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.

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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

18-05-2012 13:06 The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens leveled surrounding forest, blasted away over a thousand feet of the mountain's summit, and claimed 57 human lives. Landsat satellites have tracked the recovery of the surrounding forest. This video shows that recovery, in a timelapse of annual images from 1979-2011. 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 | Forest Recovering From Mt St Helens Eruption - Video

18-05-2012 14:01 NASA and Space Exploration Technologies invited a group of their social media followers to a NASA Social at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event was in anticipation of the launch of SpaceX's second Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration flight. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is targeted to lift off at 4:55 am EDT on May 19, in an attempt to become the first commercial company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station.

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NASA/SpaceX Hold NASA Social for Falcon 9 Launch - Video

18-05-2012 15:29 Officials from NASA and SpaceX held a press briefing at the Kennedy Space Center to discuss the second SpaceX demonstration launch for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS), scheduled for liftoff on Saturday, May 19. The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon capsule will occur from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. There is a single instantaneous launch opportunity at 4:55 am EDT. NASA Television launch commentary from Cape Canaveral begins at 3:30 am During the flight, SpaceX's Dragon capsule will conduct a series of check-out procedures to test and prove its systems, including the capability to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station.

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NASA/Spacex Discuss Upcoming Launch and Mission To ISS - Video

18-05-2012 15:36 The three newest residents of the International Space Station were greeted by their Expedition 31 crewmates after their Soyuz capsule docked safely with the orbiting laboratory following its two day-plus journey from Kazakhstan. Soyuz commander Gennady Padalka, NASA flight engineer Joe Acaba, and Russian flight engineer Sergei Revin are slated to spend the next five months on the station. Expedition 31 will conclude, and 32 will begin, when Oleg Kononenko, Andre Kuipers, and Don Pettit return to Earth on July first after spending more than six months aboard the ISS. Meanwhile, the launch of the first commercial venture to the International Space Station is a big milestone for NASA and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, the company whose Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft endeavors to carry out the demonstration flight to the ISS. Also, Extreme Temperature Heat Shield, More Tests for Orion's Launch System Component, The State of Alabama celebrates NASA and more.

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New Expedition Crew and Dragon's Demo Flight on This Week @NASA - Video

19-05-2012 09:12 During a press briefing at The Kennedy Space Center on May 19, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and NASA Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer discussed the launch abort of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule on a demonstration flight to the International Space Station. Early data shows that high chamber pressure in Engine #5 caused a cutoff of all nine engines at T- 0.5 seconds. SpaceX will continue to look at the data and inspect the engine before setting a new launch date. The next possible opportunity is May 22 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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SPACEX/NASA DISCUSS LAUNCH ABORT OF FALCON 9 ROCKET - Video

A solar eclipse is set to impress skywatchers around the world this weekend, and a team of NASA scientists are hosting a fun viewing party at one of the most spectacular destinations in the United States: The Grand Canyon.

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NASA to Watch Solar Eclipse from Grand Canyon Sunday

Artist's impression of Orion capsule with crew. Credit: NASA

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 18 (UPI) -- NASA says it will modify an existing and proven Delta IV rocket second stage to launch an Orion spacecraft on an unmanned test flight in 2017.

A manned flight to lunar orbit is planned for four years after that, the agency said.

The Boeing upper stage is "the only means available to support the immediate in-space propulsion needs" for the excursions, NASA said in a statement.

An internal study of in-space propulsion systems available in the United States, Europe and Japan determined the Delta IV upper stage "is the only known in-space stage requiring relatively minor modifications" to meet mission requirements as well as the launch schedule, NASA said.

The Delta IV second stage is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney RL-10B2 engine fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Both Orion missions will be launched from complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center on early versions of NASA's new heavy-lift Space Launch System, Florida Today reported.

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NASA chooses rocket for Orion launches

WASHINGTON On the eve of an historic launch of a commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station scheduled for Saturday (May 19), NASA and SpaceX officials again emphasized that the ambitious mission is ultimately a test flight and a learning opportunity.

The long delayed flight of an unmanned SpaceX Dragon spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket to the space station has a tight launch window early Saturday morning in order to catch up and dock with the space station after about 75 hours of orbital flight.

This is a test flight [and] we want to make sure we learn something as well as wring out the spacecraft, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said during a briefing at the Kennedy Space Station.

The test flight is intended to show that SpaceX can launch its Dragon cargo ship into orbit and guide it to a rendezvous and docking with the space station. Only four nations have linked up with the orbiting laboratory, and SpaceX is the first commercial supplier to attempt a docking.

This mission is extremely complicated, stressed NASAs Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of its commercial crew and cargo program. Given the difficulty of SpaceX achieving all of its goals on only the second test flight of the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft, Lindenmoyer said unmet objectives would roll over to the next test flight scheduled for later this year.

Beyond that, NASA and SpaceX officials declined to define what would represent a successful mission.

