Space

SpaceX cargo ship cleared for Sunday station capture

With its propulsion system working flawlessly, a SpaceX cargo ship loaded with supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station was cleared by NASA on Saturday to press ahead for a day-late capture by the lab complex early Sunday.

NASA space station managers and their SpaceX counterparts met Saturday to assess the Dragon capsule's performance following launch Friday and concluded all systems were "go" for a replanned rendezvous and capture by the station's robot arm Sunday at 3:31 a.m. PT.

"The station's Mission Management Team unanimously agreed that Dragon's propulsion … Read more

SpaceX overcomes thruster problems with cargo ship

A SpaceX cargo ship loaded with more than a ton of spare parts, science equipment, and crew supplies bound for the International Space Station thundered safely into orbit today. But vexing trouble with the capsule's rocket thrusters quickly turned the $133 million flight into a high-tech cliff hanger.

Six-and-a-half hours after launch, follwoing extensive troubleshooting and analysis, it appeared company engineers had resolved the problem, bringing all four sets of thrusters on line and setting the stage for a delayed rendezvous with the space station.

But it was touch and go in the early stages of a high-stakes drama … Read more

Inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule (panorama)

Get a feel for what it's like inside the Dragon capsule by panning around the panorama image below.

SpaceX CRS-2, loaded with more than 1,200 pounds of supplies, including science equipment and spare parts en route to the International Space Station, lifted off this morning aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

Just after the carrier rocket delivered the Dragon capsule into its target orbit, however, a problem arose. As the Solar Array was set to be deployed, which is necessary to provide enough energy to reach the ISS, a problem was … Read more

What's up with the sun? Plenty

We're currently in the midst of what scientists say is the sun's 11-year solar weather cycle, and it's making for quite the show. Over the last few months, NASA and the European Space Agency have been recording solar flares as they erupt, tracking solar storms that send charged particles in Earth's direction at roughly 1.8 million miles per hour. In case you were tempted to do the math, radiation from solar flares make it to Earth within eight minutes.

What's more, the frequency of the storms is expected to increase and reach its peak … Read more

SpaceX scrambles to fix glitches with cargo ship

A SpaceX cargo ship loaded with more than a ton of spare parts, science equipment and crew supplies bound for the International Space Station thundered into orbit Friday, but trouble with the capsule's thrusters forced flight controllers to delay solar array deployment and replan an already complex rendezvous.

"It appears that although it achieved Earth orbit, Dragon is experiencing some kind of problem right now," John Insprucker, SpaceX's Falcon 9 product manager, said during a company webcast. "We'll have to learn about the nature of what happened. According to procedure, we expect a press … Read more

Engineers troubleshoot Curiosity computer glitch

Space radiation may be to blame for corrupted memory used by the Curiosity Mars rover's flight computer, resulting in software glitches that interrupted the flow of science data Wednesday and prompting ground controllers to switch over to a back-up computer Thursday, NASA officials said.

Engineers are reviewing telemetry and diagnostic tests using ground systems to figure out what went wrong and how to restore the original computer system to normal operation.

"We were in a state where the software was partially working and partially not, and we wanted to switch from that state to a pristine version of … Read more

SpaceX supply ship prepped for Friday launch to station

SpaceX engineers readied a Falcon 9 rocket for a launch tomorrow on the company's second operational space station resupply mission, a commercial flight to deliver more than 2,300 pounds of science gear, station equipment, spare parts, and crew supplies to the international lab complex.

If all goes well, the unmanned Dragon cargo ship will return to Earth on March 25 loaded with some 3,000 pounds of no-longer-needed hardware, broken components, and experiment samples bound for laboratory analysis.

"Quite a bit of work has been done to get to this point, by the SpaceX team, by the … Read more

Using space telescopes to measure black hole distortion

An innovative X-ray telescope operated by NASA, working in concert with a European Space Agency satellite, has directly measured the rotation of a supermassive black hole lurking at the heart of a distant galaxy, researchers said Wednesday.

The observation confirms predictions made by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity regarding gravity's ability to twist and distort the fabric of the cosmos and gives astronomers a powerful new tool to probe the evolution of galaxies and the black holes that now appear to be a common, if not required, feature.

"The result we're announcing today is that … Read more

Man-and-woman Mars trip by 2018? Can you say 'couples counseling'?

A wealthy space tourist announced plans today to launch a high-risk manned flight to Mars in 2018, sending a man and a woman on a bare-bones 501-day round-trip flyby, passing just 100 miles above the Red Planet before heading back to Earth.

Dennis Tito, the first private citizen to fly aboard the International Space Station, said he will provide two years of funding to support the Inspiration Mars Foundation, a nonprofit he started to execute the proposed venture. Additional money will be raised from private sources.

"We have 50 years of experience," he told reporters during a news conference. "We can do things a lot faster, we just need a commitment. I'm not worried about getting this done from that standpoint. The vehicles are there, we have time to get it together."… Read more