NASA will launch a rocket tonight (Jan. 29) on a mission that promises to put on a spectacular, albeit brief, light show over the U.S. East Coast that may be visible to stargazers along the Atlantic Seaboard, weather permitting.

Unsuspecting observers of the artificial night sky displaymay be puzzled and amazed, so before you make that phone call to your local media outlet or police station, here is why this is happening and when you might see it.

The bright phenomenon will be caused by an experiment aboard a NASA sounding rocket. As part the mission, the rocket will release a chemical tracer that should create two bright, red-colored lithium vapor trails in space that may be seen by observers across the mid-Atlantic region, and possibly from even further away.

The rocket will be fired from NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility on Virginia's Atlantic coast. Liftoff is slated to occur as early as 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT). The suborbital rocket, which can launch high above Earth but not orbit the planet, will be launched tonight to test technology for gathering science data during future projects. [NASA Rocket Launches Light Up Night Sky (Photos)]

You can watch the launch live on SPACE.com herevia a webcast that will begin at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT).

By rocket's red glare

The launch window for tonight's NASA night light show opens at 5:30 p.m. EST and extends to 6:50 p.m. EST (2350 GMT), but the optimum target time is 5:45 p.m. EST (2245 GMT). NASA intends to photograph the resulting red luminescent trails from Wallops Island and from an aircraft as well.

You can submit any amazing photos of the launch or the resulting night sky show to SPACE.com here: spacephotos@space.com.

Should weather conditions be unfavorable, the firings will be deferred to another night. Alternate datesrun fromThursday through Friday (Jan. 30 to Feb. 1).

The sounding rocket that will be used to create the two NASA-made glowing cloud trails will be a Terrier-Improved Orion.In this technology test launch, two canisters in the rocket's payload section will contain solid metal lithium rods or chips embedded in a thermite cake. The thermite is ignited and produces heat to vaporize the lithium.

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NASA Rocket to Spark Light Show Over US East Coast Tonight

Alien UFOs In Official NASA Video! Aliens After Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch
Alien UFOs Spacecraft In Official NASA Video! - Official video footage from an April 2012 Space Shuttle Atlantis NASA mission appears to clearly reveal UFO #39;s in the sky! Three flying disk shaped objects hover directly above the shuttle and move in a triangular flying formation. The NASA narrator even notes the objects, but fails to offer plausible explanation! - SUBSCRIBE to Bright Enlightenment http://www.youtube.com - JOIN the club: http://www.Facebook.com

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Alien UFOs In Official NASA Video! Aliens After Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch - Video

Galileo: The Jovian Laboratory circa 1989 NASA Galileo Jupiter Orbiter
more at scitech.quickfound.net "This video presentation gives a pre-launch description of the Galileo Mission to Jupiter." Public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). creativecommons.org en.wikipedia.org Galileo was an orbiter and entry probe for Jupiter mdash;an unmanned NASA spacecraft which studied planet Jupiter and its moons, as well as the several other solar system bodies. Named after Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei, it launched on October 18, 1989 carried by Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-34. It arrived at Jupiter on December 7, 1995, after gravitational assist flybys of Venus and Earth, and became the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter. It launched the first probe into Jupiter, directly measuring its atmosphere. Despite suffering antenna problems Galileo achieved the first asteroid flyby, of 951 Gaspra, and discovered the first asteroid moon, Dactyl, around 243 Ida. Mission cost was about US$1.4 billion. Jupiter #39;s atmospheric composition and ammonia clouds were recorded, the clouds possibly created by outflows from the lower depths of the atmosphere. Io #39;s volcanism and plasma interactions with Jupiter #39;s atmosphere was also recorded. Data it collected supported the theory ...

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Galileo: The Jovian Laboratory circa 1989 NASA Galileo Jupiter Orbiter - Video

NASA Readies Addition To Fleet Of Communication Satellites | Video
It has been 10 years since NASA added to its fleet of TDRS communication satellites, and the soon to launch TDRS-K will be the seventh satellite providing crucial communications between the Earth, satellites, ISS, and Hubble Space Telescope.

