NASA News

2021-12-17 08:11:56 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Gemind of the North" An arid expanse of the Tengger Desert in north-central China, planet Earth fills the foreground of this starry scene. A widefield panoramic view, it was recorded shortly after moonset in the local predawn hours of December 14. Pictured in the still dark sky, stars of the northern winter hexagon surround a luminous Milky Way. Seen near the peak of the annual meteor shower, the startling flash of a bright Geminid fireball meteor was also captured on that night. Above the western horizon and just below bright star Capella, its dagger-like trail points back to the meteor shower's radiant in Gemini. Of course, the constellation Gemini is easy to spot. Its twin bright stars, bluish Castor and yellowish Pollux are near top center in the frame. [December 17, 2021] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2112/GeminidFireball_AlvinWu1024c.jpg Open / Comment

2021-12-16 23:56:33 #BreakingNews from #Nasa: "Two Astronauts Receive Assignments for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Mission" NASA has assigned two crew members to launch on the agency’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission – the sixth crew rotation flight aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. [December 16, 2021] Read more here: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/two-astronauts-receive-assignments-for-nasa-s-spacex-crew-6-mission Open / Comment

2021-12-16 18:19:57 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "Reflections of Starlight" This Hubble Space Telescope image captures a portion of the reflection nebula IC 2631, which contains a protostar, the hot, dense core of a forming star that is accumulating gas and dust. [December 16, 2021] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/hubble_sstgbsj1109261_ic2631_display1_0.jpg Open / Comment

2021-12-16 17:59:09 #NewReport from #ISS : "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/15/2021" Payloads: EasyMotion:  After donning the EasyMotion Suit, the crew performed Treadmill 2 (T2) exercise science session.  Following the experiment session, the crew removed the suit and charged the experiment batteries.  The EasyMotion investigation uses whole body Electro-Myo-Stimulation (EMS) with a wearable body skin suit for an ISS crew member to perform pre- and postflight EMS-assisted Open / Comment

2021-12-16 08:11:44 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Geminds of the South" Fireflies flash along a moonlit countryside in this scene taken on the night of December 13/14 from southern Uruguay, planet Earth. On that night meteors fell in the partly cloudy skies above during the annual Geminid meteor shower. Frames recorded over a period of 1.5 hours are aligned in the composite image made with the camera facing south. That direction was opposite the shower's radiant toward the north and so the Geminid meteor streaks appear to converge at an antiradiant below the southern horizon. The shower's apparent radiant (and antiradiant) is just due to perspective though. As Earth sweeps through the dust trail of mysterious asteroid 3200 Phaethon, the dust grains that create the Geminid shower meteors are really moving along parallel tracks. They enter Earth's atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second. [December 16, 2021] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2112/geminids_2021_fefo_bouvier1024.jpg Open / Comment

2021-12-15 23:58:57 #NewReport from #ISS : "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/14/2021" Payloads: Behavioral Core Measures (BCM): The crew completed two Robotic On-Board Trainer (ROBoT) research sessions for BCM. The Standardized Behavioral Measures for Detecting Behavioral Health Risks during Exploration Missions (Behavioral Core Measures) experiment initially examined a suite of measurements to reliably assess the risk of adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders during long-duration Open / Comment

2021-12-15 19:26:42 #BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Sets Coverage, Invites Public to Virtually Join Next Cargo Launch" NASA commercial cargo launch provider SpaceX is targeting 5:06 a.m. EST Tuesday, Dec. 21, to launch its 24th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. [December 15, 2021] Read more here: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-sets-coverage-invites-public-to-virtually-join-next-cargo-launch-1 Open / Comment

2021-12-15 18:04:44 #NewPhoto from #Nasa: "Eugene Parker Watches the Liftoff of the Mission Named in His Honor" Dr. Eugene Parker (seated), a pioneer in heliophysics, watches the liftoff of the mission named in his honor. [December 15, 2021] http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/ksc-20180812-ph_geb01_0045.jpg Open / Comment

2021-12-15 08:11:54 #NewImage from #Nasa: "Comet Leonard from Space " What does Comet Leonard look like from space? Today's featured image from Origin.Space's Yangwang-1 space telescope shows not only the currently bright comet -- but several other space delights as well. Taken in optical and ultraviolet light, C/2021 A1 (Leonard) is visible with an extended tail near the image center as it appeared five days ago. The Earth is visible on the lower right, while layers of the Earth's atmosphere glow diagonally from the lower left to the upper right. The trails of two satellites can be seen in front of a myriad of distant stars that dot the background on the upper left. The faint bands of light running diagonally from the lower right to the upper left are auroras. Finally, the image also caught a meteor streaking just below the airglow. To see Comet Leonard yourself from the Earth's surface during the next few days, look toward the western horizon just after sunset or just before sunrise. [December 15, 2021] https://apod.nasa.gov/image/2112/LeonardSpace_Yangwang1_960_annotated.jpg Open / Comment

2021-12-15 00:31:55 #BreakingNews from #Nasa: "NASA Awards Contracts for Rotorcraft Vertical Lift Technology Services" NASA has awarded multiple contracts to provide rotorcraft vertical lift technology development research and development support at the agency’s Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. [December 14, 2021] Read more here: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-awards-contracts-for-rotorcraft-vertical-lift-technology-services Open / Comment