NASA Transition Leadership: Lightfoot to be acting NASA administrator, CFO Radzanowski to stay on President Obama and his administration, including NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy Administrator Dava Newman, leave office on January 20. President-elect Trump has not designated successors, who will face U.S. Senate confirmation. During the interim, long-time NASA civil servant Robert Lightfoot, now the… [Continue Reading]
Gene Cernan: Eugene Cernan, last human to walk on moon, dies at 82 Gene Cernan, who commanded Apollo 17, NASA’s final human moon landing mission in December 1972, died Monday afternoon, in a Houston hospital following ongoing health issues. Cernan made the lunar journey twice, serving first as lunar module pilot aboard the May 1969… [Continue Reading]
Continuing Resolution: Lightfoot: No negative impact for NASA from new CR NASA should be able to spend as needed to keep Exploration Mission-1 on track under the U.S. budget Continuing Resolution passed by the Senate late last week. Passed earlier by the U.S. House, the new CR remains in effect through April in lieu of… [Continue Reading]
Transition Team for NASA: Trump adds six more to NASA transition team A half dozen experts have joined the Chris Shank-led transition team for President-elect Donald Trump at NASA. They include Steve Cook, who worked on Ares rocket development for the George W. Bush administration’s now cancelled Constellation program, and Sandra Magnus, a former NASA… [Continue Reading]
Photos from ISS: NASA releases top 16 photos from the International Space Station from 2016 The whole world stars in an all-star lineup of the 16 best photos snapped from the International Space Station in 2016. Auroras over Australia are pretty amazing. Citizens for Space Exploration – a pro-space, taxpayer, grassroots advocacy group (http://www.bayareahouston.com/content/c_s_e/c_s_e) –… [Continue Reading]
Orion Highlights 2016 and Nov 2016: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/2016_orion_overview_full.pdf andhttps://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/orion_monthly_newsletter_11-2016.pdf Orion Service Module: Orion service module engine shipped to Europe The NASA-furnished rocket engine that will fit onto the Orion capsule slated for a crucial late 2018 unpiloted test launch of the Space Launch System explorationrocket has been shipped to Europe. There it will be mated to Orion’s… [Continue Reading]
Commercial Crew: NASA has a new way to fly The U.S. has turned to Russia to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station since NASA’s space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011. But that’s changing with some important milestones ahead for Boeing and SpaceX, the two U.S. companies developing low Earth orbit astronaut… [Continue Reading]
· Buzz Aldrin on Exploration and John Glenn: Buzz Aldrin: John Glenn was a hero. We owe it to him to keep exploring space Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin recalls his long-running association with John Glenn, the Mercury astronaut and first American to orbit the Earth, in an op-ed. Glenn died last week in his native… [Continue Reading]
Lunar Space Station: This is NASA’s plan for humanity’s return to the moon, and beyond A lunar-orbiting space station, positioned in the 2020s, figures prominently in NASA’s strategy to reach the Martian environs with human explorers in the 2030s. Asteroid Mission: Smith, Babin question NASA assertion that scientists now support ARM Chairs of the U.S…. [Continue Reading]
Orbital ATK / Cygnus Resupply Mission: Destructive re-entry marks end to successful Cygnus OA-5 mission Orbital ATK’s latest and most innovative NASA contracted re-supply mission carried out a planned destructive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. Orbital’s Cygnus re-supply capsule departed the six-person International Space Station early November 21 for an extended,… [Continue Reading]