Browse Archive

  • WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected nine proposals for negotiation of Phase 2 contract awards in the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. The selected projects have a total value of approximately $5.4 million. The contracts will be awarded to nine hi-tech firms partnered with nine universities in 12 states.

    NASA Selects 142 Small Business Innovation Research Projects

    10.28.08 - WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected 142 proposals for negotiation of Phase 2 contract awards in the Small Business Innovation Research program, known as SBIR. The selected projects have a total value of approximately $85 million. NASA will award the contracts to 121 small high-technology firms in 27 states.

  • Image of DART truck at Ames.

    NASA Ames to Conduct Earthquake Emergency Drill

    10.28.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – News media are invited to attend a news briefing on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008, to hear about an earthquake emergency drill scheduled in early November at NASA Ames Research Center. The emergency drill is not open to the news media.

  • Image of airship zeppelin.

    NASA Welcomes Airship Ventures Zeppelin to Moffett Field

    10.23.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – News media are invited to view the newest addition to Moffett Field – a 246-foot-long Zeppelin – 50 feet longer than the Goodyear blimp and capable of carrying up to 12 passengers for aerial tours of the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday, Oct. 27, 2008.

  • Image of SOFIA in the air.

    Scientists Selected for New Airborne Eye on the Universe

    10.23.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – On behalf of NASA, the Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Md., has selected three astronomers to participate in the first scientific observations to be conducted by the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a highly modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that carries a 2.5-meter (98-inch) diameter airborne infrared telescope.

  • Chris Kitting of California State University, East Bay in Hayward, Calif., peers through his telescope-imaging camera during the transit flight from Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., to Tahiti in French Polynesia. This camera was used study the small trailing fragments during the later stages of fragmentation during the re-entry of the European Space Agency’s “Jules Verne” spacecraft.

    NASA Ames Successfully Documents Spacecraft Re-entry

    10.20.08 - What weighed 13 tons, took four minutes to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at more than 170 miles an hour and could be seen almost 250 miles away? Was it a bird? A plane? It was the European Space Agency (ESA)’s “Jules Verne” spacecraft!

  • The PIAA lenses, the heart of the system, are reshaping the incoming beam.

    NASA Tests Optics Concept in New Coronagraph Laboratory

    10.16.08 - NASA's new coronagraph laboratory, called the Ames Coronagraph Experiment (ACE) Laboratory, is pushing development of a new optics system to enable scientists to observe Earth-like planets that otherwise would be lost in the glare of the stars they orbit.

  • Image of SOFIA mirror being loaded onto a plane.

    NASA Reinstalls Main Mirror in SOFIA Airborne Observatory

    10.15.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – Engineers and technicians from NASA, the German Space Agency and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut recently reinstalled the German-built primary mirror assembly into NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

  • Ethiraj Venkatapathy of NASA Ames, Betsy Pugel of NASA Goddard and Hanna Szczepanowska of the National Air and Space Museum Conservator, examine the 1966 Apollo test vehicle heat shield. Credit: NASA GSFC/Debbie McCallum

    Apollo Heat Shield Helps New Crew Vehicle Design

    10.07.08 - NASA scientists developing the next generation of exploration vehicles and heat shields for NASA's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle experienced "Christmas in July" when they uncrated the heat shields used on the Apollo missions some 35 years ago.

  • Image of sun rising over another planet

    NASA Selects Science Teams for Astrobiology Institute

    10.02.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – NASA has awarded five-year grants, averaging $7 million each, to 10 research teams from across the country to study the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.

  • MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – Three teams of NASA Ames computer programmers, heat shield engineers and Earth scientists were honored earlier this month by the Federal Laboratory Consortium Far West Region for developing innovative technologies and partnerships.

    NASA Ames Scores Three Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards

    09.26.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – Three teams of NASA Ames computer programmers, heat shield engineers and Earth scientists were honored earlier this month by the Federal Laboratory Consortium Far West Region for developing innovative technologies and partnerships.

  • MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – NASA’s Ames Research Center Friday awarded a contract with a maximum value of $300 million to Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc. (SGT Inc.), of Greenbelt, Md., for intelligent systems research and development support.

    NASA Ames Awards Contract for Intelligent Systems Support

    09.26.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – NASA’s Ames Research Center Friday awarded a contract with a maximum value of $300 million to Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc. (SGT Inc.), of Greenbelt, Md., for intelligent systems research and development support.

  • These molecules, called quinones, are potentially significant for the “origin of life” or the habitability of planets.

    Carbon-rich Molecules in Meteors May Be Origin of Life

    09.24.08 - Tons, perhaps tens of tons, of carbon molecules in dust particles and meteorites fall on Earth daily. Researchers have noticed that most meteorite carbon are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the most common carbon-rich compound in the universe.

  • Image of Perseid streaking through the milky way.

    NASA Astronomers Compare Meteors to Spacecraft Re-entry

    09.24.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- A group of astronomers from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and other institutions will take to the skies to observe the re-entry of ESA’s “Jules Verne” Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) as it falls back to Earth from the International Space Station on Sept. 29, 2008.

  • Kepler spacecraft

    NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Baked and Ready for More Tests

    09.23.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – NASA's planet-hunting Kepler mission, scheduled to launch in 2009, has survived an extreme temperature test.

  • Image of Sally Ride Science Festival

    NASA Ames to Host Girls, Astronaut at Sally Ride Science Festival

    09.22.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – News media representatives are invited to join hundreds of San Francisco Bay Area girls, their teachers and parents on a fun-filled interactive exploration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008.

  • Points are positions in space where the gravitational forces (white lines) of a two body system like the sun and the Earth produce enhanced regions of attraction (red arrows) and repulsion (blue arrows).

    NASA Studies Orbits of Small Bodies within the Earth-Moon System

    09.19.08 - Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1772) proved that the opposing gravitational forces of a two-body system like the Earth and sun produce five equilibrium regions.

  • As part of NASA’s 50th anniversary celebration, NASA Ames Research Center Director S. Pete Worden invited four former Ames directors to join him at a Directors’ Round Table discussion on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008. A large number of employess turned out for the Round Table, which featured from left to right: Hans Mark, who served as Ames director from 1969 to 1977 and later served as Deputy Administrator of NASA and Secretary of the Air Force; Sy Syvertson, who was named Ames director in 1977; Dale Compton who was named Ames director in 1989 and Scott Hubbard, who served as Ames director from 2002 to 2006 and current Ames Center Director S. Pete Worden.

    Ames Hosts Director’s Round Table With Four Former Ames Center Directors

    09.17.08 - As part of NASA’s 50th anniversary, four former Ames directors provided a glimpse into the center’s colorful history during a Director’s Round Table held Sept. 16, 2008 at NASA Ames.

  • NASA Ames 9/11 Day of Remembrance 2008

    Ames Remembers 9/11

    09.11.08 - MOFFETT FIELD – Ames remembered the tragic events of Sept .11, 2001 during an emotional ceremony held seven years to the day the tragedy occurred.

  • MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – NASA representatives will discuss future plans for historic Moffett Field and NASA Research Park during a community meeting this week in Sunnyvale, Calif.

    NASA to Host Round Table Featuring Four Former Ames Directors

    09.11.08 - MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – As part of NASA’s 50th anniversary celebration, NASA Ames Research Center Director S. Pete Worden is inviting four former Ames directors to join him at a Directors’ Round Table discussion at Ames on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008.