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NASA Readies Addition To Fleet Of Communication Satellites | Video - Video

NASA Day of Remembrance 2013
For the 10th anniversary of the NASA Day of Remembrance I went back and upgraded the annual ID I had created. I gave it a new open, improved the quality of the crew pictures and names, and created a new ending. For the end I wanted to show the crew members as individuals as we said good bye.

By: Mark Hailey

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NASA Day of Remembrance 2013 - Video

NASA Voyager Spacecrafts Panel BTA 2012
We award the NASA Voyager Spacecrafts the Mechanical Lifetime Achievement Award.

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NASA Voyager Spacecrafts Panel BTA 2012 - Video

Three Ufo #39;s Above Shuttle Atlantis Nasa Tries To Bullshit Them Away
Three Ufo #39;s caught flying in a triangle formation are clearly visible from shuttle Atlantis cameras The astronauts report them to mission control who bullshits an answer as fast as possible stating that it was "Metallic Cloth" and definitely not a solid craft this happened in April 2012

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Three Ufo's Above Shuttle Atlantis Nasa Tries To Bullshit Them Away - Video

January 28, 2013

Image Caption: The Dragon capsule illustrated in this artist's concept, is under development by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif. Credit: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

NASA announced that it is taking the next steps in trying to get back to launching astronauts from U.S. soil. The space agency said that three companies are now conducting activities that will confirm U.S.-based commercial spacecraft are safe to carry crews to the International Space Station (ISS).

Through May 30, 2014, three companies will be working under contract with NASAs Commercial Crew Program (CCP) to develop products to implement the agencys flight safety and performance standards and requirements.

The Certification Products Contracts (CPC) will establish standards across all aspects of commercial crew systems, including design of the spacecraft, launch vehicles, and ground and mission operations.

NASA said CCP will provide the U.S. with its own transportation capabilities to the Space Station. Since the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011, NASA has had to rely on Russias Soyuz spacecraft for transportation to the orbiting outpost.

Throughout the phases of this program, weve really been creating a capability for the nation to use for low-Earth orbit transportation, Ed Mango, CCP manager at Kennedy Space Center, said in a statement. As we create that capability, then NASA will become a customer so that we can move our flight crew to the International Space Station and continue our critical science.

Contractors working on the spacecraft include Boeing, United Launch Alliance, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX. The vehicles the contractors are working on include the CST-100 spacecraft, Dream Chaser, and a modified version of SpaceXs Dragon capsule.

NASA hopes the new crew transportation vehicles will provide safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from low-Earth orbit.

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NASA Moving Forward As It Looks To Return Manned Space Missions Launching From US Soil

Recently we've seen preliminary asteroid mining plans from Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, but what about NASA? The government agency would like to do some excavating on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids, too - but it isn't in it for the profit. NASA wants to clear the way for construction projects and mine materials for use by astronauts, and is developing a teleoperated robot called the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR, pronounced "razor") to get the job done.

According to NASA, it currently costs about US$4,000 to send a single pound (0.45-kg) payload into space, so keeping RASSOR's weight down is important. Unfortunately for an excavator, the lighter it is the more difficult its job becomes. Since RASSOR weighs just 100 pounds (45-kg), it relies on two opposing arms outfitted with counter-rotating bucket drums to provide the necessary counteracting force.

The drums scoop at 20 rotations per minute, trimming the top layer of soil to avoid jamming in the dense regolith at lower depths. Once it has collected about 40 pounds (18-kg) of material, the robot returns to a dump site where it can stand up on its tank treads in a Z-formation to deliver it to a production platform for processing.

"Producing water and fuel from the lunar soil would save the tremendous expense of launching the supplies from Earth, since 90 percent of a rockets mass normally consists of propellant, which can be made on the moon," said NASA.

RASSOR can also overcome rough terrain and even boulders by propping itself up on its arms. Should the robot accidentally flip over at any time, it can continue as if nothing happened thanks to its symmetrical design. During most operations, the robot would be wirelessly teleoperated by a human, who would view the robot's surroundings through its onboard camera. It could also be programmed to do certain jobs all on its own.

NASA says it is already working on the next generation of the robot, and is looking at replacing the tank treads with wheels due to problems encountered during testing. The second prototype should be completed and ready for testing next year, but it will likely be several more years before it is sent into space.

