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Computer model begins "new era in space weather prediction," scientists say
Washington – Mainly true-to-life computer imitation ever made of the sun's multimillion-degree outer atmosphere, the aura, productively predicted the corona’s actual look during the March 29 solar eclipse.
Funded by NASA and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the computer replica marks the start of a new era in space-weather forecast, solar scientists said.
Space weather is the name for situation and procedure that occur in space and that could affect the near-Earth environment.
These comprise changes in the interplanetary attractive field; coronal mass ejections from the sun that could send dangerous, high-energy charged particles to Earth; and turbulence in Earth's magnetic field.
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NASA is sponsoring a competition in which charming companies would get $500 million in seed money to expand space vehicles that the US space agency would never design, build or own. Like a U-Haul truck rental, NASA instead would just lease them on a per-trip basis for sending cargo and finally crew to the international space station.
The arrangement is extraordinary in the nearly 50-year history of the space agency that usually oversees the development and construction of its own space vehicles instead of purchasing trip from private companies.
NASA would pay out the money incrementally for each milestone achieved in the vehicles' development. After that, the company or companies who win the competition would have to finance the vehicles on their own.
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Rubbish from the International Space Station has been fallen into the Pacific Ocean, around 4,000 kilometers off the coast of New Zealand.
NASA says the majority of the trash was packed in the earlier supply craft, the Russian owned Progress M-55, which de-orbited.
A spokesperson says the debris that did not blaze in the atmosphere fell into the sea, 3900 kilometers southeast of New Zealand.
Astronauts, Pavel Vinogradov and Jeffrey Williams are at present onboard the space station.
The dumped rubbish would make room for the next shipment of fresh food, fuel and equipment, due to dock at the station at the weekend.
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During a practice journey through space, astronauts spend their days hovering in micro-gravity, the virtual lack of gravitational pull. That weightlessness affects a lot of systems in the human body. One established effect is the provisional impairment of the immune system. Wounds, for example, take longer to cure in space.
At the same time, certain bacteria could transform and become more powerful--a bad mixture. Even if risks are slight during a 12-day mission like the future shuttle flight, they merit to be explored said Cecilia Wigley, load manager of a new immunity research project at NASA.
"We are looking down the road to the president's vision of eventually going to Mars," she said. "As we go into longer-duration flight, as well as longer distances, the body's ability to fight off infection becomes quite critical to the health of astronauts."
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA managers on Saturday chosen July 1 to launch the first space shuttle in approximately a year, despite recommendations beside a lift-off attempt by the space agency's chief engineer and security offices.
The decision to open Discovery on a trip to the International Space Station was made after two days of meetings by NASA's top managers and the engineers at the Kennedy Space Center.
The flight will be only the second shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster in 2003.
During a census of top managers, representatives from NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance and the Office of the Chief Engineer optional against flying until additional design changes are made to the external fuel tank.
Despite their recommendations, the rebel managers did not object to making a launch, NASA officials said.
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Washington D.C. - Amid lingering concerns about the shuttle's fuel tank, NASA officials have determined to launch the space shuttle Discovery as intended on July 1 for a 12-day assignment to the International Space Station. It will be just the second flight since the Columbia tragedy in 2003.
During a two-day assembly at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida the open date was decided upon. Michael Griffin, administrator of NASA, said that the assembly involved a "spirited exchange over safety issues.
Shuttle authorities gave the go-ahead on Saturday in spite of the reservations of two senior officials.
The result was announced Saturday after the agency's senior managers engaged in a lengthy Flight Readiness Review; a discussion that was labeled "spirited."
"We were really careful to evaluate everything as thoroughly as we could," said NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier, who chaired the Flight Readiness Review. "But the review of the ice/frost ramp was one of the most vigorously discussed."
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By reaching for the moon and Mars, NASA is let go of aviation research that was the foundation for the nation's journey into space.
Some contend that cuts to aeronautics research — long one of the agency's cornerstones - would endanger the country's lead in aviation. NASA's role in the industry goes mainly unseen by the public, but is knowledgeable by nearly anyone who boards an airplane. Its contributions comprise deicing technology and engine research that has led to safer, quieter and more fuel efficient airplanes.
The agency's aeronautics program is organism efficient to meet President Bush's focus on the human looking at of space. The president's 2007 budget proposal for NASA might cut 18% from aeronautics research, leaving it $724 million, down from more than $1 billion in 2004.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin compared aeronautics' fate to that of glide rule makers in the United States.
"The last slide rule maker went out of business I think in 1975," he said June 5 when announcing work for several centers on a space vehicle. "We simply are not doing all of the things that all of our centers once did."
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The team set to fly aboard space shuttle Discovery twisted into the spaceship on Thursday for a practice count-down ahead of next month's launch.
