NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will get a firsthand look at work being done on advanced woven thermal protection systems used on the agency's Orion spacecraft during a visit to Bally Ribbon Mills (BRM) in Bally, Pennsylvania at noon EST Friday, Jan. 9.

Media are invited to join Bolden and BRM President Ray Harries on a tour of the mill, during which the administrator will learn more about BRM's diverse product portfolio, ranging from military honor ribbons to spacecraft insulation systems.

New woven composite materials are an advanced space technology that mark a major milestone toward development of the space systems that will enable extending human and robotic presence throughout the solar system. As a manufacturer of high-performance multidimensional (3D) woven materials, BRM is weaving the multifunctional thermal protection system padding used to insulate and protect NASA's Orion spacecraft. Orion, which recently completed its first flight test, will carry astronauts to Mars and return them safely to Earth with the help of this technology.

Following the tour, Bolden will give brief remarks and take questions from reporters about NASA's partnership with American small businesses and the agency's investments in space technology that will enable future missions to an asteroid, Mars and beyond.

To attend the tour, media should contact David Steitz at 202-358-1730 ordavid.steitz@nasa.govno later than 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8. Reporters must arrive at BRMs facility at 23 North 7th St., Bally, Pa. by 11:45 a.m. Friday for escort into the facility.

BRM's work on the advanced thermal protection system for Orion is being conducted under the auspices of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. The work is managed by the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. The directorate continues to seek industry and university partnerships to assure the agency has the capabilities it needs, while helping America maintain its leadership in the technology-driven global economy.

For more information on the agency's investments in space technology, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/spacetechVideo and images of this visit will be made available Jan. 9 by NASA.

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NASA Administrator, Media Tour Bally, Pa. Advanced Materials Manufacturer Jan. 9

NASA #39;s Incredible New Technology
technology for a modern new space agency http://phys.org/news/2015-01-nasa-explores-inflatable-spacecraft-technology.html.

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NASA's Incredible New Technology - Video

NASA launches balloon carrying Mars #39;saucer #39; prototype

By: Debra Ford

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NASA launches balloon carrying Mars 'saucer' prototype - Video

NASAs inflatable heat shield: aeroshell inspired by a toy could one day help humans land on Mars
NASA is developing an inflatable heat shield it plans to test in 2016 that could one day be used to send astronauts to Mars. Designed by NASA #39;s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia,...

By: TomoNews US

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NASAs inflatable heat shield: aeroshell inspired by a toy could one day help humans land on Mars - Video

HAMPTON, N.Y., Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Slinging a fast-moving probe into orbit around a faraway planet is hard enough; landing a hefty, astronaut-carrying spacecraft on an alien surface is beyond difficult.

But doing just that -- on Mars -- is exactly what NASA hopes to do in the coming decade. To do so successfully, NASA engineers are considering employing an inflatable spacecraft that resembles the rainbow-colored, donut-like stacking rings that small children play with.

Researchers believe a lightweight inflatable structure -- the current prototype is dubbed the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) -- could be deployed in order to slow the spacecraft's as it descends through the thin Martian air.

"We have been eating, sleeping, dreaming this technology -- in my case for six years," NASA scientist Anthony Calomino said last year at a project meeting.

"In a real spacecraft, a connected stack of donut rings would be inflated before entering a planet's atmosphere to slow the vehicle for landing," NASA explained in a blog update last summer. "The stacked-cone concept would allow NASA to land heavier payloads to the surface of the planet than is currently possible, and could eventually be used to deliver crews."

Slowing an alien descent with inflatables would save missions from carrying extra fuel to put on the brakes by using reverse rocket propulsion.

But one the challenges is building the inflatable technology out of materials that can withstand high temperatures caused by the friction of atmospheric reentry.

"This idea has actually been around since the 1960s," said Neil Cheatwood, the senior engineer at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. "But now we have materials that can withstand higher temperatures. We've made great strides with this technology."

Researchers plan to build and test a real life prototype consisting of a titanium frame and an underlining of carbon fire skin. It would be inflated with nitrogen.

2015 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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NASA exploring inflatable spacecraft designs for future Mars missions

The Government Accountability Office on Monday denied Sierra Nevada Corps protest of a major NASA contract to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, saying the agency acted properly in issuing the $6.8 billion award last year.

Last fall, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to launch a series of missions that would allow the United States, for the first time since the space shuttle was retired three years ago, to launch astronauts into space from U.S. soil.

The so-called commercial crew contract would end Americans reliance on Russia, which has been taking American astronauts to the space station at a cost of more than $70 million a trip.

