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NASA’s Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The Habitable Zone of Another Star – Video

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NASA #39;s Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The Habitable Zone of Another Star
Astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might...

By: NASA Ames Research Center

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NASA's Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The Habitable Zone of Another Star - Video

NASA Celebrates Earth Day with Public Events, Online Activities

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NASA will celebrate the 44th anniversary of Earth Day with a variety of live and online activities April 21-27 to engage the public in the agencys mission to better understand and protect our home planet.

This year, for the first time in more than a decade, five NASA Earth Science missions will be launched into space in the same year. These new missions will help address some of the critical challenges facing our planet today and in the future: climate change, sea level rise, access to freshwater resources, and extreme weather events. For more information about NASA's Earth science activities in 2014, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

Earth Day in the Nations Capital Monday, April 21 (11 a.m. - 5 p.m. EDT) and Tuesday, April 22 (10 a.m. - 6 p.m.) -- NASA Hyperwall and Science Gallery exhibits in the main hall of Union Station at 40 Massachusetts Ave., NE. The exhibit will include activities and displays showing how NASA uses satellite technology to better understand our changing planet. NASA scientists will give a series of talks April 22 at the Hyperwall stage. For a complete listing of events, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/1kIrbtX

NASA #GlobalSelfie Event Join NASA April 22 as we encourage people all over the world to step outside and celebrate environmental awareness. Anyone, anywhere on the globe, can participate by posting a "selfie" with their local environment as a backdrop. Post your photo to Twitter, Instagram or Google+ using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie or to the event groups on Facebook and Flickr. Photos tagged #GlobalSelfie will be used to create a mosaic image of Earth. For details on how to participate, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/globalselfie/

NASA Center Activities Stennis Space Center, Hancock County, Miss., April 22 (10:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. CDT) -- Demonstrations and hands-on activities will be part of the center's Earth Week at Infinity Science Center. School groups and the general public will be able to participate in the solar beads bracelet activity, tornado in a bottle experiment, Science on a Sphere presentations, and Experimentation Station demonstrations. For more information, visit:

http://www.visitinfinity.com/

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NASA Celebrates Earth Day with Public Events, Online Activities

LADEE, NASA's moon-orbiting robot, crashes down as planned

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The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft orbits the moon in this artist's rendering.AP/NASA

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA's robotic moon explorer, LADEE, is no more.

Flight controllers confirmed Friday that the orbiting spacecraft crashed into the back side of the moon as planned, just three days after surviving a full lunar eclipse, something it was never designed to do.

Researchers believe LADEE likely vaporized when it hit because of its extreme orbiting speed of 3,600 mph, possibly smacking into a mountain or side of a crater. No debris would have been left behind.

"It's bound to make a dent," project scientist Rick Elphic predicted Thursday.

By Thursday evening, the spacecraft had been skimming the lunar surface at an incredibly low altitude of 300 feet. Its orbit had been lowered on purpose last week to ensure a crash by Monday following an extraordinarily successful science mission.

LADEE short for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer was launched in September from Virginia. From the outset, NASA planned to crash the spacecraft into the back side of the moon, far from the Apollo artifacts left behind during the moonwalking days of 1969 to 1972.

It completed its primary 100-day science mission last month and was on overtime. The extension had LADEE flying during Tuesday morning's lunar eclipse; its instruments were not designed to endure such prolonged darkness and cold.

But the small spacecraft survived it's about the size of a vending machine with just a couple pressure sensors acting up.

The mood in the control center at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., was upbeat late Thursday afternoon, according to project manager Butler Hine.

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LADEE, NASA's moon-orbiting robot, crashes down as planned

NASA Innovative Advanced Concept Program Seeks Phase II Proposals

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NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program is seeking proposals for technologies that could be used on future exploration missions. The new proposals will build on the most promising ideas developed in the program's first phase.

The NIAC program funds cutting-edge concepts that have the potential to transform future missions, enable new capabilities, or significantly alter current approaches to launching, building, and operating aerospace systems.

NIAC's Phase II studies provide an opportunity to develop the most promising Phase I concepts. These are aerospace architecture, mission, or system concepts with transformative potential. They must continue to push into new frontiers, while remaining technically and programmatically credible. NIAC's current portfolio of diverse efforts advances aerospace technology in many areas, including construction, human systems, transportation, imaging, and robotic exploration.

"During the second phase of our NIAC program, visionary concepts are matured to advance concepts from notional to feasible," said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "These advanced technology concepts are critical for kick-starting innovation that will enable our future missions."

Recent NIAC Phase II studies have included a concept for a sample return for extreme environments, which could lead to a simple and efficient way to obtain multiple samples drilled out of an asteroid crust.

Another NIAC Phase II study is examining "SpiderFab," an approach to 3D-printing of large structures in space. This could one day enable NASA to produce giant telescopes in orbit without having to design them to fit within a rocket shroud or withstand the vibration and g-loads of launch.

"In NIAC Phase I Studies, the focus is basic feasibility and potential benefit. In Phase II, we can get into real systems engineering and in some cases even demonstration" said Jay Falker, NIAC program executive at NASA Headquarters. "This is critical for taking concepts from paper studies to engineering implementation. Phase II also helps address the important technology development needs of NASA's current and future programs."

NASA will be accepting NIAC Phase II proposals of no more than 20 pages until June 3. Selection announcements are expected later this year. This solicitation is open only to current or previously awarded NIAC Phase I concepts. Complete guidelines for proposal submissions are available on the NIAC website at

http://www.nasa.gov/niac

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NASA Innovative Advanced Concept Program Seeks Phase II Proposals

NASA hands over historic Apollo-era launch pad to SpaceX

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Aerial view of Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA has leased to SpaceX use of the historic pad to launch the company's rockets over the next 20 years.NASA

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, and Kennedy Space Center director Robert Cabana are seen together at Kennedy's Launch Pad 39A, which NASA leased to SpaceX for commercial use on April 14, 2014.Robert Z. Pearlman/collectSPACE.com

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. One of NASA's most historic launch pads is now under new management.

Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida is now under the direction of SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies), the private spaceflight company headed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. The launch pad, which was the site where Apollo 11 lifted off on the first manned moon landing in July 1969, will now support the company's rockets and spacecraft as they depart for Earth orbit, and possibly destinations beyond.

"Today, this historic site, from which numerous Apollo and space shuttle missions began, and from which I first flew and left the planet on STS-61C on Columbia, is beginning a new mission as a commercial launch site," said Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator and former astronaut, during a press conference held at the pad.

[The Rockets and Spaceships of SpaceX (Photos)]

On Monday, NASA signed a property agreement with SpaceX beginning a 20-year lease to occupy and use the launch pad. Over the course of the next two decades, the Hawthorne, California-based company will operate and maintain the facility at its own expense.

"Pad 39A is a historic pad, as we all know, and I am so excited that NASA selected us to be one of their partners and also to be their partner in developing 39A as we move forward into the future of space launch," Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, said.

"We'll make great use of this pad, I promise," she added.

NASA chose SpaceX to lease Complex 39A in December 2013, after determining it no longer had a use for the 40-year-old pad. Instead, the space agency plans to use Pad 39B, Pad 39A's Apollo-era twin, to support future flights of its Space Launch System rockets and Orion capsules to fly astronauts to the vicinity of the moon and out to Mars.

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NASA hands over historic Apollo-era launch pad to SpaceX


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