Aerojet, a GenCorp company, announced that its dual AJ26 main engine system successfully powered today’s Antares(TM) Stage 1 Hot Fire test conducted by Orbital Sciences Corporation at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the eastern shore of Virginia. The 29-second test enabled engineers to validate flight configuration checkout of the…

A new study using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory points to the origin of a famous supernova. This supernova, discovered in 1604 by Johannes Kepler, belongs to an important class of objects that are used to measure the rate of expansion of the universe. Astronomers have used a very long Chandra observation of the…

Orbital Sciences Corporation, one of the worldís leading space technology companies, April 21 completed a successful test launch of its new Antaresô rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport located at NASAís Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Lift-off took place at 5 p.m., EDT, followed by payload separation approximately 10 minutes later and mission completion…

NASA and Space Exploration Technologies will invite 50 of their social media followers to a two-day NASA Social April 29-30 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event is expected to culminate in the launch of SpaceX’s second Commercial Orbital Transportation Services demonstration flight. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is targeted to lift off at…

Findings from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft reveal new details about the giant asteroid Vesta, including its varied surface composition, sharp temperature changes and clues to its internal structure. The findings were presented today at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, Austria and will help scientists better understand the early solar system and processes that dominated…

Observations from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer have led to the best assessment yet of our solar system’s population of potentially hazardous asteroids. The results reveal new information about their total numbers, origins and the possible dangers they may pose. Potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are a subset of the larger group of near-Earth asteroids….

The faint, lumpy glow from the very first objects in the universe may have been detected with the best precision yet using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The objects could be wildly massive stars or voracious black holes. They are too far away to be seen individually, but Spitzer has captured new, convincing evidence of what…

NASA is inviting its social media followers to the first-ever multi-center NASA Social Aug. 3 to preview the Aug. 6 landing of the Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity rover. NASA Socials are in-person meetings with people who engage with the agency through Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks. Events will be held simultaneously at six…

NASA has selected six proposals to improve the affordability, reliability and performance of an advanced booster for the Space Launch System. The awardees will develop engineering demonstrations and risk reduction concepts for SLS, a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. “The initial SLS heavy-lift rocket…

Maintaining and advancing an international leadership role in space is an essential component of national security for the United States, according to a new report published by TASC, Inc. The report details ways in which NASA can strengthen the country’s national space security posture, foster international collaboration and benefit the economy, even during times of…