Boeings contract is worth up to $4.2 billion; SpaceX, which said it could perform the work for far less, was awarded a contract valued at $2.6 billion.

In its protest Sierra Nevada said that there had been serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process. Its own proposal was the second-lowest-priced, it argued, while it achieved mission suitability scores comparable to the other two proposals.

The company argued that by using its Dream Chaser vehicle the government could have saved up to $900 million.

Unlike SpaceX and Boeing, which would use capsules to dock to the space station, Sierra Nevada proposed using a reusable miniature shuttle, or space plane, called the Dream Chaser. The craft provides a wider range of capabilities and value, it had said.

In announcing the GAO decision, Ralph White, the agencys managing associate general counsel, said that NASA recognized Boeings higher price, but also considered Boeings proposal to be the strongest of all three proposals in terms of technical approach, management approach, and past performance, and to offer the crew transportation system with most utility and highest value to the government.

The agency also found several favorable features in Sierra Nevadas proposal, but ultimately concluded that SpaceXs lower price made it a better value.

Sierra Nevada is still evaluating the decision, the company said in a statement Monday. While the outcome was not what SNC expected we maintain our belief that the Dream Chaser spacecraft is technically very capable, reliable and was qualified to win based on NASAs high ratings of the space system.

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GAO denies Sierra Nevada protest of NASA contract

NASA will hold a media briefing at 2 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 8, in the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington to discuss the upcoming Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission.

The briefings will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website.

SMAP, set for a Jan. 29 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space and will detect whether the ground is frozen or thawed. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles.

The briefing participants are:

Christine Bonniksen, SMAP program executive with the Science Mission Directorates Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington

Kent Kellogg, SMAP project manager with NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California

Dara Entekhabi, SMAP science team lead, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Brad Doorn, SMAP applications lead, Science Mission Directorates Applied Sciences Program at NASA Headquarters

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NASA Announces Briefing on New Mission to Track Water in Earths Soil

TIME Ideas space Hello Pluto! NASAs Visit to the Mystery World Begins I want to go to there: Pluto and three of its moons, photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope NASA; Getty Images A remarkable spacecraft approaches the solar system's ninth planet (and yes, it's a planet)

Its not exactly top secret, but it is too little known: This month, a small, robot spacecraftbuilt, launched, and guided by a team of over 2,500 Americanswill begin the exploration of far-away Pluto and its five known moons. Lasting from January through July, this epic journey is very much the Everest of planetary exploration.

Ive had the privilege of leading this NASA project since its inception 14 years ago, in 2001. Admittedly, that makes me something of a cheerleader for the missionbut its going to be icon of 21st century human achievement that well deserves cheering.

The last time a spacecraft reached a new planet was during NASAs exploration of Neptune by Voyager 2 back in 1989. When that happened, the Berlin Wall was still standing, Richard Marx and Milli Vanilli were topping the charts, and the Internet was almost unknown. (And by the way, I did just say that Pluto is a planet. It turns out that many planetary scientists, including me, think so. Thanks to New Horizons, you can soon judge for yourself. )

New Horizons already set records when it was launched in 2006 by becoming the fastest spacecraft to leave the Earthreaching the orbit of the Moon in just 9 hours, about 10 times more quickly than the Apollo spacecraft did. Now, after traveling at an average 39,000 mph speed (59,000 km/hour)equivalent to L.A. to New York in 4 minutesfor nine straight years, it is at last approaching its historic rendezvous. No spacecraft has ever ventured fartherthree billion miles (4.8 billion km)to reach its primary target.

At its closest approach, New Horizons will pass Pluto at a distance of just 6,000 miles (9,700 km). It will send back images at resolutions so high that if it were flying over New Yorks Central Park at the same altitude, it could count wharfs on the Hudson and ponds in Central Park. It will also take measurements of Plutos composition and atmosphere, study its moons, and more.

We know very little about Pluto, except that its interior is primarily made of rock, but its covered in ices and wrapped in an atmosphere made primarily of nitrogen, like Earths. Does it have mountain ranges? Is its surface young or old? Are there polar caps? Might there be liquids on the surface or oceans in its interior? Could there be cloud decks in its atmosphere? Erupting geysers? Does it have more moons yet to be discovered? We dont know the answers to any of these questionsbut we should know all of them soon.

And that matters. In 2003, The National Academy of Sciences ranked visiting the Pluto system at the very top of NASAs exploration priorities. Why? Because in the 1990s, planetary astronomers discovered a vast structure in our solar system, a previously unknown disk of comets and small planets out beyond Neptune, called the Kuiper Belt. Pluto was the first of many small planets discovered out there, and is still both the brightest and largest one known.

