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NASA honors fallen astronauts with day of remembrance

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NASA is honoring its fallen astronauts with a special day of remembrance Wednesday (Jan. 28), the 29th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle tragedy.

Space agency officials are conducting ceremonies at several different sites around the country during the annual event, to pay tribute to the three crewmembers killed in 1967's Apollo 1 fire, the seven astronauts lost whenChallenger exploded in 1986and the seven crewmembers who died when the shuttle Columbia broke apart upon re-entry to Earth's atmosphere in 2003.

"NASA's Day of Remembrance honors members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery," agency officialssaid in a statement. "NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and other agency senior officials will hold an observance and wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia from 9 to 10:30 a.m. [EST] Wednesday." [NASA's Fallen Astronauts: A Photo Memorial]

Various NASA centers are also hosting their own observances, officials added. The deputy director of Kennedy Space Center in Florida, for example, will lead a brief ceremony at the facility's visitor center at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT), and Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will hold a candle-lighting ceremony at 10 a.m. local time (11 a.m. EST; 1600 GMT).

TheApollo 1 fire, NASA's first mission-related tragedy, occurred on Jan. 27, 1967. Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were inside their crew capsule at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, conducting a test of the vehicle, which was scheduled to launch on an orbital mission less than a month later. A fire broke out, and all three crewmembers were killed.

The next spaceflight disaster came 19 years and one day later. On Jan. 28, 1986,Challenger disintegratedjust 73 seconds after blasting off, killing Francis "Dick" Scobee, Ronald McNair, Mike Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Greg Jarvis and Connecticut teacher Christa McAuliffe, who was supposed to be the first teacher in space.

The accident investigation revealed that an O-ring in one of the orbiter's two solid rocket boosters failed on that cold morning, allowing hot gas to escape and causing the shuttle's huge external fuel tank to explode.

NASA grounded the space shuttle for nearly three years in the wake of the Challenger tragedy, returning the vehicle to flight in September 1988 with the STS-26 mission of the shuttle Discovery.

The shuttle fleet flew without any serious incidents for another decade and a half. Then, on Feb. 1, 2003,Columbia broke apartas it was gliding back to Earth after a 16-day space mission. All seven astronauts aboard were killed: Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, David Brown, Michael Anderson and Ilan Ramon, who was Israel's first astronaut.

Investigators later determined that Columbia sustained damage during launch, when a piece of foam insulation broke off the external fuel tank and careened into the orbiter's left wing. The impact breached Columbia's heat shield in that spot, allowing hot atmospheric gases to infiltrate the wing during re-entry.

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NASA honors fallen astronauts with day of remembrance

NASA will keep using Russian Soyuz ferry craft

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A Russian Soyuz spacecraft. NASA

NASA hopes to begin launching U.S. and partner astronauts to the space station aboard Boeing and SpaceX ferry craft in the 2017 timeframe, but agency managers expect to continue sending crew members up aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft -- and Russian cosmonauts aloft aboard U.S. vehicles -- as a hedge against problems, like crew illness, that could force some station crew members to make an emergency return to Earth.

Without mixed crews, an illness could force everyone who came up with the sick crew member to depart aboard the vehicle that brought them to the station. If it was a U.S. or partner crew member, everyone who launched with that astronaut aboard a Boeing or SpaceX ferry craft would have to return to Earth, leaving the station in the hands of Russian cosmonauts who launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft and who are not trained to operate NASA systems.

And vice versa.

As a result, NASA managers believe it makes long-range sense to launch one U.S. or partner astronaut aboard every Soyuz and one cosmonaut aboard every NASA commercial ferry ship. Nothing has been finalized, officials say, but the U.S. space agency does not expect either side to pay for seats on each other's spacecraft after Boeing and SpaceX begin operational flights.

"I wouldn't call it a barter for seats, it would be more of an operational understanding," Mike Suffredini, the space station program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, told CBS News in an email early Tuesday. "We would not be buying seats from each other."

The International Space Station.

NASA

"An example would be if a crew member became incapacitated on orbit," Suffredini said. "In this scenario, the entire crew that flew up with the incapacitated crew member has to go home with that crew member to care for the (ill astronaut), fly the vehicle and because if someone stayed on ISS they would be without a rescue vehicle.

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NASA will keep using Russian Soyuz ferry craft

NASA's 'International Year of Light'

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7 photos

Located 30 million light years from Earth, this spiral-shaped galaxy, called Messier 51, has been nicknamed "the whirlpool" for its spiral shape. Data from a host of telescopes, including Chandra (X-ray shown in purple), Hubble (visible light indicated in green), Spitzer (infrared light in red) and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (ultraviolet in blue) have helped create this mesmerizing shot of a galaxy similar in shape to our own.

7 photos

When a massive star exploded in one of our neighboring galaxies, known as the Large Magellanic Cloud, an expanding debris field with the catchy name of SNR 0519-69.0 was left in its wake. In this image, you can actually see the edge of the detonation in red surrounding the multimillion-degree gas captured in blue by the Chandra X-ray observatory.

