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Archive for February, 2010

Satellite navigation is having an enormous impact on our daily lives. In practical terms it means the only place left to get lost is indoors, where satnav signals fail to reach. But one ESA project is changing that.

In less than four months since launch, the first calibrated images are being delivered by ESA’s SMOS mission. These images of ‘brightness temperature’ translate into clear information on global variations of soil moisture and ocean salinity to advance our understanding of the water cycle.

Darkness enshrouded space shuttle Endeavour as it touched down on Runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After 14 days in space, Endeavour’s 5.7-million-mile STS-130 mission was completed on orbit 217. During the STS-130 mission, the crew installed the Tranquility node, a module that provides additional room for crew members and many of the station’s life support and environmental control systems. Attached to Tranquility is a cupola that provides a panoramic view of Earth, celestial objects and visiting spacecraft. The module was built in Turin, Italy, by Thales Alenia Space for the European Space Agency. With these improvements, the orbiting laboratory is approximately 90 percent complete. Image Credit: NASA/Tom Joseph

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-P, or GOES-P, is scheduled for launch aboard a Delta IV rocket on Tuesday, March 2, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-P, or GOES-P, is scheduled for launch aboard a Delta IV rocket on Tuesday, March 2, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

This view of the port side of space shuttle Endeavour’s cargo bay was recorded after separation from the International Space Station on Feb. 19, 2010, as the STS-130 astronauts prepared for a Feb. 21 landing, after spending over a week working in tandem with the Expedition 22 crew members aboard the station. Other than the docking system hardware, the cargo bay is empty after delivering the Tranquility node and the new cupola to the orbital outpost. Image Credit: NASA

Space shuttle Endeavour and six astronauts ended a 14-day journey of more than 5.7 million miles with a 10:20 p.m. EST landing Sunday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA will preview the next space shuttle mission during a series of news briefings on Tuesday, March 9, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Astronaut John Glenn inspects artwork that will be painted on the outside of his Mercury spacecraft, which he nicknamed Friendship 7. On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn lifted off into space aboard his Mercury Atlas (MA-6) rocket to become the first American to orbit the Earth. After orbiting the Earth 3 times, Friendship 7 landed in the Atlantic Ocean, just East of Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas. Glenn and his capsule were recovered by the Navy Destroyer Noa, 21 minutes after splashdown. Image Credit: NASA

NASA will honor the achievements of the 2009 Centennial Challenges prize winners and competition hosts with a technical symposium Feb. 25 and a recognition ceremony Feb. 26.