The Kuiper Belt is the largest mapped structure in our planetary system, three times as big as all the territory from the Sun out to Neptunes orbit. The comets and small planets that make it up are valuable because they represent the astronomical equivalent of an archeological dig, reaching back to the era of planet formation, 4.6 billion years ago.

Nothing like the exploration that New Horizons is about to undertake has happened in a generation, and nothing like it is planned or even contemplated to happen again: It is likely the last time in our lifetimes that a new planet will be explored. This is more than scientifically importantthough it certainly is that. Its also a reminder of what American technology, culture, and daring, on its game, can do.

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Hello Pluto! NASAs Visit to the Mystery World Begins

NASA Launch Test #3
Yay! SLS!

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NASA Launch Test #3 - Video

Colloidal Silver - NASA #39;s secret panacea

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Colloidal Silver - NASA's secret panacea - Video

Antarctica iceberg breaks away Nasa satellite tracks Singapore sized block of ice

By: Debra Ford

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Antarctica iceberg breaks away Nasa satellite tracks Singapore sized block of ice - Video

Pehela nasa pehela khumar

By: Bharat Prasad Rajbhandari

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Pehela nasa pehela khumar - Video

Years before an unmanned rocket erupted in a fireball in October, NASA officials knew the metal in its 50-year-old Soviet-made engines could crack, causing fuel to leak and ignite, government documents show.

As early as 2008, a NASA committee warned about the "substantial" risk of using the decades-old engines, and a fire during a 2011 engine test in Mississippi heightened the agency's concern.

The engines had a "fundamental flaw in the materials," said a top manager for NASA's contracted rocket builder, Orbital Sciences, in a 2013 interview with an agency historian. The Soviet engines were built in the 1960s and 1970s in a failed attempt to take cosmonauts to the moon.

"They were never designed to be in storage that long," said the Orbital manager, Ken Eberly, deputy director for the rocket program.

The explosion, just seconds after liftoff from a Virginia launch pad on Oct. 28, destroyed tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded supplies, experiments and equipment, all bound for the International Space Station. The episode has raised questions about NASA's oversight of a new program to hire private contractors to carry cargo and astronauts to orbit, rather than operate the spacecraft itself.

The program aimed to encourage private industry to develop innovative, safe and reliable spacecraft, and ideally save money. But NASA and Orbital officials knew the decades-old engines posed a danger before the agency awarded the company a $1.9-billion deal to launch eight missions.

The company and NASA tried to address the risk by X-raying the engines to find cracks and patching them with welds.

NASA officials knew before the October explosion that the fix had not worked as well as intended. In May, an overhauled engine exploded during a test at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

Under NASA's contract with Orbital, taxpayers shoulder most of the risk of a catastrophe. The company receives as much as 80% of its fee for each launch even if the rocket explodes.

NASA has not said how much the destroyed cargo was worth. The government will also spend up to $20 million to repair damage the explosion caused to the Virginia launch facility, according to legislation approved in December.

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Before explosion, NASA knew aging Soviet engines could crack, leak fuel

Years before an unmanned rocket erupted in a fireball in October, NASA officials knew the metal in its 50-year-old Soviet-made engines could crack, causing fuel to leak and ignite, government documents show.

As early as 2008, a NASA committee warned about the "substantial" risk of using the decades-old engines, and a fire during a 2011 engine test in Mississippi heightened the agency's concern.

The engines had a "fundamental flaw in the materials," said a top manager for NASA's contracted rocket builder, Orbital Sciences, in a 2013 interview with an agency historian. The Soviet engines were built in the 1960s and 1970s in a failed attempt to take cosmonauts to the moon.

"They were never designed to be in storage that long," said the Orbital manager, Ken Eberly, deputy director for the rocket program.

The explosion, just seconds after liftoff from a Virginia launch pad on Oct. 28, destroyed tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded supplies, experiments and equipment, all bound for the International Space Station. The episode has raised questions about NASA's oversight of a new program to hire private contractors to carry cargo and astronauts to orbit, rather than operate the spacecraft itself.

The program aimed to encourage private industry to develop innovative, safe and reliable spacecraft, and ideally save money. But NASA and Orbital officials knew the decades-old engines posed a danger before the agency awarded the company a $1.9-billion deal to launch eight missions.

The company and NASA tried to address the risk by X-raying the engines to find cracks and patching them with welds.

