NASA

Read the latest NASA news today on Newser.com

Stories 181 - 200 | << Prev   Next >>

Asteroid 'Firework' Exploded With Force of 440lbs of TNT

It was seen from 4 US states and Canada

(Newser) - People in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and Quebec, Canada, claim to have witnessed an asteroid breaking up in the sky on Sunday, which turned out to be rattling. Many people reported hearing a rumble or sonic boom as a 10-pound bowling ball-sized chunk of an asteroid—traveling at...

Perseverance Takes First Spin on Mars

Rover travels 21 feet in a test drive

(Newser) - There's no chance of rain, so it might be a good time to wash Perseverance. Mission controllers took the rover out for a 33-minute test drive Thursday, covering 21 feet of the dusty surface of Mars, NASA reports. They liked the way it handled. "The rover’s six-wheel...

In NASA's Mars Parachute, a Coded Message

Internet sleuths uncover 'dare mighty things'

(Newser) - NASA slipped a hidden message into last week's Mars landing —the phrase "dare mighty things" encoded in a red-and-white parachute. The Telegraph reports that Internet sleuths deciphered the message, and NASA's chief engineer for the Perseverance project confirmed they got right. "It looks like the...

NASA Releases First-Ever Martian Audio, Video

They're the 'closest you can get to landing on Mars without putting on a pressure suit'

(Newser) - A big Red Planet first from NASA: The agency has released the first-ever video of a Mars landing and the first audio sent back from the planet. The high-definition video was recorded by videos on the entry capsule and the Perseverance rover itself during its successful landing Thursday. "The...

Stunning Mars Images Rival Moon Landing's

(Newser) - Photos sent back from Mars by NASA's Perseverance rover already are joining the album of iconic pictures of space exploration, putting them alongside such indelible images as Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon in 1969. "We can only hope, in our efforts to engineer spacecraft and explore our...

Here Are the First Images From NASA's Perseverance Rover

The black and white images show the surface of Mars

(Newser) - NASA's Perseverance, the biggest and most advanced rover the agency has ever sent, landed on Mars Thursday to cries of jubilation from ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Minutes later, the rover sent back its first two images from the red planet,...

Touchdown! NASA Lands Another Rover on Mars
Touchdown! NASA Lands
Another Rover on Mars
UPDATED
Feb 18, 2021 3:00 PM CST

Touchdown! NASA Lands Another Rover on Mars

Perseverance arrives safely

(Newser) - NASA successfully landed another rover on Mars Thursday. The Perseverance rover touched down about 4pm Eastern after a typically nail-biting descent. Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena cheered and exchanged fist bumps and high-fives in triumph—and relief—on receiving confirmation that the six-wheeled...

Millie Hughes-Fulford Circled the Earth 146 Times

Researcher spent 9 days in orbit on the Columbia

(Newser) - Millie Hughes-Fulford, a trailblazing astronaut and scientist who became the first female payload specialist to fly in space for NASA, died last week after a yearslong battle with cancer, her family said. She was 75. Hughes-Fulford was selected by NASA for its astronaut program in 1983 and in June 1991...

Digger on Mars Just Couldn't Gain Traction

NASA gives up after the soil wasn't quite what it was expecting

(Newser) - NASA declared the Mars digger dead Thursday after failing to burrow deep into the red planet to take its temperature. Scientists in Germany spent two years trying to get their heat probe, dubbed the mole, to drill into the Martian crust. But the 16-inch-long device that is part of NASA'...

NASA Killed All Its Monkeys in a Day

27 primates were held at California research center

(Newser) - A few retired monkey astronauts lived long lives in sanctuaries after trips to space—but that wasn't the fate of 27 primates held at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. According to documents obtained by animal welfare group Rise for Animals under a Freedom of Information Act request,...

Astronomers: There&#39;s a Space &#39;Superhighway&#39;
Astronomers Find
Cosmic 'Superhighways'
new paper
Dec 12, 2020 3:40 PM CST

Astronomers Find Cosmic 'Superhighways'

Researchers call it a 'true celestial autobahn'

(Newser) - Think space travel is just too slow? Well, good news: Astronomers say they've uncovered an "autobahn" of invisible interactions that moves objects along—and might just speed up space exploration, Science Alert reports. The new research hinges on "manifolds," or gravitational regions that exist between orbital...