7 photos

This jaw-dropping image shows the remains of a supernova explosion witnessed by Chinese astronomers almost 2,000 years ago. Thanks to advances in technology, modern telescopes can observe these remnants in light that would otherwise remain invisible to the human eye.

7 photos

We also saw the 100 millionth image of the Sun taken at NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on January 19, 2015. The image's darker regions are areas of less dense gas known as coronal holes, where solar material is moving away from the Sun.

7 photos

NASA also released this remarkable bird's-eye panorama of part of the Andromeda galaxy last week. This is clearest image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor.

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NASA's 'International Year of Light'

NASA's New Robot Will Take the Plunge … Into a Volcano

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NASA is gearing up to test an innovative new robot built to explore some of Earth's most inhospitable places: the fiery heart of volcanoes.

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are gearing up to drop VolcanoBot 2 inside Hawaii's active Kilauea volcano in March to create a 3D map of its fissures and crevices. And the hardy robot may one day help scientists explore volcanoes on other worlds.

VolcanoBot 2, and its predecessor VolcanoBot 1, are designed to fit inside crevices in volcanoes that are too small or too dangerous for humans to explore. The robots are the brainchild of Carolyn Parcheta, a volcanist and NASA postdoctoral fellow based at JPL.

"We've never had a chance to measure a volcanic conduit before because they usually get buried or destroyed during an eruption," Parcheta said in her project's entry in a National Geographic Expedition contest.

But Parcheta found two preserved, inactive fissures in the active Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. She and her JPL co-advisers, Aaron Parness and Karl Mitchell, already tested VolcanoBot 1.

In May, NASA sent VolcanoBot 1 down 82 feet (25 meters) to two locations on the fissure. The wheeled robot is about 12 inches (30 centimeters) long with wheels that are 6.7 inches wide (17 cm).

"In order to eventually understand how to predict eruptions and conduct hazard assessments, we need to understand how the magma is coming out of the ground," Parcheta said in a NASA statement. "This is the first time we have been able to measure it directly, from the inside, to centimeter-scale accuracy."

The scientists found, however, that VolcanoBot 1 was too large and it's motors too weak to reach the fissure's bottom. Therefore, VolcanoBot 2 was born.

With its length of 10 inches (25 cm), VolcanoBot 2 is smaller and lighter than its predecessor, with features that allow it to look up, down and around a fissure.

Data will be collected and stored onboard VolcanoBot 2, and the robot's 3D live- video feed will allow Parcheta and her colleagues to navigate its path more accurately.

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NASA's New Robot Will Take the Plunge ... Into a Volcano

Bright Mystery Spot Flickering On Dwarf Planet Ceres As Nasa Spacecraft Approach – Video

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Bright Mystery Spot Flickering On Dwarf Planet Ceres As Nasa Spacecraft Approach
http://www.undergroundworldnews.com Dahboo7 On Zeekly: http://zeeklytv.com/user/Dahboo77 A strange, flickering white blotch found on the dwarf planet Ceres by a NASA spacecraft has scientists...

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Bright Mystery Spot Flickering On Dwarf Planet Ceres As Nasa Spacecraft Approach - Video

STS 119 – ISS Fly Around Sped Up : NASA HD Space Shuttle – International Space Station – Video

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STS 119 - ISS Fly Around Sped Up : NASA HD Space Shuttle - International Space Station
A fly around the ISS #iss #internationalspacestation Bringing you the BEST Space and Astronomy videos online. Showcasing videos and images from the likes of NASA,ESA,Hubble etc. Join me on...

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STS 119 - ISS Fly Around Sped Up : NASA HD Space Shuttle - International Space Station - Video

Video: NASA wants to send tiny helicopter drones to scout Mars surface – Video

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Video: NASA wants to send tiny helicopter drones to scout Mars surface
NASA engineers are working on a small helicopter that could ????scout???? a trail for future Mars rovers, but getting a chopper that could fly in the Martian atmosphere is tricky. Nasa...

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Video: NASA wants to send tiny helicopter drones to scout Mars surface - Video

NASA offers a cheaper ticket to space

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NASA expects to pay an average of $58 million a seat when its astronauts begin flying on Boeing's CST-100 and SpaceX's Dragon capsules in 2017, Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew program, told reporters during a news conference in Houston and via conference call.

"I don't ever want to have to write another check to Roscosmos after 2017, hopefully,'' NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.

Both SpaceX and Boeing plan two test flights to the station, the first without a crew and the second with a combination of company test pilots and NASA astronauts aboard.

SpaceX is targeting its unmanned test flight in 2016 and its piloted flight in early 2017, said company president Gwynne Shotwell.

Read MoreSpaceX, Elon Musk and the reusable rocket dream

Boeing's test flights are targeted for April and July 2017, vice president and program manager John Elbon said.