The U.S. space agency NASA has not launched a shuttle since July 2005 when Discovery pesky off to test safety upgrades imposed after the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Though the mission to the International Space Station was talented without major problems, the shuttle's external fuel tank, which had been re-designed to stem the loss of potentially deadly debris, flunked its entrance test flight.
NASA removed more foam and now considers there is no risk of large pieces falling off the tank during launch and arresting the spaceship, as happened throughout Columbia's liftoff.
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The International Space Station (ISS) would pass through South African skies this evening. The ISS, traveling at a speed of 500km per minute, takes just more than an hour to circle the entire globe.
It would be temporarily visible in our skies shortly after sunset today.
"The international space station has grown so big, that it's almost the size of two tennis courts. Tonight one would see a bright satellite, much brighter than stars, moving through our sky. This happens about once every few months and the one today at 6:24pm this evening is coming from the South Atlantic," says Werner Kirchhoff, a retired Gauteng astronomer.
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Associate flags flown aboard the international space station — and apparently signed by a NASA astronaut — showed up last week on the online auction site eBay.
The original eBay catalog indicated that the 4-by-6-inch flags were brought aboard the space station by Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov in 2004, and a supplementary photo showed a sample flag that appear to bear Sharipov’s signature as well as that of Leroy Chiao, his NASA coworker on the station. Yet another photo showed numerous of the rebel flags floating in a space station module.
The item was drag from the auction on Monday by the seller, Alex Panchenko of USSR-Russian Air-Space Collectibles Inc. in Los Angeles — and on Tuesday, Panchenko told MSNBC.com that he detached the items from sale because he had finished the flag and the authentication documents were forgeries.
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CAPE CANAVERAL - The clock was marking for the two spacewalkers to end up their maintenance jobs on the international space station. All was finished apart from for put back a video camera on a transport platform used to construct the course outpost.
Last week, NASA controllers awarded with their Russian counterparts about whether to call off that task or proceed as planned and risk running out of time. They decided to go ahead after the Russians decided to tack on an extra 50 minutes for spacewalking, allowing the crew members to successfully finish their actual tasks
The spacewalk took 6 1/2-hours, longer than predictable, but nowhere near had the evidence of eight hours and 56 minutes set in 2001
Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov said at 6:48 p.m. EDT as he and USA trip engineer Jeff Williams exited the Russian side of the station in their bulky suits while the settlement soared more than 220 miles above Earth.
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BEIJING, June 12 -- U.S. Space Agency NASA has maintain that after huge safety upgrades and design changes, the space shuttle Discovery is finally prepared to fly on its latest mission.
NASA has installed a new predestined fuel tank on the shuttle and added some new sensors and windows to make the launch and the assignment more secure. However, it additional that there are still engineering questions to resolve and some risks are still there.
Space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale spoke to the media personals: "We are ready to go into what I think will be a rapid succession of flights in the next few months."
Discovery is due to fly on its mission a little bit next month in a window that opens July 1 and closes July 20.
NASA is claiming that this next flight would mark "the largest aerodynamic change to this vehicle that has been made since we started flying 25 years ago." A lot has distorted since the Columbia disaster which killed the entire crew onboard and NASA has taken huge initiatives to make sure that every Space Shuttle flight to space is as safe as it can be.
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Japanese entrepreneur Daisuke ‘Dice-K’ Enomoto has been established to the Soyuz TMA-9 crew which is at present planned to launch to the International Space Station this September from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to Space Adventures. Mr. Enomoto would be joining the 14th Expedition Crew which would also include NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Algeria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.
"We offer our sincere congratulations to Dice-K for being named to the Soyuz TMA-9 crew. Space Adventures' staff strives, with each of our orbital spaceflight candidates, to assist them in preparing themselves for spaceflight," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. "Dice-K is now even closer to achieving his goal of spaceflight. We wish him the best as he continues his training and begins the preparations for launch."
The backup crew named to support the Soyuz TMA-9 mission comprises a sari X-Prize title sponsor, Anousheh An sari, who would become the world’s first female spaceflight participant, if required, along with NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko.
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Cape Canaveral, Florida - A Japanese businessman set to be the world's fourth space tourist would fly to the International Space Station in September, according to the business arranging the trip.
Daisuke "Dice-K" Enomoto, 34, will be launched in a Russian Soyuz automobile from Kazakhstan with the next space station crew of US commander Miguel Lopez-Algeria and Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin.
Enomoto would return from his 10-day space voyage in a Soyuz with the space station's current occupants, Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov and US flight wangle Jeff Williams.
Previous guide to the space station were Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttle worth and Greg Olsen, whose trips brokered by Virginia-based Space Adventures was estimated to cost $20-million each.
Billionaire software entrepreneur Charles Simonyi has signed a agreement to be the fifth tourist to trip the space lab orbiting 355km above Earth, although a date has not been set.
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