31 December 2012
Rover-Themed Badge on Foursquare
NASA and the mobile application Foursquare have teamed up to help you unlock your scientific curiosity with a new rover-themed Curiosity Explorer badge. Users of the Foursquare social media platform can earn the badge by liking NASA on Foursquare and checking in at a NASA visitor center or venue categorized as a science museum or planetarium. The launch of the badge follows the October check-in on Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover, which marked the first check-in on another planet. Foursquare users can keep up with Curiosity as the rover checks in at key locations and posts photos and tips, all while exploring the Red Planet.
MORE...

30 December 2012
Curiosity Rover Takes Detailed Self-Portrait on Mars
A series of photos taken by NASA's Curiosity and combined into a single composite picture offer a rare, detailed glimpse of the rover patrolling the surface of Mars on a rocky terrain with its target destination-Mount Sharp-in the background.
MORE...

28 December 2012
Russia upgrading booster rocket for NASA manned missions
Russia was modernizing a booster which U.S. space agency NASA would use for manned flights, a Russian rocket engine manufacturer said Wednesday. "We are adjusting the RD-180 engine for manned missions," Executive Director of NPO Energomash company Vladimir Solntsev told reporters, adding the adaptation work started in early 2012.
MORE...

28 December 2012
China forms key lab for cryogenic propellant
China has established its first key national laboratory for space cryogenic propellant research, which will provide technological support for the country's future space missions.
MORE...

27 December 2012
Russia Launches $70 Bln Space Program for 2013-2020
Russia will spend 2.1 trillion rubles (about $70 billion) under a state program for the development of the national space industry in 2013-2020, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday. “The total volume of funding is quite significant: 2.1 trillion rubles, including extrabudgetary sources,” he said. The program is designed to ensure the country retains its position as a leading global space power, while also supporting its defense capability, and boosting economic and social development, Medvedev said.
MORE...

27 December 2012
Russia Designs New Spaceship
Russian space rocket corporation Energia has completed the technical design of a new manned spacecraft whose flight tests are due to begin in 2017, Energia President Vitaly Lopota said on Wednesday. “We have completed the technical design project taking into account the fact that the new spaceship is to fly to the Moon, among other places,” he said. Energia won the spaceship design tender in April 2009.
MORE...

26 December 2012
Russia May Join ExoMars Project in Q1 2013 – Roscosmos
The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA) could sign a long-anticipated agreement on Russia’s participation in a Mars research project in the first quarter of 2013, Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said. “The agreement will be signed. We are starting financing this project,” Popovkin said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper published on Wednesday.
MORE...

21 December 2012
NASA'S Space Launch System Core Stage Passes Major Milestone, Ready to Start Construction
The core stage preliminary design review (PDR) was held Thursday at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and included representatives from the agency and The Boeing Co. Boeing's Exploration Launch Systems in Huntsville is the prime contractor for the core stage and its avionics. Marshall manages the SLS Program. The first flight test of the SLS, which will feature a configuration for a 70-metric ton lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond the moon, is scheduled for 2017. As the SLS evolves, a two-stage launch vehicle using the core stage will provide a lift capability of 130-metric tons to enable missions beyond low-Earth orbit and to support deep space exploration.
MORE...

21 December 2012
Energia Corp Lands $11 Mln Space Lab Contract
Space rocket corporation Energia has won a 350 million ruble (about $11 million) contract to design the orbital laboratory Oka-T-MKS, the state procurements agency said Friday on its website. Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos announced a tender for the contract in mid-October and only received one bid: from Energia Corp. The Oka-T-MKS is a multifunctional space laboratory that will operate autonomously in orbit, periodically docking with the International Space Station (ISS) whose crew will service its scientific research equipment, and conduct refueling and other operations.
MORE...

19 December 2012
Health Concerns Could Ground Citizen Astronauts
Aside from money, health might be a factor in deciding whether or not to take a space vacation. Professional astronauts go through rigorous testing and conditioning before jetting into space. A study in the British Medical Journal suggests the medical community should establish a set of health screening standards for potential space tourists to determine whether they can withstand the rigors of space travel. At the moment, there is no standard outlining how medical professionals should advise patients about the health implications of space travel.
MORE...

19 December 2012
Sierra Nevada Corporation Selected by NASA to Receive Human Spaceflight Certification Products Contract
MORE...

18 December 2012
NASA Crashes Two Probes into a Mountain on the Moon
The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecrafts, a pair of NASA moon-mapping probes smashed themselves into a lunar mountain on Monday, ending a year-long mission that is shedding light on how the solar system formed.
MORE... 
related:
GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride
MORE...

17 December 2012
China Makes First Asteroid Fly By
China's space probe Chang'e-2 has successfully conducted on 13 December a maneuver in which it flew by the asteroid Toutatis, about seven million km away from the Earth.
MORE...

17 December 2012
NASA Has Bright Idea for Lighting System on International Space Station
NASA is planning to help combat astronaut insomnia aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with a new lighting system in the US section that will switch colors depending on the time of day, in hopes of reducing the dependency for sleep medications.
MORE...

17 December 2012
No plans of sending an Indian on Moon nor for Indian manned space missions
India has no plans to put an astronaut on the moon, as of now. Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday said this. The minister also said that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had no plans in the immediate future to launch space labs and manned spaceships or set up space stations.
MORE...

17 December 2012
New member of the exclusive space club
The successful launch of North Korea's Unha-3 rocket on December 12, 2012 became the top news in the world of cosmonautics. News of the successful North Korean rocket launch provoked heated reactions at all levels, from space fans to high-ranking state officials. If we lay aside the political and economic considerations, launching a satellite is, in any case, an outstanding achievement for any country.
MORE...

