NASA

Read the latest NASA news today on Newser.com

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Piece of Shuttle Columbia Found in Texas Lake

Drought lowered lake level to reveal part of destroyed ship

(Newser) - A piece of the space shuttle Columbia has been discovered in an east Texas lake, report CNN and Space.com . The shuttle broke up when re-entering the atmosphere in 2003, killing its seven-person crew. The newly-discovered part is a tank 4 feet in diameter that contributed power and water to...

NASA May Have Found Lost Lunar Probe

Lunar Orbiter 2 crashed on dark side of the moon

(Newser) - NASA may have found a lost spaceship on the dark side of the moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a ship designed to map the surface of the moon, has spotted a butterfly-shaped pattern that Fox News speculates might be the probe’s predecessor, the Lunar Orbiter 2. The craft, launched...

Asteroid Has Been Following Us for Thousands of Years

So-called trojan asteroid discovered in Earth's orbit

(Newser) - It turns out that Earth has another neighbor besides the moon: a so-called Trojan asteroid that has been traveling with us around the sun for thousands of years, reports the Los Angeles Times . Plenty of other planets have their own asteroids—there are at least 4,000 in Jupiter's...

Private Companies Shoot for the Moon

About 30 companies vying for Google's big prize

(Newser) - The space shuttle is gone, but worry not. Private industry is coming to the rescue, and fast. Inspired by a $30 million prize put up by Google, 29 entrepreneur/engineer teams are out to prove they have what it takes to win the kitty and become the first private enterprise to...

Atlantis Makes Final Landing
 Atlantis Makes Final Landing 
Jul 21, 2011 7:59 AM CDT

Atlantis Makes Final Landing

30-year shuttle program ends smoothly

(Newser) - The very last space shuttle landing was as smooth as they come. NASA's 30-year space shuttle program came to end just before sunrise as Atlantis landed safely in Florida, the AP reports. The shuttle, which performed perfectly during its final mission to resupply the International Space Station, is home...

Post-Shuttle Era NASA: Now What?

Agency lacks clear vision for future of space exploration

(Newser) - Atlantis' wheels will hit Earth early Thursday, closing out NASA's epic 30-year space shuttle program for good. But when the dust clears, the space agency has no clear replacement program on the horizon to lead America's return to space, notes the LA Times . Rather, the trailblazing agency is...

'Godspeed:' Atlantis Leaves ISS a Final Time

Shuttle takes unprecedented photos of space station on last return trip

(Newser) - Atlantis left the International Space Station for the very last time today, heading home to end the 30-year run of a vessel that kept Americans flying to and from orbit longer than any other rocketship. The space shuttle slipped away after performing a partial lap around the space station. Ten...

Astronauts Take NASA's Last Spacewalk of Shuttle Era

They set up experiment for robot to refuel satellites

(Newser) - Astronauts making the last spacewalk of NASA's space shuttle era today retrieved a broken pump from the International Space Station and installed a fill-er-up experiment for a robot on the side of the space station. The two-armed robot Dextre won't actually begin the $22.6 million experiment until...

'Space Fence' to Track Cosmic Junk

Near misses underscore need for new system

(Newser) - As the space shuttle program draws to a close, engineers are focusing on a less glamorous phenomenon of the space age: cosmic junk. The US Air Force is working on a $3.5 billion "Space Fence" scanner to track the estimated 500,000 pieces of space debris bigger than...

Space Shuttle Atlantis Docks a Final Time
 Atlantis Docks a Final Time 
Jul 10, 2011 11:04 AM CDT

Atlantis Docks a Final Time

Last shuttle mission cruising along smoothly

(Newser) - Atlantis has docked with the International Space Station, yet another final milestone as NASA winds down its storied shuttle program with what the AP is perhaps excessively referring to as "a flight full of passion." "Atlantis arriving," called space station astronaut Ronald Garan Jr. as the...

Strangest Passengers in NASA History

From frogs to fish, the space shuttle has carried plenty of crazy critters

(Newser) - You can probably name the first American sent into space (Alan Shepard), but the first monkey, frog, and jellyfish made the trip with far less fanfare. Space Shuttle Atlantis took off yesterday with a few odd passengers: an iPhone and a mutant strain of salmonella. But they're not the...

Atlantis Blasts Off on Final Shuttle Flight

Flight will last 12 days

(Newser) - Atlantis blasted off this morning on the last flight of NASA's space shuttle program. The historic liftoff occurred 30 years and three months after the very first shuttle flight. Four astronauts are riding Atlantis to orbit, bound for the International Space Station. Massive crowds jammed Cape Canaveral and surrounding...

After Last Shuttle Lifts Off, Russia Owns Space

Moscow will have a monopoly on flights to ISS for years

(Newser) - After the last US space shuttle flight blasts off tomorrow, Russia will officially have a monopoly on outer space. The 40-year-old Soyuz capsule will be the only vessel capable of reaching the International Space Station, and Russia can charge dearly for rides, the Wall Street Journal reports. “We are...

NASA's Final Shuttle Crew Readies for Atlantis' Last Ridew
 Meet NASA's Last Shuttle Crew 
Jul 3, 2011 8:46 AM CDT

Meet NASA's Last Shuttle Crew

Four astronauts close out program with Atlantis' final flight

(Newser) - They are the envy of America's space program: Christopher Ferguson, Douglas Hurley, Rex Walheim, and Sandra Magnus will zip into space on Friday aboard NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission. The smallest crew since 1983 amounts to an afterthought: They were initially groomed as a rescue mission in...

NASA Sues Astronaut for Swiping Moon Camera

Moonwalker Edgar Mitchell tried to sell camera at auction

(Newser) - NASA is suing the sixth man on the moon for a camera that he says would have ended up as "government trash" or moon litter if he hadn't kept it. Government lawyers got involved after Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell attempted to sell the lunar movie camera at...

Troops' A/C Costs $20.2B— More Than NASA

Military spends $20B to cool tents in the Mideast

(Newser) - Which would you rather have: a space program or cool army tents in the Mideast? The US military spends $20.2 billion annually on air conditioning for tents in Iraq and Afghanistan—an amount that NPR notes tops NASA's entire budget, all damages BP has paid for the Gulf...

Saturn Moon May Hide Underground Ocean

Salt water ice spewing out from under the surface

(Newser) - Saturn’s moon Enceladus is spewing what appears to be chunks of ice composed of salt-water vapor out of fractures in its southern pole, leading scientists to believe there may be a massive ocean lurking beneath its surface. The plumes were first discovered by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft some time ago,...

Black Hole Spotted Feasting on Passing Star

Gamma-ray burst leads astronomers to 'feeding frenzy'

(Newser) - The super massive black hole at the heart of a galaxy in the Draco constellation has been caught in the middle of a meal—and it's a messy eater. Scientists analyzing an unusually long-lasting burst of gamma rays from the constellation 4 billion light years away believe they are...

Probe Unlocks Mercury's Secrets

Messenger data surprising scientists

(Newser) - Mercury is anything but the boring "burnt-out cinder" scientists once believed it was, say researchers analyzing data from NASA's Messenger orbiter. The spacecraft has now spent 88 days—one Mercurian year—circling the planet, and has sent back about 20,000 new pictures that strongly suggest that ice...

3 More Astronauts Join Space Station Crew

New tenants include an American

(Newser) - It's a full house again at the International Space Station after a Russian capsule carrying three astronauts from three countries docked at the orbiting lab yesterday. The new tenants arriving for a five-month stay were American Michael Fossum, Russian Sergey Volkov, and Japan's Satoshi Furukawa. They join American...

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