Spectacular Images of Sun From NASA
NASA has released spectacular, new images of the sun, taken from a spacecraft called the Solar Dynamics Observatory, which was launched into space in February. Videos, released to the media, were made from images shot by the craft’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, which is a series of four telescopes that look at the sun in different wavelengths, producing images of different colors. More images of the sun, and video reports explaining the project, can be found on the mission’s YouTube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SDOmission2009#g/u
Lawmakers Question NASA's Plan for Private Rockets
Citing safety and budget concerns, members of a Senate appropriations subcommittee Thursday voiced strong opposition to plans to have private rockets transport astronauts to the international space station by the middle of the decade.
During the panel's first hearing on the issue, Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, its influential chairman, joined Republican members in challenging the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's proposals as risky and lacking sound technical support.
It's "all part of the glitz and the glory" of the Obama administration's focus on using commercially developed and operated spacecraft....
Air Force's Mystery X-37B Robot Spaceship to Launch Today
The United States Air Force's novel robotic X-37B space plane is tucked inside the bulbous nose cone of an unmanned rocket and poised for an evening blastoff from Florida tonight on a mission shrouded in secrecy.
The United States Air Force's novel robotic X-37B space plane is tucked inside the bulbous nose cone of an unmanned rocket and poised for an evening blastoff from Florida tonight on a mission shrouded in secrecy.
The spacecraft, called the Orbital Test Vehicle, is poised to launch atop an Atlas 5 rocket from a seaside pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is slated for sometime during a nine-minute window that opens at 7:52 p.m. EDT.
There's an 80 percent chance of good weather to launch the X-37B space plane. But what it will actually do in space and when it will autonomously fly itself back down to Earth remain a mystery.
The Air Force would like to keep it that way. At least for now.
"Well, you can't hide a space launch, so at some point extra security doesn't do you any good," said Gary Payton, Air Force deputy under secretary for space systems, in a Tuesday teleconference with reporters. [X-37B spacecraft photos.]
The U.S. Air Force is on the verge of showcasing the new X-37B space plane -- in a space mission that's cloaked in secrecy.
"On this flight the main thing we want to emphasize is the vehicle itself, not really, what's going on in the on-orbit phase because the vehicle itself is the piece of news here," Payton said.
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