NASA’s Office of Education has selected more than 200 organizations across the country to receive Summer of Innovation mini-grants. Each award has a maximum value of $2,500. This investment is designed to expand NASA’s education network and help the agency keep middle school students engaged in science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities throughout the summer…

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, Calif., to launch the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Jason-3 spacecraft in December 2014 aboard a Falcon 9 v1.0 rocket from Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The total value of the Jason-3 launch service is approximately $82 million. This estimated cost includes the…

NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC of Englewood, Colo., to launch the Soil Moisture Active Passive, Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 and Joint Polar Satellite System-1 spacecraft. The spacecraft will launch in October 2014, July 2014 and November 2016, respectively, aboard Delta II rockets from Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The total…

NASA’s most advanced planetary rover is on a precise course for an early August landing beside a Martian mountain to begin two years of unprecedented scientific detective work. However, getting the Curiosity rover to the surface of Mars will not be easy. “The Curiosity landing is the hardest NASA mission ever attempted in the history…

Three new crew members are on their way to the International Space Station. NASA Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:40 p.m., EDT, July 14. Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide are scheduled to dock their…

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…

HAWTHORNE, Calif. – NASA partner Space Exploration Technologies has completed an important design review of the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft. The concept baseline review presented NASA with the primary and secondary design elements of its Dragon capsule designed to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station. SpaceX is one…

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems has successfully completed testing of the nose landing gear for the Dream Chaser® orbital crew vehicle. This milestone evaluated the impact forces experienced by the landing gear at the front of the vehicle, the nose, in order to ensure safe runway landing capability of the Dream Chaser during approach and…

NASA astronaut Mark Polansky has left the agency. His last day with NASA was June 30. Polansky is a veteran of three space shuttle missions. He flew as a pilot on the STS-98 mission in 2001 and served as commander for STS-116 in 2006 and STS-127 in 2009. Polansky ends his NASA career with more…

Consolidating a relationship now entering into its 30th year, Eutelsat Communications and Arianespace announced July 10 the conclusion of a new launch services contract for a future Eutelsat satellite. The assignment of the launch to a satellite will be made at a later stage. The contract for an Ariane 5 launch from the Guiana Space…