Space

Skylab: America's first space base

Launched 40 years ago in May 1973, Skylab was America's first space station -- a research facility that established the standards for long duration life in orbit and gave NASA a chance to look back on Earth in ways never before possible.

The goals for the space lab were primarily to enrich our scientific knowledge of the Earth, the sun, and the stars. Experiments tackled the possibilities for the future of life in space, and the basic notions of how space affects living beings.

Skylab looked at the effects of weightlessness on man and other organisms, the effects of … Read more

Spur-of-the-moment spacewalk a first for NASA, space station

Saturday saw a first for NASA and the International Space Station, as two astronauts conducted an impromptu spacewalk to try to locate the source of a problem on the craft's exterior.

The space agency hadn't yet ordered such a spur-of-the-moment maneuver in regard to the ISS, according to the Associated Press, but when crewmembers on the craft spotted ammonia flakes floating through space beyond a window Thursday, the spacewalk was hastily planned.

After Mission Control and the ISS crewmembers prepped intensely -- for less than 48 hours -- astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Christopher Cassidy exited a hatch and … Read more

International Space Station springs system coolant leak

The International Space Station is leaking ammonia coolant used to prevent the station's power systems from overheating, but it doesn't pose a danger to the crew, NASA announced Thursday.

Crew aboard the space station alerted Mission Control to the appearance of small white flakes floating away from the station's P6 truss solar array this morning, NASA said in a statement. The ammonia loop affected is the same loop at which spacewalking astronauts attempted to troubleshoot a leak last November, NASA reported.

"There's a very steady stream of flakes or bits coming out as the truss … Read more

Landsat watches over the Earth, documenting 28 years of change

NASA's Landsat 5, which recently set a Guinness World Record for the "Longest Operating Earth Observation Satellite," has been delivering high-quality, global data of Earth's land surface for 28 years and 10 months.

Using the annual Landsat satellite imagery captured since 1984, Google has created dramatic composites, alongside other Google Earth satellite imagery, depicting our changing world, the death and growth of natural lands, and humans' impact on the landscape.

The animated GIFs shown here chronicle the development and destruction of life on Earth, pulsing like a living being, with forests receding, water evaporating, and cities … Read more

Time-lapse images let you witness 28 years of Earth's changes

A newly released series of dramatic time-lapse satellite images, available at Google's Timelapse Web site, shows just how quickly the world's landscapes have changed in the last 28 years.

The pictures, captured by the series of Landsat satellites and released in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA, and Time magazine, show several startling examples of how humans and natural processes have changed Earth from 1984 to 2012. You'll see the depressing decline of the Columbia Glacier in Alaska, the blossoming of Dubai's epic cityscape, and Las Vegas' urban explosion. There's also an alarming look at the deforestation occurring in the Brazilian Amazon forest. … Read more

Fiery annular solar eclipse to be broadcast live on Internet

It's that time again where certain people on Earth are lucky enough to see an annular eclipse, or "ring of fire."

People on the ground in much of Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands will be able to gaze toward the sky Thursday evening and witness the eclipse. However, the rest of us, who aren't in that part of the world, can watch the action live on the Slooh SpaceCamera Web site via an Australia-based telescope.

An annular eclipse is no ordinary eclipse; it's a rare and spectacular occurrence. Rather than a complete … Read more

Relive Earth's wild history of meteor strikes

Aside from death and taxes, there's another thing certain in life: meteors. To get a historical perspective on just how many dazzling space rocks have fallen through our skies in recent times, peep at Carlo Zapponi's visual graph called Bolides, which puts meteor strikes in a chronological view.

Inspired by the Greek word bolis (missile), Bolides features data from a range of historical meteor records, ranging from MetBase to London's Natural History Museum catalog of meteorites, and displays the data in a way that makes you want to click around and explore. … Read more

NASA's asteroid lasso mission said to halt Apocalypse scenario

Shortly after a large meteor hit Russia in February, injuring about 1,000 people, President Obama's administration announced that the U.S. would work on asteroid tracking technology to avoid potentially more severe Earth collisions. On Monday, top NASA administrator Charles Bolden reiterated this pledge.

Bolden spoke at the Human to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C. on Monday and said that a robotic spacecraft mission currently being planned will "prepare efforts to prevent an asteroid from colliding with devastating force into our planet,"according to U.S. News & World Report.

The government's plan is … Read more

Neil Armstrong's moon walk EKG reading up for auction

We've all seen the video of man's first step on the moon. NASA's medical team back down on Earth saw that first step in a slightly different light, in the form of Armstrong's electrocardiogram reading from the moment he set his foot down. That little 6-inch strip is going up for online auction at RR Auction.

The strip comes in a presentation frame along with an Armstrong autopen signature and various mission patches. "After the landing, this EKG report was saved by the Manager of Medical Administration for the Space Center. It was cut up into five pieces; four were presented to the attending physicians on the medical team," reads the description.… Read more