It's possible that the completed robot will be sent to Mars, where it would most likely collect ice believed to exist at the poles. However, NASA admits that it would take a single robot five years, working 16 hours a day, to generate usable amounts of resources.

Source: NASA via RedOrbit

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NASA working on RASSOR robot space excavator

WASHINGTON -- NASA wants to know how you can improve the International Space Station as a technology test bed.

NASA's International Space Station National Laboratory and Technology Demonstration offices are asking for proposals on how the space station may be used to develop advanced or improved exploration technologies. NASA also is seeking proposals about how new approaches, technologies and capabilities could improve the unique laboratory environment of the orbiting outpost.

The NASA Research Announcement, "Soliciting Proposals for Exploration Technology Demonstration and National Lab Utilization Enhancements," may be viewed at: http://go.nasa.gov/Uqkccz

The annoucement will provide successful proposers access to the space station's microgravity environment, crew support and robotic servicing. It closes Sept. 30.

"The space station is a world-class facility and critical to NASA's plan to extend humanity's presence beyond low-Earth orbit," said Andrew Clem of the Technology Demonstration Office in the International Space Station Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "This is an opportunity for researchers, inventors and designers to demonstrate a technology needed for future human spaceflights or to improve an existing space station capability."

NASA will review submissions throughout the year as they are received. The agency will cover launch and integration costs for selected proposals. Successful submissions also may be eligible for limited additional funding.

Proposed technologies should help advance exploration and research capabilities aboard the space station. Concepts must fit within existing NASA standards for mass and volume to meet requirements for current launch vehicles. Suggested areas include in-space propulsion; space power and energy storage; components of highly reliable, closed-loop, human health, life support and habitation systems; thermal systems; robotics, telerobotics, and autonomous systems; and human exploration destination systems.

Proposals for new exploration technologies could include strategies to reduce mass, maintenance and power requirements, while also increasing efficiency, reliability and safety. The idea could be a new technology or a new, improved use of existing space hardware. Proposals also may have the potential to yield benefits for humanity, such as testing a new material or stimulating economic growth.

Alternately, proposers could address improvements to the existing capabilities of the U.S. National Laboratory, such as new uses for existing experiment tools and infrastructure aboard the orbiting outpost, or potential efficiencies like advances in data communications. Other possibilities include ground equipment for space studies, in-orbit analytical tools, three-dimensional cell and tissue culture hardware, or improvements or new uses for existing station research resources.

The enhancements sought in this announcement will further efforts by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space to promote research aboard the station's U.S. National Laboratory.

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NASA Solicits Ideas for International Space Station Research

TDRS-K Spacecraft in Hangar

The TDRS-K spacecraft stands inside a processing hangar in Titusville, Fla., awaiting packaging for launch into orbit 22,300 miles above Earth.

An artist concept of the TDRS-K spacecraft in orbit with its assortment of antennas and a pair of solar arrays to provide electricity.

Technicians inspect the payload fairing placed over NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-K, inside the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., near NASAs Kennedy Space Center.

Technicians move the second half of the payload fairing into place over NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-K, inside the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., near NASAs Kennedy Space Center. This image was released Jan. 16, 2013.

NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-K, stands inside one half of the payload fairing as the spacecraft is encapsulated inside the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., near NASAs Kennedy Space Center. This image was released Jan. 16, 2013.

NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-K, stands inside one half of the payload fairing as the spacecraft is encapsulated inside the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., near NASAs Kennedy Space Center. This image was released Jan. 16, 2013.

Technicians move one half of the payload fairing into place over NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-K, inside the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., near NASAs Kennedy Space Center.

Inside the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. near NASAs Kennedy Space Center, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-K, is being checked out prior to being encapsulated in the nose faring. This image was released Jan. 16, 2013.

In the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. near NASAs Kennedy Space Center, the payload faring for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-K, has been checked out and awaits the arrival of the TDRS-K. This image was released Jan. 16, 2013.

