends a packet of data to the Particles and Fields Package. Each packet includes 32 vector samples of the magnetic field. The Particles and Fields Package accepts the data and passes it on to the spacecraft. The magnetic field vectors are also made available to the other instruments onboard the spacecraft in real time.

MAVEN's magnetometers were designed by a Goddard team that has a long and varied history with building magnetometers for space research. They have provided instruments for many previous and upcoming planetary and heliophysics missions.

The MAVEN spacecraft will carry three instrument suites. The Particles and Fields Package, built by the University of California at Berkeley with support from University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP) and NASA Goddard, contains six instruments that will characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the planet. The Remote Sensing Package, built by CU/LASP, will determine global characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, provided by NASA Goddard, will measure the composition and isotopes of neutral ions.

"The magnetometer is the first of the science instruments to be completed and delivered," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN Principal Investigator from CU/LASP. "It's really exciting to see the payload now starting to come together. This is an important milestone in our path toward getting to Mars and using our measurements to answer questions about the history of the martian atmosphere."

NASA Goddard manages the project and is building two of the science instruments for the mission. In addition to the principal investigator coming from CU/LASP, the university provides science operations, is building science instruments, and leads education/public outreach. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., is building the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory is building science instruments for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides navigation support, the Deep Space Network, and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

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NASA Goddard delivers magnetometers for NASA's next mission to Mars

The head of Nasa has hailed a "new era" in exploration after the launch of the first cargo delivery to the space station by a private company.

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Nasa chief hails new era in space

May 23, 2012

Image Caption: Artist's concept showing NASA's NuSTAR mission orbiting Earth. NuSTAR will hunt for hidden black holes and other exotic cosmic objects. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Final pre-launch preparations are underway for NASAs Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. The mission, which will use X-ray vision to hunt for hidden black holes, is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 13 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The observatory will launch from the belly of Orbital Sciences Corporations L-1011 Stargazer aircraft aboard the companys Pegasus rocket.

Technicians at Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California are busy installing the rockets fairing, or nose cone, around the observatory. A flight computer software evaluation is also nearing completion and should be finished before the Flight Readiness Review, which is scheduled for June 1. A successful launch simulation of the Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket was conducted last week.

The mission plan is for NuSTAR and its rocket to be attached to the Stargazer plane on June 2. The aircraft will depart California on June 5 and arrive at the Kwajalein launch site on June 6. The launch of NuSTAR from the plane is targeted for 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT) on June 13.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and managed by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, for NASAs Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The missions outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, Calif. NASAs Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar .

Source: NASA/JPL

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NASA Getting NuSTAR Ready For Her Big Day

A NASA satellite snapped a picture of the cyclone that brought an early start to the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Alberto, not long after the storm formed off the coast of South Carolina.

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Early Tropical Storm Alberto Spied by NASA Satellite

NASA app for iPhones and iPods. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- NASA says is has updated it mobile app offering photos and videos to iPhone and the iPod Touch users, with new features and a redesigned interface.

The NASA app, available right now on Apple's App Store, will improve the way people explore and experience NASA content on their smartphone or iPod, the agency said.

The updated app offers information and links to all NASA visitor centers and a section about NASA programs, Slashgear.com reported. It provides integrated weather forecasts in the spacecraft sighting opportunity section for users who like to try to spot NASA spacecraft orbiting Earth.

An estimated 4.7 million people have downloaded the app, NASA said.

The new version 2.0 requires 1OS 5.0 or higher to operate, the space agency said.

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NASA updates its iPhone, iPod app