Boeing recently demonstrated the dual-role propulsion features and performance of the Orbital Maneuvering Attitude Control engine on the service module for the company’s Crew Space Transportation-100 spacecraft. The tests were conducted at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility, N.M., as part of the second phase of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program. “Boeing’s unique service-module propulsion system…

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…

ATK technologies and capabilities played mission-critical roles throughout the entire journey of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” rover, which successfully landed Aug. 5 inside Mars’ Gale Crater. As it starts its two-year mission, Curiosity will gather data to help assess whether Mars ever had an environment capable of supporting microbial life. ATK contributed technical and…

NASA’s new virtual mentoring program is helping girls get excited about careers in science and technology by working one-on-one with agency professionals. Twenty-one girls in grades 5-8, representing 12 states from New York to Hawaii, have completed a pilot mentoring program called NASA Giving Initiative and Relevance to Learning Science. NASA GIRLS is the first…

NASA and its international partners have announced an agreement to send two crew members to the International Space Station on a one-year mission designed to collect valuable scientific data needed to send humans to new destinations in the solar system. The crew members, one American astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut, will launch and land in…

NASA is exploring options for larger payload fairings to enhance the cargo carrying capabilities of its Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, now in development, to carry cargo, crewed spacecraft and science payloads. In a Request for Information published Nov. 1, the agency is seeking information about payload adapters and fairings already available within commercial industry….

NASA is exploring options for innovative and imaginative uses of two large space telescopes recently transferred to the agency. In a request for information published Nov. 26, NASA seeks information about system concepts and architectures that would take advantage of these assets to address NASA’s goals in astrophysics, heliophysics, planetary sciences, and human spaceflight. “Because…

Twin lunar-orbiting NASA spacecraft that have allowed scientists to learn more about the internal structure and composition of the moon are being prepared for their controlled descent and impact on a mountain near the moon’s north pole at about 2:28 p.m., PST, Dec. 17. Ebb and Flow, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission…

NASA has awarded grants to nine universities for advanced development activities for the nation’s next heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). The agency is providing approximately $2.25 million that will be shared by all the proposals under this NASA Research Announcement to seek innovative and affordable solutions to evolve the launch vehicle from its…