For its manned test flight, Boeing plans to fly one as-yet-unnamed company astronaut and one NASA astronaut. SpaceX said it is still deciding on a test flight crew.

Though schedules show SpaceX being ready ahead of Boeing to fly operational missions, NASA currently expects Boeing to begin flight services first in December 2017, Lueders said.

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NASA offers a cheaper ticket to space

NASA Designing a Copter Drone for Mars

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NASA may send a helicopter drone to Mars in 2020 to accompany a six-wheeled land vehicle.

NASA may send a helicopter drone to Mars in 2020 to accompany a six-wheeled land vehicle being designed for the space agency's next rover mission.

The drone, being developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., weighs 2.2 pounds and sports helicopter blades measuring 3.6 feet from tip to tip, according to Space.com.

JPL has released a video exploring the idea of using a drone on Mars, which you can see below.

"If our rover was equipped with its very own helicopter that could see over tall objects in front of it, it would allow us to make decisions much more efficiently on which way to command the rover," JPL mechanical engineer Mike Meacham said in the video.

Challenges facing the design team include the difficulty of flying in the thin, almost nonexistent atmosphere of Mars, which would require a different copter design than the ones that fly with ease on Earth. The body of the Mars drone must be relatively lightweight compared to a bulkier blade system to achieve lift in an atmosphere that's just 1 percent as dense as Earth's.

The drone would probably only be capable of three-minute flights, according to Bob Balaram, chief engineer of mobility and robotics systems at JPL. It would climb to a maximum height of 330 feet and fly a few thousand feet over land each day.

"It has to be autonomous in terms of being able to fly and maintain stable flight," Balaram said in the video. "And then, this system has to repeatedly take off and land on natural rocky terrain like you see out here. And then, the other one is that it has to survive the harsh environment of Mars."

The proposed copter would include "counter-rotating propellers designed for use in the thin Martian air; batteries that are recharged by solar power; a high-resolution, downward-looking camera for navigation, landing and science surveying of the terrain; and a communications system to relay data to the rover," Space.com reported.

The site noted that an insect-like "entomopter" flying device has also been proposed for a future Mars mission, while balloons are another aerial reconnaissance idea engineers are developing for exploring the Red Planet.

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NASA Designing a Copter Drone for Mars

SpaceX and Boeing are on their way to launching US astronauts, NASA says

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Provided by The Verge

New details about NASA's Commercial Crew Program were revealed today during a press conference held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Both SpaceX and Boeing have completed the first milestones in their plans to send humans into space from US soil for the first time in years.

SpaceX has completed the first certification milestone in its CCP commitment, and will spend much of 2015 testing abort solutions for its formerly cargo-only Dragon capsule. (Abort procedures are more critical in crewed missions.) A launchpad abort will be tested in the next two months at Cape Canaveral, and an in-flight abort test will follow "later this year," according to SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell. Uncrewed missions to the ISS with the new capsule will start in 2016, and the company is still working out the makeup of its first test flight crew.

"I don't ever want to have to write another check to Roscosmos."

The CCP was started after the shuttle program was put to rest in 2011. Last April, NASA announced it wouldn't work with Russia any longer when it came to transporting American astronauts to the International Space Station. Instead, NASA awarded contracts to SpaceX and Boeing to build this new fleet of crewed spacecraft back in September. "I don't ever want to have to write another check to Roscosmos," NASA's administrator Charles Bolden said during today's press conference. As of right now, the CCP should allow for an average cost of $58 million per seat, as opposed to the average of $70 million per seat it was costing the agency to fly with the Russians.

SpaceX's goal is to fly over 50 Falcon 9 missions before attempting the first crewed launch in early 2017. Those missions will accommodate four crew members with space for cargo. The company will operate these CCP missions similarly to its cargo missions. That means the mission control centers, flight simulators, and other flight capabilities will be located at both Johnson Space Center and at the company's base in Hawthorne, CA.

The company is also working on outfitting its Dragon capsule with propulsive landing, Shotwell said, which could improve reusability by dispensing with the need to splash down in water. Instead, the capsule would land right at Johnson Space Center, using rockets on the bottom to help control the descent. That's not the only new technology the company is working on. It hopes to outfit its Falcon 9 rockets with wings and retrorockets so they can land on autonomous barges in the ocean.

Boeing will launch the first crewed mission

Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders said that the first crewed mission in 2017 will belong to Boeing despite the fact that SpaceX already has a working spacecraft. To fill that first mission, the astronaut office is looking at naming a "small cadre" of astronauts that would follow both companies. The first crew will be selected from that group, which will be named "before long," according to Johnson Space Center director Ellen Ochoa.

Boeing has completed the first two certification milestones for its CST-100 spacecraft. NASA has signed off on parts of its commercial crew operation, including designs for the control center, training systems, flight simulators, and software. Boeing has also started building its crew access tower on the Atlas V launchpad, and that construction will continue in between uncrewed Atlas V launches.

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SpaceX and Boeing are on their way to launching US astronauts, NASA says


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