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NASA's New Comsat: TDRS-K Spacecraft in Photos

WASD Gamers | Old-School Sundays - WSW | BUTA by nasa [Frag Movie]
Warsow is a first-person shooter video game first publicly released on June 8, 2005 as an alpha version. The game is in active development. The stable version was released on July 28, 2012 after 7 years of development. The game is very competitive and accepted by several large online leagues such as the Electronic Sports League and ClanBase. 🙂 http://www.warsow.net Enjoy it 🙂 Editor: http://www.youtube.com New update January Frag Movie Schedule - Monday - CoD4, CS:S - Tuesday - Quake, Team Fortress 2 - Wednesday - CoD4, CoD2, CS:S - Friday - CS1.6, CS:GO, Random - Saturday - CoD4, CoD:BO2, Random - Sunday - MISC. OLDSCHOOL

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WASD Gamers | Old-School Sundays - WSW | BUTA by nasa [Frag Movie] - Video

UFO Crash (NASA)

By: Samvel Zakoyan

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UFO Crash (NASA) - Video

Earth HD Time Lapse View from Space NASA

By: mikel jaku

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Earth HD Time Lapse View from Space NASA - Video

Nasa Iyo Na Ang Lahat - Daniel Padilla (KathNiel Fanvid)
Hi guys! This is my first ever fanvid. BTW, credits to the owners of the original files. I just collected them. Let #39;s keep on supporting them guys, to infinity and beyond! Feel free to post your comments below. I #39;ll be posting more fanvids soon (lots of #39;em) so I hope you #39;ll like them. Oh, and subscribe! 🙂

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Nasa Iyo Na Ang Lahat - Daniel Padilla (KathNiel Fanvid) - Video

NASA #39;s Project Gemini : Status Report #2 - 1960s Educational Film
NASA status report that details the purposes behind the Gemini Program, including early unmanned flights required to test various systems and sub-systems before a manned space flight is attempted. The Gemini I Gemini II launches are shown. This film supplied courtesy the Department of Defence NASAimages.org

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NASA's Project Gemini : Status Report #2 - 1960s Educational Film - Video

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Media are invited to a photo and interview opportunity at 10 a.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 30, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Journalists will visit Kennedy's Swamp Works research laboratories and the facility where NASA's Orion spacecraft is being prepared for its first launch.

Kennedy Director Bob Cabana will provide a status update on the center's transformation to a multiuse government and commercial space launch and recovery complex. Media must be at Kennedy's press site by 9:30 a.m. for transportation to the sites.

Journalists will be able to see and photograph the research and technology work going on in the laboratories and the progress being made on the Orion crew module at Kennedy's Operations and Checkout Building. NASA officials will be available for interviews at both locations.

News media without Kennedy accreditation need to apply for credentials by noon on Jan. 29. International media accreditation for this event is closed. Media accreditation for the scheduled Jan. 30 Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-K launch will be honored for the event. Media must apply for credentials online at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

Badges for the Swamp Works and Operations and Checkout Building event may be picked up at the Kennedy Space Center Badging Office on State Road 405.

Kennedy's Swamp Works establishes rapid, innovative and cost-effective exploration mission solutions through leveraging of partnerships across NASA, industry and academia. Concepts start small and build up fast, with lean development processes and a hands-on approach. Testing is performed in early stages to drive design improvements. Capabilities include the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Laboratory, Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory, Regolith Activities Testbed and the Robotics Integration, Checkout and Assembly Area.

In a revamped area of the Operations and Checkout building, NASA employees and Lockheed Martin contractors are working side by side to prepare Orion for Exploration Flight Test-1 next year. Orion is designed to take U.S. astronauts farther into space than ever before.

The Orion spacecraft, managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, will be launched on missions by NASA's heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft from Kennedy for crew and cargo missions, SLS will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages SLS. Kennedy manages the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, which is preparing to process and launch the next-generation vehicles and spacecraft designed to achieve NASA's goals for space exploration.

For more information about the Orion program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/orion

For more information on SLS, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/sls

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NASA Invites Media To View Ongoing Orion And Testing Work At Kennedy Jan. 30

NASA scientific balloon being launched in Antarctica. Credit: NASA

Published: Jan. 25, 2013 at 4:03 PM

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- NASA says a balloon launched in Antarctica and carrying a scientific experiment has broken the record for longest flight by a balloon of its size.

The balloon carrying the Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder (Super-TIGER) experiment has been aloft for 46 days and is on its third orbit around the South Pole, the space agency reported Thursday.

