On Wednesday, NASA issued a request for proposals for concept definition and requirements analysis support for the Altair lunar lander. Proposals are due to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston by 2 p.m. CST on Feb. 27.NASA's Constellation Program will use Altair to land four astronauts on the moon following launch aboard an Ares V rocket and rendezvous in low Earth orbit with the Orion crew vehicle. The lunar lander will provide the astronauts with life support and a base for weeklong initial surface exploration missions of the moon. Altair...

NASA is giving everyone the opportunity to use the world's most celebrated telescope to explore the heavens and boldly look where the Hubble Space Telescope has never looked before.NASA is inviting the public to vote for one of six candidate astronomical objects for Hubble to observe in honor of the International Year of Astronomy. The options, which Hubble has not previously photographed, range from far-flung galaxies to dying stars. Votes can be cast until March 1. Hubble's camera will make a...

NASA 360, a half-hour television program that explores NASA's contributions to everyday life, is celebrating its one-year anniversary. NASA produces the program in partnership with the National Institute of Aerospace, or NIA, in Hampton, Va. It is part of the NASA eClips project that provides free NASA educational video content via the Internet."The show has really taken off," said Michael Finneran, NASA 360 executive producer at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. "We focus on how technologies developed by or for NASA are being used...

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has observed a planet that heats up to red-hot temperatures in a matter of hours before quickly cooling back down. The "hot-headed" planet is HD 80606b, a gas giant that orbits a star 190 light-years from Earth. It was already known to be quite unusual, with an orbit shuttling it nearly as far out as Earth is from our sun, and much closer in than our planet Mercury. Astronomers used Spitzer, an infrared observatory, to measure heat emanating from the planet as it...

NASA's satellite imagery, combined with high-resolution commercial imagery, is giving scientists new insight into the changing appearance of our planet on a regional scale, and whether it is due to human activity or extreme climate.Researchers from NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and California State University Monterey Bay, Seaside, Calif., analyzed several years of imagery data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the NASA Terra...

I am not supposed to be here, working with the Mars Exploration Rovers. There wasn’t supposed to be a Mars Rover here for me to work on. I arrived at JPL less than a month before Spirit’s landing in January 2004.Long before I earned the privilege of working on such a project, the three-month mission (six if we were lucky) would be completed. Robots are intricate machines, and Mars is a harsh place. Neither Spirit nor Opportunity should be here – and, as a result, neither should I be here to talk...

A new study unveils NGC 604, the largest region of star formation in the nearby galaxy M33, in its first deep, high-resolution view in X- rays. This composite image from Chandra X-ray Observatory data (colored blue), combined with optical light data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red and green), shows a divided neighborhood where some 200 hot, young, massive stars reside.Throughout the cosmic metropolis, giant bubbles in the cool dust and warm gas are filled with diffuse, multi-million degree...

Sixty-two years ago today, Jack Boyd, senior advisor to the Ames director, first reported to work at Moffett Field, the home of NASA's Ames Research Center.To get there, Boyd traveled on a transcontinental train from Virginia to the San Francisco Bay Area. While most of his classmates at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University chose to work close to home at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., Boyd struck out on his own, and trailblazed his way to Ames."You'd have to be crazy...

Picture a tree in the forest. The tree "inhales" carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, transforming that greenhouse gas into the building materials and energy it needs to grow its branches and leaves.By removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the tree serves as an indispensable "sink," or warehouse, for carbon that, in tandem with Earth's other trees, plants and the ocean, helps reduce rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air that contribute to global warming.Each year, humans release more...

NASA is using powerful computers and software programs to design the rocket that will carry crew and cargo to space after the space shuttle retires. But those computers will have their work checked the old-fashioned way with the first of several uncrewed demonstration launches beginning in 2009. Ares I-X, the first Ares I test rocket, will lift off from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. in the summer of 2009. It will climb about 25 miles (40.2 km) in a two-minute powered test of Ares I first stage performance and its first stage separation and parachute...

NASA astronauts of the STS-126 space shuttle mission will begin a new journey next week -- an 11-day trip to greet U.S. military personnel serving overseas. Shuttle Endeavour's crew will pay a special visit to troops in Germany and the Middle East from Jan. 26 to Feb. 5.The trip is sponsored by Armed Forces Entertainment, the lead Department of Defense agency for providing entertainment to U.S. military personnel serving overseas. The shuttle crew members visiting the troops are Navy Capt. Chris Ferguson, who commanded the flight, Air Force Col....

Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke, aboard the International Space Station with Flight Engineers Sandy Magnus and Yury Lonchakov, recently filmed a high-definition tour of the orbiting complex. The 35-minute tour will air as a special Video File on NASA Television’s HD Channel 105 at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. CST Thursday and Friday.The special Video File also will be broadcast in standard-definition on NASA TV immediately following the regularly scheduled daily Video File broadcasts. For technical information on how to receive the special broadcast in...

The Antarctic Peninsula juts into the Southern Ocean, reaching farther north than any other part of the continent. The southernmost reach of global warming was believed to be limited to this narrow strip of land, while the rest of the continent was presumed to be cooling or stable.Not so, according to a new analysis involving NASA data. In fact, the study has confirmed a trend suspected by some climate scientists."Everyone knows it has been warming on the Antarctic Peninsula, where there are lots of weather stations collecting data," said Eric...

The President and First LadyPresident Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue after the Jan. 20, 2009, swearing-in ceremony. Image Credit: NASA/Paul Alers.› Full Resolution NASA's New Lunar Electric RoverThis prototype is of the new rover designed for lunar exploration and was part of the NASA contingent that took part in the 56th Inaugural Parade. The small pressurized rover is about the size of a pickup truck (with 12 wheels) and can house two astronauts...

In the early morning hours on Jan. 15, the NOAA-N Prime spacecraft was transported from the Building 1610 payload processing facility to Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was hoisted from the pad surface and mated to the Delta II rocket. Spacecraft 'state of health' checks are under way.The liquid oxygen tanking test and countdown demonstration and simulated flight test have been successfully completed. The Flight Program Verification, an integrated test of the...

NASA is issuing a last call to the nation's youth for entries in a contest to name the agency's next Mars rover.The naming contest, in partnership with Disney-Pixar's WALL-E, invites ideas from students 5 to 18 years old and enrolled in a U.S. school. The contest began two months ago. Entries will be accepted until midnight Jan. 25 (Eastern Time).Entrants should submit essays explaining why their suggested name for the rover is the right fit. In March, the public will have an opportunity to rank...

A technology development engine that may help NASA safely return astronauts to the lunar surface has successfully completed its third round of testing. The goal of these tests is to reduce risk and advance technology for a reliable and robust rocket engine that could enable America's next moon landing.The tests by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in West Palm Beach, Fla., helped to gather data on this concept engine that might play a role in the next stage of human exploration of the moon. Most rockets...

Their names are now part of exploration history -- Sea of Tranquility, Ocean of Storms, Frau Mauro, Hadley Rille, Descartes and Taurus-Littrow. They are the sites on the lunar surface visited by America's Apollo astronauts. Six unique locations. each with its own unique set of challenges to those who wanted to explore its secrets."To paraphrase an old bromide, those who forget the past are doomed to land like it," said Chirold Epp of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Having looked at the...