NASA officials knew before the October explosion that the fix had not worked as well as intended. In May, an overhauled engine exploded during a test at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

Under NASA's contract with Orbital, taxpayers shoulder most of the risk of a catastrophe. The company receives as much as 80% of its fee for each launch even if the rocket explodes.

NASA has not said how much the destroyed cargo was worth. The government will also spend up to $20 million to repair damage the explosion caused to the Virginia launch facility, according to legislation approved in December.

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Before explosion, NASA knew aging Soviet engines posed risks

PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive, SMAP, will measure moisture in the Earth's soil, which will help farmers combat the effects of drought.

Set to launch on Jan. 29 in California, SMAP will orbit the Earth every three days or less to measure moisture in the top two inches of soil with the highest accuracy and resolution, NASA said in a press release.

The spacecraft is equipped with radar to transmit and receive microwaves it sends toward Earth, a radiometer to measure microwaves caused by water in soil and a 19.7 foot rotating mesh antenna, the largest ever deployed in space.

The almost 20 foot antenna will spin at about 14 revolutions per minute, one per four seconds, and was designed to fit into a one-by-four-foot space by engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.

"We call it the spinning lasso," NASA instrument manager Wendy Edelstein said.

SMAP will help scientists and farmers by giving them earlier warnings of droughts and providing more detailed moisture maps.

"SMAP can assist in predicting how dramatic drought will be, and then its data can help farmers plan their recovery from drought," Narendra Das, a water and carbon cycle scientist for NASA, said.

2015 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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NASA launching spacecraft with 19 foot lasso

Originally published January 4, 2015 at 5:25 PM | Page modified January 4, 2015 at 9:21 PM

Years before an unmanned rocket erupted in a fireball in October, NASA officials knew the metal in its 50-year-old Soviet-made engines could crack, causing fuel to leak and ignite, government documents show.

As early as 2008, a NASA committee warned about the substantial risk of using the decades-old engines, and a fire during a 2011 engine test in Mississippi heightened the agencys concern.

The engines had a fundamental flaw in the materials, said a top manager for NASAs contracted rocket builder, Orbital Sciences, in a 2013 interview with an agency historian. The Soviet engines were built in the 1960s and 1970s in a failed attempt to take cosmonauts to the moon.

They were never designed to be in storage that long, said the Orbital manager, Ken Eberly, deputy director for the rocket program.

The explosion, just seconds after liftoff from a Virginia launchpad on Oct. 28, destroyed tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded supplies, experiments and equipment, all bound for the International Space Station.

The episode has raised questions about NASAs oversight of a new program to hire private contractors to carry cargo and astronauts to orbit, rather than operate the spacecraft itself.

NASA and Orbital officials knew the decades-old engines posed a danger before the agency awarded the company a $1.9-billion deal to launch eight missions. The company and NASA tried to address the risk by X-raying the engines to find cracks and patching them with welds.

NASA officials knew before the October explosion that the fix had not worked as well as intended. In May, an overhauled engine exploded during a test at NASAs Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

Under NASAs contract with Orbital, taxpayers shoulder most of the risk of a catastrophe. The company receives as much as 80 percent of its fee for each launch even if the rocket explodes.

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Before explosions, NASA knew aging Soviet engines could crack, leak fuel

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham - Coop Gameplay Walkthrough Part 7 - N.A.S.A (PS4)
Part 7 of Lego Batman 3 Beyond Gotham played in HD on the Playstation 4 and provided with commentary.This walkthrough will contain all missions cutscenes and the ending. In this part are heroes...

By: TheTrophyMunchers

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Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham - Coop Gameplay Walkthrough Part 7 - N.A.S.A (PS4) - Video

761 NASA A Year in the Life of Earth #39;s CO2

By: George Nauri

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761 NASA A Year in the Life of Earth's CO2 - Video

9 na presong tumukas nasa kustodiya na ng mga pulis
Siyam sa 16 na pumugang preso sa Quezon City noong Disyembre 31 ang nasa kustodiya na ngayon ng mga pulis. Subscribe to the ABS-CBN News channel! - http://bit.ly/TheABSCBNNews Watch the ...

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SMAP - Mapping Global Soil Moisture, Managing a Better Future #Nasa
Technology Innovations Spin NASA #39;s SMAP into Space. It #39;s active. It #39;s passive. And it #39;s got a big, spinning lasso. Scheduled for launch on Jan. 29, 2015, NASA #39;s Soil Moisture Active Passive...

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SMAP - Mapping Global Soil Moisture, Managing a Better Future #Nasa - Video