"This is an outstanding achievement for NASA's Astrophysics balloon team," said John Grunsfeld of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Keeping these huge balloons aloft for such long periods lets us do forefront science that would be difficult to do otherwise."

The Super-TIGER instrument is measuring rare heavy elements among the high-energy cosmic rays bombarding the Earth from elsewhere in our Milky Way galaxy.

The 39-million cubic foot scientific balloon launched Dec. 8 from the long duration balloon site near McMurdo Station, Antarctica, took its scientific payload to an altitude of 127,000 feet, more than four times the altitude of most commercial airliners, scientists said.

The McMurdo launch site takes advantage of the stratospheric anti-cyclonic wind pattern circulating from east to west around the South Pole.

The Super-TIGER science team said it plans to keep the balloon flying for eight to 10 more days to allow a close approach to McMurdo Station before terminating the flight and recovering the experiment.

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NASA science balloon sets flight record

Like vinyl records and skinny ties, good things eventually come back around. At NASA, that means looking to the Apollo program for ideas on how to develop the next generation of rockets for future missions to the moon and beyond.

Young engineers who weren't even born when the last Saturn V rocket took off for the moon are testing a vintage engine from the program.

The engine, known to NASA engineers as No. F-6049, was supposed to help propel Apollo 11 into orbit in 1969, when NASA sent Neil Armstrong and two other astronauts to the moon for the first time. The flight went off without a hitch, but no thanks to the engine it was grounded because of a glitch during a test in Mississippi and later sent to the Smithsonian Institution, where it sat for years.

Now engineers are learning to work with technical systems and propellants not used since before the start of the space shuttle program, which first launched in 1981.

Nick Case, 27, and other engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center on Thursday completed a series of 11 test-firings of the F-6049's gas generator, a jet-like rocket which produces 30,000 pounds of thrust and was used as a starter for the engine. They are trying to see whether a second-generation version of the Apollo engine could produce even more thrust and be operated with a throttle for deep-space exploration.

AP

There are no plans to send the old engine into space, but it could become a template for a new generation of motors incorporating parts of its design.

In NASA-speak, the old 18-foot-tall motor is called an F-1 engine. During moon missions, five of them were arranged at the base of the 363-foot-tall Saturn V system and fired together to power the rocket off the ground toward Earth orbit.

Thursday's test used one part of the engine, the gas generator, which powers the machinery to pump propellant into the main rocket chamber. It doesn't produce the massive orange flame or clouds of smoke like that of a whole F-1, but the sound was deafening as engineers fired the mechanism in an outdoor test stand on a cool, sunny afternoon.

The device produced a plume that resembled a blow torch the size of two buses and set fire to a grassy area, which was quickly extinguished.

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NASA Testing Engine From Apollo 11

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is one of the most intricate and powerful observatories ever devised.

Almost immediately after launching into space in 2018, James Webb Space Telescopewill begin the slow process of unfolding from its clamshell configuration into the most sensitive infrared instrument of its kind yet built. The telescope will then begin peering deep into the cosmos for signals left over from the Big Bang that created our universe.

But JWST's nail-biting deployment won't be the first time the craft unfolds. Before constructing the final components, engineers have been making sure to test and retest mockups in conditions potentially harsher than the telescope the long-awaited $8.8 billion successor to NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope will experience.

Space-ready drafts of the mirrors, solar shields and electronics-bearing body of the craft have been fabricated by the Northrop Grumman Corporation, NASA's primary contractor in charge of building JWST. [Photos: The James Webb Space Telescope]

Each piece is identical to the final product. The pieces of the giant telescope are exposed to the some of the worst trials engineers can come up with. The mockups must perform not only in ideal circumstances, but also in subpar conditions.

"You don't just test how it's going to work the way it's supposed to work," Scott Willoughby, JWST's program manager at Northrop Grumman, said during a Jan. 11 tour of the company's facility here in Redondo Beach.

Built in stages

The jet-sized telescope isn't being built all at once, but instead incrementally, allowing for testing of the individual parts.

"You don't built it all and see if it works," Willoughby said.

The first priority has been high-risk objects such as the mirrors and the instruments. JWST contains 18 hexagonal mirrors in an array, rather than one large mirror.

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NASA's Next Space Telescope Coming Together, Piece by Piece