NASA has extended its contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station for the foreseeable future. The United States has been dependent on Russia for ISS access since it ended its space shuttle program in July 2012. The new contract, running through 2019, means that NASA will continue to depend on Russia to get its astronauts to space even as tensions between Washington and Moscow escalate. It will also make the U.S. susceptible to threats from Russia, which in the past has suggested it could stop taking U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA has named Kirk Shireman as the new manager of its International Space Station (ISS) Program, based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA is unveiling two new online tools that open the mysterious terrain of the Red Planet to a new generation of explorers, inviting the public to help with its journey to Mars.
Mars Trek is a free, web-based application that provides high-quality, detailed visualizations of the planet using real data from 50 years of NASA exploration and allowing astronomers, citizen scientists and students to study the Red Planet’s features
NASA has selected three proposals related to Astrophysics Small Explorer missions and two proposals related ti Explorer Missions of Opportunity to conduct focused scientific investigations and develop instruments that fill the scientific gaps between the agency’s larger missions.
Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed the discovery of the nearest rocky planet outside our solar system, larger than Earth and a potential gold mine of science data. Dubbed HD 219134b, this exoplanet, which orbits too close to its star to sustain life, is a mere 21 light-years away.
