Robotic Refueling Mission Begins on Station
The Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) activities aboard the ISS began on Jan. 14. Controllers on the ground at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston are using the space station's remotely operated Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre, robot to simulate robotic refueling in space.
During the first day, a tertiary cap wire will be cut and the cap removed. Completing this task will demonstrate that a satellite not designed to be refueled in space can be prepared remotely.
Orion Teamwork Pays Off
Using its experienced workforce and state-of-the-art facilities, NASA's Kennedy Space Center is working with private companies to ensure the future of U.S. space exploration stays on course. Their goal is to prepare NASA's Orion spacecraft for its first launch, Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1, in 2014.
By bringing contracted work to Kennedy, NASA provides a means to expedite Orion work to build and ship across the nation, from months to mere days.
Landsat Senses a Disturbance in the Forest
A computer program provides, for the first time, the ability to find hidden patterns in Earth science data from the NASA and U.S. Geological Survey Landsat satellites.
Scientists use this program to study and visualize small events that can cause big changes in an ecosystem, such as an obscured, slow-moving decline and recovery of trees in Pacific Northwest forests.
Hubble Views a Dwarf Galaxy
NGC 5477, one of the dwarf galaxies in the Messier 101 group, is the subject of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Without obvious structure, but with visible signs of ongoing star birth, NGC 5477 looks much like an typical dwarf irregular galaxy.
The bright nebulae that extend across much of the galaxy are clouds of glowing hydrogen gas in which new stars are forming.
NASA Rules Out Impact in 2036 for Asteroid Apophis
NASA scientists at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., effectively have ruled out the possibility the asteroid Aphophis will impact Earth during a close flyby in 2036.
The scientists used updated information obtained by NASA-supported telescopes in 2011 and 2012, as well as new data from the time leading up to Aphophis' distant Earth flyby on Jan. 9.