NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Successfully Completes First Series of Ares Engine Tests

A historic J2 engine awaits testing on the A-1 Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center. Image Credit: NASA/SSC View large image

NASA engineers have successfully completed the first series of tests in the early development of the J-2X engine that will power the upper stages of the Ares I and Ares V rockets, key components of NASA's Constellation Program. Ares I will launch the Orion spacecraft that will take astronauts to the International Space Station and then to the moon by 2020. The Ares V will carry cargo and components into orbit for trips to the moon and later to Mars.

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STS-124 Rolls to Launch Pad

Space shuttle Discovery on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Image Credit: NASA/KSC
Space shuttle Discovery, secured atop the mobile launch platform, is on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., where it is being prepared for the next shuttle mission. Discovery's STS-124 mission is targeted to launch May 31 and is the second of three shuttle flights that will deliver components of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station.

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Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor Test Successful May 1

Fire and smoke billow from a space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor test May 1 at a Utah test facility. Image Credit: ATK
The Space Shuttle Program successfully conducted a reusable solid rocket motor test in Utah May 1. The 123-second test, the same amount of time a motor burns during an actual space shuttle launch, was conducted in Promontory, Utah, north of Salt Lake City. The test firing evaluated possible performance changes as motors age. The test provided important information for continued launches of the shuttle and development of the Ares I rocket, a key component of NASA's Constellation Program that will launch the Orion crew vehicle on missions to the moon.

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NASA Awards External Tank Contract Modification

NASA has signed a $39.5 million contract modification with Lockheed Martin Space Systems, New Orleans, to implement an external tank program employee retention plan. The plan provides incentives to eligible external tank personnel to ensure mission success and construction of the remaining external tanks to support Space Shuttle Program Requirements through September 2010.

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Chandra Finds Oldest Known Objects Are Surprisingly Immature

Chandra image of globular clusters. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/Northwestern/ J. Fregeau
Some of the oldest objects in the universe may still have a long way to go, according to a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Globular clusters are dense "star bunches" found in the outskirts of galaxies. With estimated ages between 9 and 13 billions of years old, these clusters may contain some of the first stars to form in galaxies -- including the Milky Way.

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NASA Web Tool Enhances Airborne Earth Science Mission

Marshall senior research scientist Richard Blakeslee, a developer of the Real Time Mission Monitor, performs a preflight system check-out aboard the DC-8. Image Credit: NASA
NASA scientists conducting the largest airborne experiment ever to study the role of air pollution in the Arctic are using a NASA-developed Web tool called the Real Time Mission Monitor to help plan and conduct field operations. The monitor assembles the data from research satellites, aircraft and surface sensors used in the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites mission, or ARCTAS. It displays the “big picture,” overlaid on Google Earth, for the whole team of scientists to view at the same time anywhere during the live mission.

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