Mapex

Archive for March, 2010

NASA has awarded contracts to eight aerospace firms for Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition III spacecraft and related services.

This new composite image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope shows the dusty remains of a collapsed star, the dust from which is flying past and engulfing a nearby family of stars. Scientists believe the stars in the image are part of a stellar cluster in which a supernova exploded. Material ejected in the explosion now blows past these stars at high velocities. In this image of G54.1+0.3, X-ray data from Chandra are shown in blue, and data from Spitzer in green (a shorter wavelength) and red-yellow (a longer one). The white source near the center of the image is a dense, rapidly rotating neutron star, or pulsar, all that remains of a core-collapse supernova explosion. The pulsar generates a wind of high-energy particles — seen in the Chandra data — that expands into the surrounding environment, illuminating the material ejected in the supernova explosion. The unique environment into which this supernova exploded makes it possible for astronomers to observe the condensed dust from the supernova that is usually too cold to emit in the infrared. Image Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/T. Temin et al. Infrared: NASA/JPL/Caltech

The south polar region of the Moon, with dark craters and high ridges, is a world away from the relatively smooth terrain visited by Apollo astronauts four decades ago. This rugged moonscape is the target for Europe’s next leap into space.

NASA will exercise a one-year extension option on a contract with Computer Sciences Corporation in Lanham, Md., to provide supercomputing support services at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

From left to right are Shannon W. Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher, and Sally K. Ride. NASA selected all six women as their first female astronaut candidates in January 1978, allowing them to enroll in a training program that they completed in August 1979. Image Credit: NASA

With a flourish of pens, a key ESA lab has officially gained a new home. Last Thursday saw the signing of an agreement to relocate the Agency’s High-Power Radio Frequency Laboratory from ESTEC in the Netherlands to Valencia in Spain.

News conferences, events and operating hours for the news center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., are set for the upcoming launch of space shuttle Discovery.

NASA selected four high school teams as finalists in the Balloonsat High Altitude Flight competition. Their experiments will be the payload aboard a NASA weather balloon that will launch May 25-27.

A specialized transporter brought the payload canister to Launch Pad 39A in preparation for the STS-131 mission. The canister, which is the same dimensions as the shuttle’s cargo bay, held the Leonardo supply module during the move from processing to the shuttle. Leonardo will be packed inside space shuttle Discovery for launch. In this image, the payload canister holding the Leonardo supply module is hoisted to the clean room at Launch pad 39A. Image Credit: NASA/Amanda Diller

ESA’s Maxus-8 sounding rocket was launched today from Kiruna in northern Sweden carrying four microgravity research modules on a hectic 12-minute space voyage. The ultimate results may include improved turbine blades for aircraft engines.