On July 24th, NASA employees at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center accompanied Atlantis on its rollover from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building. During its upcoming 11-day mission, the STS-115 crew will resume construction of the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA / Jim Grossmann
After the Shuttle Discovery’s successful 13-day mission to the […]

The wait is over! UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory announced today that the eagerly anticipated Stardust@Home project will officially get underway tomorrow.

Mike Zolensky (left), Stardust curator and co-investigator, and Donald Brownlee, principal investigator with the University of Washington, study Stardust material after its canister is opened in a laboratory at the Johnson Space Center. Image […]

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Schaller (for STScI)
In a previous entry this February, I described the ongoing study of 2003 UB313, a large Kuiper Belt object which might be deemed the 10th member of our solar system. Discoverer Mike Brown and his colleagues were then in the process of refining size estimates for this […]

Image Credit: Steven Hobbs (and NASA)
This week, NOVA, the acclaimed science documentary series on PBS pays tribute to the Cassini-Huygens mission. Voyage to the Mystery Moon chronicles the voyage undertaken by NASA and the European Space Agency to Saturn and Titan. From the program description:
A story of curiosity and imagination, this program highlights how […]

Image Credit: William K. Hartmann; Courtesy of UCLA
Whew!
It appeared the DAWN mission had been officially cancelled back on March 3rd. Several days later, NASA agreed to review that decision, a move apparently made possible via new management procedures implemented by the agency’s Administrator, Michael Griffin. NASA announced today that the mission has been reinstated.
The full […]

The Pegasus rocket carrying ST5 drops away from the L-1011 carrier aircraft known as “Stargazer.” Image credit: NASA
ST5 Launch Status Update
Pegasus is away! At 9:03 a.m. EST, the Pegasus rocket carrying three ST5 micro-satellites dropped from its carrier jet.
All three of the ST5 satellites have deployed from the Pegasus rocket and are orbiting Earth. Next, […]

Not much of a surprise, but NASA has announced that the next liftoff of the Shuttle (STS-121, Discovery) will not take place before July 1 at the earliest due to unresolved technical issues. The original launch window targeted May 10 - May 22nd.

Space Shuttle Discovery approaches the International Space Station.
Image credit: NASA (STS-114, 28 July […]