NASA is spending big on commercial space destinations

NASA is spending big on commercial space destinations

Post Views: 205 NASA is looking to increase its space real estate, inking three new deals with private companies to develop space stations in low-Earth orbit. The government agency announced Thursday that it’s providing an estimated $415.6 million to Blue Origin, Nanoracks LLC, and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation to create their own “commercial, independent” space…

NASA is testing space lasers to shoot data back to Earth

NASA is testing space lasers to shoot data back to Earth

Post Views: 216 Glenn Jackson, LCRD payload project manager, says the demo could someday help wrap internet networks around the moon and even Mars. “Currently we use radio frequency to move data and video to Earth,” Jackson says. “Laser communication increases that bandwidth and allows us to get more data to Earth from astronauts and…

The James Webb telescope will soon be hunting for ‘first light’

The James Webb telescope will soon be hunting for ‘first light’

Post Views: 347 In 1609 Galileo Galilei pointed a telescope with a lens no wider than a cucumber slice to the heavens to decipher the moon’s cratered surface. Since then, telescopes have become invaluable instruments in our understanding of the vast, unexplored cosmos. Observations of the night sky sparked new theories of the Milky Way…

17 images to count down to the James Webb Space Telescope launch

17 images to count down to the James Webb Space Telescope launch

Post Views: 301 When the US, Europe, and Canada first unveiled the plans for the James Webb Space Telescope in 1997, it sounded like a pitch from an overambitious science student. The contraption would have to schlep a 26-foot-wide mirror across the solar system, while keeping its cool around the radioactive sun. But to build…

Alexa will tag along on an uncrewed mission to the moon

Alexa will tag along on an uncrewed mission to the moon

Post Views: 219 Today, Amazon, Cisco, Lockheed Martin, and NASA announced that new technology onboard the Orion spacecraft in the upcoming Artemis I moon mission would include a version of Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa, and Cisco’s video-conferencing platform, Webex. Alexa and Webex will be part of a technology demonstration called Callisto, named after the Greek…

The ISS gets an extension to 2030 to wrap up unfinished business

The ISS gets an extension to 2030 to wrap up unfinished business

Post Views: 329 Funding for the ISS was previously set to expire in 2024, as per an act of Congress in 2014. But NASA anticipates that it will officially fund the ISS through 2030, says Robyn Gatens, director of the ISS for space operations. The extension was unsurprising to Wendy Whitman Cobb, a professor of…