Bezos' Blue Origin Wants a Woman on the Moon

NASA getting ready to pick a company to build a moon lander

(Newser) - If NASA can put 12 men on the moon, Jeff Bezos' space company thinks it can put a woman on our lunar neighbor, reports the Guardian . With NASA getting ready to pick between three companies vying to supply it with a lunar lander, Blue Origin posted an Instagram video of...

NASA Confirms Mystery Object Is 54-Year-Old Rocket

Welcome home, Centaur

(Newser) - A mysterious object temporarily orbiting Earth is a 54-year-old rocket , not an asteroid after all, astronomers confirmed Wednesday. Observations by a telescope in Hawaii clinched its identity, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The object was classified as an asteroid after its discovery in September. But...

We May Have Been Visited by Relic of Early Space Age

Mysterious space object zipped by Earth, and NASA experts think it hails from the 1960s

(Newser) - In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, an object in space zipped by Earth at a distance of about 27,000 miles. The object has been given the not-so-descriptive designation of "2020 SO," and while nobody knows with certainty what it is, NASA researchers have an intriguing guess....

A Thanksgiving Prank Rattled NASA in 1991
A Thanksgiving Prank
Rattled NASA
in 1991
longform
Nov 26, 2020 7:30 AM CST

A Thanksgiving Prank Rattled NASA in 1991

It involved a Turkish satellite

(Newser) - He missed a key word in the phone call he answered at Mission Control in Houston in the early hours of Thanksgiving 1991. Lead Flight Director Milt Heflin picked up the phone and was given a warning by his flight dynamics officer: Air Force trackers who monitor orbital traffic had...

SpaceX Capsule Reaches ISS
SpaceX Capsule Reaches ISS
Nov 17, 2020 12:03 AM CST

SpaceX Capsule Reaches ISS

Historic first such 'taxi' ride is complete

(Newser) - SpaceX’s newly launched capsule with four astronauts arrived Monday at the International Space Station, their new home until spring. The Dragon capsule pulled up and docked late Monday night, following a 27-hour, completely automated flight from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the AP reports. The linkup occurred 262 miles...

A Historic First for SpaceX, NASA
A Historic First
for SpaceX, NASA
Nov 16, 2020 1:03 AM CST

A Historic First for SpaceX, NASA

Four astronauts are due to reach International Space Station Monday

(Newser) - SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on Sunday on the first full-fledged taxi flight for NASA by a private company . The Falcon rocket thundered into the night from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral with three Americans and one Japanese national, the second crew to be launched...

'Blue Marble' Photo, First Space Selfie Up for Grabs

2.4K vintage photos showcase the golden age of space exploration

(Newser) - The only photograph showing Neil Armstrong walking on the moon is set to go to the highest bidder. Christie's is auctioning off some 2,400 rare NASA images amassed by French collector Victor Martin-Malburet, and though the one of Armstrong is expected to fetch the highest price, an estimated...

The ISS&#39; End Will Be Fiery, but Not Fiery Enough
The ISS
Is Doomed
to Die by Fire
in case you missed it
Nov 7, 2020 2:30 PM CST

The ISS Is Doomed to Die by Fire

A look at how the International Space Station could come to its end

(Newser) - Monday marked two decades of humans occupying the International Space Station, but whether it'll make it to the end of its third decade remains unclear. Space.com explains that to stay in orbit, the ISS relies on fuel injections from the cargo ships that visit it. Such visits have...

Asteroid Thought to Be Worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000

16 Psyche thought to be massive chunk of iron and nickel

(Newser) - Somewhere between Mars and Jupiter is a potato-shaped space rock possibly worth way more than the entire economy of Earth. Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis discovered the Massachusetts-sized asteroid known as 16 Psyche lurking in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in 1852, per Fox News . New observations...

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