SpaceX successfully launched the Dragon spacecraft to orbit and returned it to Earth in December 2010, marking the first time a commercial space company had done so.

But this weekends cargo mission is far more complex. The Dragon spacecraft will carry with it a trunk containing rendezvous and proximity sensors needed to catch up with and dock with the space station. Shortly after launch, solar panels will be deployed to generate power for onboard systems. Dragon also will carry redundant flight computers needed to guide the spacecraft to the space stations docking hatch along with UHF communications so that space station astronauts can control Dragons approach and docking.

The spacecraft also will be controlled by what Shotwell called dramatically more complex software needed for navigation, rendezvous and docking. NASA managers and SpaceX engineers spent months examining every line of spacecraft code as part of a software assurance program. NASA officials were reportedly concerned about Dragon systems interfering with space station equipment.

Shotwell said the SpaceX team validated every code and configuration change in the flight software before NASA would sign off on the systems. The software assurance drill has delayed the Dragon launch several times.

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NASA, SpaceX lower expectations for historic flight to space station

What is it like to work at NASA? This question was originally answered on Quora by Robert Frost.

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What Is It Like To Work At NASA?

SpaceX

A SpaceX rocket waits to be launched at Cape Canaveral, Fla., in March. If all goes as planned, the private company's rocket will be the first commercial spacecraft to visit the International Space Station.

A private spaceship owned by a company called SpaceX is scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral in Florida early Saturday morning.

If all goes well, the unmanned capsule will rocket up on a mission to deliver food and other supplies to the International Space Station, becoming the first commercial spacecraft to visit the outpost.

The highly anticipated mission could mark the beginning of what some say could be a new era in spaceflight, with private companies operating taxi services that could start taking people to orbit in just a few years.

SpaceX and NASA have been working hard to make this launch happen and that has meant navigating the cultural differences between this small, young startup and the huge veteran space agency.

"I feel very strongly that SpaceX would not have been able to get started, nor would we have made the progress that we have, without the help of NASA," says Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002 after making a fortune with the Internet firm PayPal.

Musk says he runs his rocket company like a Silicon Valley tech firm. "That's the operating system that I have in my head of how to run an organization. And that's how I've created SpaceX," says Musk. "NASA is obviously coming from a different heritage."

For five decades, NASA was American spaceflight. Now, the space shuttles are going to museums Discovery is already in the Smithsonian. And the government wants NASA to focus on deep space exploration, while relying on private space taxis to take cargo and people back and forth to the nearby space station.

NASA has been working with companies to make sure that vision of the future will happen. It has a cargo delivery contract with SpaceX worth $1.6 billion. The space agency has also been handing out plenty of advice.

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NASA, SpaceX Aim To Launch Private Era In Orbit

Source: NASAInteractive maps and sites are worth checking out with the solar eclipse nearing.

NASA is using an interactive Google Map to let you see the path of Sunday's annual solar eclipse, which will be viewable for millions of people. NASA also offers a projected time lapse of the eclipse. And if you're in the western U.S., check out the website Shadow and Substance, which shows how the eclipse will look in each state in which it will be visible.

If you're located in the eastern half of the U.S., you'll miss it because of sunset, but anyone west of Wisconsin down to Texas all the way over to southeast Asia can click on the map from NASA and Google to find out exactly when the moon will pass in front of the sun, covering as much as 94 percent of it.

In the United States, the eclipse begins around 5:30 p.m. PDT and if you're near the center-line of the eclipse, which runs from Northern California through Northern Texas, for about 4.5 minutes you'll be able to see a "ring of fire," which will look as if the sun has a black hole in its middle.

Source: NASA"Because some of the sun is always exposed during the eclipse, ambient daylight won't seem much different than usual. Instead, the event will reveal itself in the shadows, writes Dr. Tony Phillips for NASA's Science News.

While you can use a solar filtered telescope to look at the eclipse, Dr. Phillips points out that a simple and safe way to experience it is to crisscross your fingers waffle-style and view the projected rays of light on a surface below them, or stand under a tree to see ring-shaped sunbeams on the ground.

In a footnote he explains, "It's only when sunlight passes through a small aperture that you the get the 'pinhole effect' necessary for solar imaging. Gaps in the leaves between trees or between interwoven human fingers are perfect for this purpose."

Follow Christina on Twitter and Google+ for even more tech news and commentary and follow Today@PCWorld on Twitter, too.

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NASA Google Map Shows Path of Solar Eclipse

On the surface, the funding that the Senate and House appropriations committees want to allocate for NASA in fiscal year 2013 isn't that much different from what they provided to the agency in recent years.

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NASA Budget Would Be More of the Same ... on the Surface

The private spaceflight company SpaceX is poised to launch a robotic capsule toward the International Space Station Saturday (May 19) on a test flight that, if successful, could be a watershed moment for the commercial space industry. But while SpaceX has a NASA contract to provide cargo deliveries to the space station, the company and other private spaceship developers are looking to a future ...

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Private Space Taxi Builders Ponder Future Beyond NASA