NASA news stories on Newser

Trouble Ahead: Weather Satellites in 'Rapid Decline'

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:15:00 CDT

If you like to complain about the unreliability of the weather forecast, get ready to rant: The weather satellites orbiting the Earth are "beginning a rapid decline" in both quality and quantity, a new report finds, and squeezed budgets mean replacements may not be forthcoming. NASA and NOAA Earth observation...

SpaceX Counts Down to Maiden ISS Mission

Rob Quinn — Wed, 02 May 2012 06:35:23 CDT

Commercial space firm SpaceX may be just days away from going where no private company has gone before: the International Space Station. The company is preparing to send its unmanned Dragon capsule on a mission to supply the ISS with 1,100 pounds of food, water, and other cargo. The...

Enterprise Flies Over NYC

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:58:05 CDT

An unusual flying object has landed at New York's JFK Airport: the space shuttle Enterprise. Before arriving this morning, it zoomed around New York City's airspace, riding on top of a modified jumbo jet as part of NASA's process of wrapping up the shuttle program . Enterprise is eventually going to...

'Snowball Fight' Spotted in Saturn's Weirdest Ring

Rob Quinn — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:09:00 CDT

Inside Saturn's outermost ring, NASA's Cassini probe has captured activity that researchers liken to a cosmic snowball fight. Hundreds of balls of snow and ice up to half a mile in diameter have been spotted punching through the F ring at gentle speeds, leaving glittering trails behind them, the BBC...

Newt's Lunar Ideas Not Lunacy

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:14:44 CDT

Jeffrey Goldberg is not what one might call a Newt Gingrich fan, but as he sat on the tarmac at Reagan National Airport gazing at the space shuttle Discovery as it prepared for its final flight, he realized something: "On the matter of space exploration … Newt Gingrich is exactly...

James Cameron's Next Trick: Mining Asteroids?

Mark Russell — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:20:05 CDT

After hanging out in the deepest depths of the oceans , how does a Hollywood super-director top himself? By space mining, of course. James Cameron has teamed up with two Google billionaires, several ex-NASA officials, and some other ambitious investors to form Planetary Resources Inc., a space exploration company that seems...

NASA Captures Massive Sun Blast

Rob Quinn — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:32:00 CDT

A blast of super-heated plasma big enough to scorch dozens of Earths erupted from the sun yesterday, providing NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory with stunning images. The coronal mass ejection, which followed a solar flare, was not aimed toward Earth, but two NASA spacecraft—including the Spitzer Space Telescope—will feel...

Discovery Ends Final Ride

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:00:00 CDT

Space shuttle Discovery landed today at Washington Dulles International Airport, where its wheels will stop for the last time at the Smithsonian. The world's most traveled spaceship landed after taking off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and soaring around the Washington Monument and White House in a salute to the nation's...

Asteroid Flies Past Earth Closer Than Moon

Kevin Spak — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:22:05 CDT

A 150-foot-wide asteroid whizzed stunningly close to Earth yesterday, passing within 143,000 miles of us—a hair more than half the distance from the Earth to the moon. NASA saw the rock coming two weeks ahead of time, and says there was never any danger of it actually hitting...