03-08-2012 18:08 The much-anticipated landing of the Mars Science Laboratory with Curiosity, the Red Planet's next resident rover, is this Monday, at 1:31 am Eastern. Having been configured by the MSL flight team for entry, descent and landing the spacecraft is on final approach for its targeted touchdown in Gale Crater. Coverage of Curiosity's landing begins Sunday at 11:30 pm Eastern on all three NASA TV channels, nasa.gov, AND, Xbox 360. Also, engineers at the Johnson Space Center have conducted test firings of the Project Morpheus Lander, the quickest trip ever to the International Space Station of an unpiloted Russian Progress resupply ship , Marking History at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility and more!

Continued here:

Curiosity's Landing on This Week @NASA - Video

02-08-2012 13:16 NASA and university scientists have made the first measurement-based estimate of the amount and composition of tiny airborne particles that arrive in the air over North America each year. With a 3D view of the atmosphere now possible from satellites, the scientists distinguished dust from pollution, and calculated that dust is the main ingredient of these foreign imports. 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:

The rest is here:

NASA | Imported Dust in American Skies - Video

03-08-2012 12:47 At a briefing from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announces new agreements with three American commercial companies, Sierra Nevada, SpaceX and Boeing, to design and develop the next generation of US human spaceflight capabilities, enabling a launch of astronauts from US soil in the next five years.

Continued here:

NASA Chooses Next-Gen Companies for Human Spaceflight - Video

On a cloudless morning, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden stood at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. where the U.S. dominated human spaceflight for half a century and revealed plans for the space agency's next chapter.

On Friday, NASA handed out $1.1 billion in contracts to three companies to privately develop a new generation of spacecraft that could one day ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Now that the space shuttle fleet has been retired, NASA has no way to travel to the space station other than shelling out $63 million each time one of its astronauts rides on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

"By investing in American companies and American ingenuity, we're spurring free-market competition to give taxpayers more bang for the buck," Bolden said during the news conference. "We're also making important progress toward ending the outsourcing of American aerospace jobs and bringing them right back to Florida and other states all across this country."

Southern California's aerospace industry was a major beneficiary of the announcement. Hawthorne-based rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, won $440 million from NASA to develop its hardware. And Boeing Co., which develops spacecraft in Huntington Beach and uses rocket engines made by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, won $460 million.

And $212.5 million went to Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev., which is building a space plane that resembles a miniature space shuttle.

The awards are part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which lays the groundwork for a new reliance on private companies to transport astronauts.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, who was visiting Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Caada Flintridge in anticipation of Sunday's Mars rover landing, said the companies have plenty of work ahead.

"We anticipate a lot of exciting things from these companies over the next 21 months," she said. "NASA is ready to loosen its grip and let these companies take over."

The overall design of NASA's previous space-going vehicles and their missions were tightly controlled by the government and contracted to aerospace giants.

See the original post here:

NASA taps Boeing, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada to develop new spacecraft

With just a few days before NASA's huge Mars rover Curiosity attempts its historic and record-setting landing, a blue-ribbon study group is taking a close look at America's space exploration future — and is seeking public comment.

See more here:

Is NASA Off Course? Your View Wanted

Washington — NASA picked three aerospace companies Friday to build small rocket ships to take astronauts to the International Space Station.

Follow this link:

NASA picks 3 private firms to develop small space taxis

PASADENA, California (Reuters) - PASADENA, Calif. Aug 3 (Reuters) - NASA will pay more than $1 billion over the next 21 months to three companies to develop commercial spaceships capable of flying astronauts to the International Space Station, the agency said Friday. The lion's share of the $1.1 billion allotted for the next phase of NASA's so-called “"Commercial Crew" program will be split ...

Visit link:

Three firms share $1.1 billion of NASA space taxi work

NASA retired its 30-year shuttle program last year, but that doesn't mean Americans are done with space.

Read more here:

NASA Makes $1 Billion Investment in Manned Commercial Spaceflight

WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA picked three aerospace companies Friday to build small rocketships to take astronauts to the International Space Station.

This is the third phase of NASA's efforts to get private space companies to take over the job of the now-retired space shuttle. The companies will share more than $1.1 billion. Two of the ships are capsules like in the Apollo era and the third is closer in design to the space shuttle.

Once the spaceships are built, NASA plans to hire the private companies to taxi astronauts into space within five years. Until they are ready, NASA is paying Russia about $63 million per astronaut to do the job.

In a statement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the move "will help keep us on track to tend the outsourcing of human spaceflight."

NASA hopes that by having private firms ferry astronauts into low Earth orbit, it can focus on larger long-term goals, like sending crews to a nearby asteroid and eventually Mars. The private companies can also make money in tourism and other non-NASA business.

The three companies are the Boeing Co. of Houston, Space Exploration Technologies, called SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif., and Sierra Nevada Corp. of Louisville, Colo.

They are quite different companies. Boeing is one of the oldest and largest space companies with a long history of building and launching rockets and working for NASA, going back to the Mercury days. SpaceX is a relatively new company started by Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal and runs the electric car company Tesla Motors. Sierra Nevada has been in the space business for 25 years but mostly on a much smaller scale than Boeing.

NASA's commercial crew development program started with seven companies. The other companies that were not chosen can still build private rocketships and NASA still has the option to hire them to ferry astronauts at a later date, NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto said.

Boeing is slated to get the most money, $460 million for its seven-person CST-100 capsule. It would launch on an Atlas rocket, with the first test flight 2016. The company won't say how much it would charge NASA per seat, but it will be "significantly lower" than the Russian price, said John Mulholland, Boeing vice president. He said Boeing's long experience in working with NASA on human flight gives it a "leg up" on its competitors.

SpaceX is already in the lead in the private space race. The company earlier this year used their Falcon rocket to launch their Dragon capsule into orbit. It docked with the space station and successfully delivered cargo. NASA plans to give the company $440 million. The capsule holds seven people and will have its first test launch with people in 2015, said spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham. The company will charge NASA about $20 million per seat, she said.

See the rest here:

NASA picks 3 private firms to develop space taxis