fuckyeahspaceexploration:

André Kupiers guides the Canada robotic arm in to mate with the Dragon.

ISS capture of SpaceX’s Dragon is confirmed, becoming the first private vessel to dock with the space station.

(Source: nasa.gov)

SpaceX’s is Dragon about to dock with ISS. Watch here.

fuckyeahspaceshuttle:

Chute Deployed

With its drag chute deployed, space shuttle Columbia touches down on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility at 6:46:34 a.m. EDT. During the Microgravity Science Laboratory-1 mission, the Spacelab module was used to test some of the hardware, facilities and procedures that are planned for use on the International Space Station while the flight crew conducted combustion, protein crystal growth and materials processing experiments. 

This mission was a reflight of the STS-83 mission that lifted off from Kennedy in April of the same year. That space flight was cut short due to indications of a faulty fuel cell. 

newsweek:

nwkarchivist:

50 Years Ago, Newsweek Was Astronaut/Moon Crazy

Awesome style, us.

Nature.com:

NASA aims for human rendezvous at Mars in 2033

It would be the most precious cargo since the Apollo astronauts returned Moon rocks to Earth. In 2033, humans would arrive in Mars orbit in order to pick up and return to Earth a canister containing the hopes and dreams of Mars scientists: a small collection of Mars rocks that would have been previously collected and put into orbit.

An internal NASA study group, tasked with replanning the agency’s beleaguered Mars programme, revealed on Tuesday that it was using this working scenario and date as a goal. The group has been tasked with finding ways of getting the human and robotic sides of NASA to work together more. In return for supplemental funds from the human programme and the technology office, the robotic science missions might, for instance, include experiments useful for the human programme, such as radiation detectors or optical communication demonstrations.

While the administration of President Barack Obama has said before that it would like to put humans in the vicinity of Mars by the early 2030s, this is the first articulation I’ve seen of a specific, shared date for the key goal of both the human and robotic sides. Orlando Figueroa, a former NASA official leading the study group, presented the working plans on Wednesday to a newly convened committeeof the National Academies responsible for astrobiology and planetary science.

Some of the committee members weren’t too thrilled to be wedded to the human programme. Some pointed out that the technological challenges in getting people to Mars are much greater — and much more expensive — than sending a robot. Such a long mission not only requires new rocketry to get there, but also new materials that would shield astronauts from the intense radiation that exists outside the comfortable environment of the Earth and its magnetosphere. Figueroa says that a robotic retrieval mission could be sent instead in 2033.

Figueroa also mentioned four possible scientific pathways that could define the new Mars programme. My distillation of them are as follows:

1) Proceed, as quickly as the budget allows, with the existing plans for the first stage of a Mars sample return mission: sending a rover to a specific site to identify and cache intriguing samples that would later be lifted into orbit and returned.

2) Do surface science at as many as three sites — increasing the time before samples are returned but increasing the probability that one of the sites has preserved life.

3) Shift away from the singled-minded focus on sample return and perform more generalized Mars “system science”, which could include atmospheric and interior investigations.

4) Consider the possibility that the Curiosity rover, due to land at Gale Crater in August, makes a breakthrough discovery that motivates an intense and immediate follow-up study.

Figueroa’s group is supposed to submit its final report to NASA later this summer.

Photo: This computer-generated view depicts part of Mars at the boundary between darkness and daylight, with an area including Gale Crater beginning to catch morning light.

mothernaturenetwork:

SpaceX rocket makes history with space station flyby
The flyby gave SpaceX’s Dragon capsule an opportunity to test its navigation and communications instruments.

thelivinggallery:

Lunar eclipse from Saturday, May 19, 2012

itsfullofstars:

Today at 3:44 AM eastern, SpaceX launched successfully to become the first commercial company in history to attempt to visit the International Space Station. This marks the third consecutive Falcon 9 launch success and the fifth straight launch success for SpaceX.

For more information on the mission, check out the info in the SpaceX press kit. For those on Twitter, be sure to follow @elonmusk for live updates from mission control.

n-a-s-a:

Thor’s Helmet (NGC 2359) and Planetary Nebula

Credit & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo, Ray Gralak 

fuckyeahspaceshuttle:

First Landing of Columbia

After completing the first full test of the Space Transportation System, mission STS-1, space shuttle Columbia is seen here on the Rogers dry lake, Runway 23, at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. From this aerial view, Columbia is seen as it is being convoyed to a parking area. 

n-a-s-a:

Lunar X

Credit & Copyright: Jerry Lodriguss 

infinity-imagined:

The Andromeda Galaxy in Ultraviolet Light