14 December 2012
NASA Awards Commercial Crew Certification Contracts
NASA announced Dec. 10 the next step in its plan to launch American astronauts from U.S. soil, selecting three companies to conduct activities under contracts that will enable future certification of commercial spacecraft as safe to carry humans to the International Space Station. Certification Products Contracts (CPC) contractors are:
+ The Boeing Company, Houston, $9,993,000
+ Sierra Nevada Corporation Space System, Louisville, Colo., $10,000,000
+ Space Exploration technologies Corp., Hawthorne, Calif., $9,589,525
MORE...

13 December 2012
Fast20XX research project - ideas for travelling at hypersonic speed
The vision is enticing - board in Europe, sit back, and disembark 90 minutes later on the other side of the world, in Australia. But before the SpaceLiner, which is being developed by the Institute of Space Systems at the German Aerospace Center, can fly a route like this for the first time, new technologies still have to be tested and basic requirements defined.
MORE...

12 December 2012
Apollo's Lunar Dust Data Being Restored
In one of the latest developments, readings from the Apollo 14 and 15 dust detectors have been restored by scientists with the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "This is the first look at the fully calibrated, digital dust data from the Apollo 14 and 15 missions," said David Williams, a Goddard scientist and data specialist at NSSDC, NASA's permanent archive for space science mission data.
MORE...

11 December 2012
Russia and Kazakhstan to run Baikonur together
Russia and Kazakhstan are reestablishing the intergovernmental commission on the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The commission will be headed by the deputy prime ministers of the two countries who will have to solve many important problems, head of KazCosmos Talgat Musabayev said.
MORE...

11 December 2012
US sends futuristic plane back into space
The United States on Tuesday launched for the third time its futuristic X-37B spacecraft, a small and pilotless plane that experts believe could open a new realm of espionage. The 29-foot (8.9-meter) long vehicle blasted off aboard an Atlas V rocket at 1:03 pm (1803 GMT) from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a mission about which the US Air Force has offered minimal details.
MORE...

10 December 2012
What trends will take upper hand in space exploration?
Space exploration in the future is linked to the creation of habitable bases on the moon. This opinion was expressed by head of Russia's leading research institute of the country's space agency Gennady Raikunov. According to him, the potential of the International Space station has almost exhausted itself, and it's high time to look "further and higher".
MORE...

10 December 2012
Khrunichev Completes Nauka Space Station Module
Russia's Khrunichev space company has completed assembly of the Nauka ("Science") multirole laboratory module for the International Space Station, Khrunichev said on Friday. The module will now be tested by the RKK Energia corporation.
MORE...

08 December 2012
Scratching the surface of the Moon
We're in the midst of Apollo nostalgia. It's now 40 years since the final mission, Apollo 17, went to the Moon.
Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt were the last crew to visit Earth's satellite, with Cernan and Schmitt becoming the 11th and 12th humans to step on to its surface. And then, as a species, we retreated.
Attending the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting these past few days has reminded me just how significant the Moon remains in terms of its science. President Obama rejected it as a potential destination for future exploration ("We've been there before") in preference for asteroids.
MORE...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
FOR FURTHER READING
17 December 2012
What’s the purpose of a 21st century space agency?
Over the last few weeks, organizations, committees, and individuals have offered their views about what NASA’s strategic direction should be. Jeff Foust reports that there’s broad dissatisfaction with the agency’s current direction, but little consensus on how differently the space agency should be oriented.
MORE...

17 December 2012
History’s rhymes
A recent conference about the fifty-year history of NASA’s planetary exploration program became something of a forum to deliberate and worry about that program’s future. Dwayne Day argues that looking back at that history shows how the program has evolved, and for the better.
MORE...

17 December 2012
Addressing the challenges of space debris, part 2: liability
Everyone agrees that orbital debris is a major issue, but proposals to try and clean up debris can run into legal obstacles. In the second part of his examination of the topic, Michael Listner reviews the liability issues associated with any space debris remediation effort and proposes a way to mitigate those problems.
MORE...

17 December 2012
Review: Last Launch
The shuttle program ended nearly a year and a half ago with the final flight of Atlantis, but the memories of those final missions remain strong. Jeff Foust reviews a book of photographs of those final launches and tale of reverence they offer for a historic series of spaceships.
MORE...

10 December 2012
The resurrection of Mars Sample Return
Last week NASA surprised many when it announced it would develop a new Mars rover, based on Curiosity, for launch in 2020, reviving hopes of a sample return mission desired by scientists. An insider provides a new perspective on this decision, which represents a major reversal of policy from just earlier this year.
MORE...

10 December 2012
Turning science fiction to science fact: Golden Spike makes plans for human lunar missions
The last year has seen a number of proposals for audacious commercial space endeavors, but perhaps none bigger than a proposal for human missions to the surface of the Moon by 2020. Jeff Foust reports on Golden Spike’s plans for such missions and the skepticism about their feasibility.
MORE...

10 December 2012
Birds of a feather
Although it was displayed for a day at the National Air and Space Museum, the HEXAGON and GAMBIT reconnaissance satellites are now on display at the Air Force’s museum in Ohio. Dwayne Day pays a visit and looks at the future prospects for showing off the spacecraft there or at the Smithsonian.
MORE...

10 December 2012
Flight training for Apollo: An interview with astronaut Harrison Schmitt
This month marks the 40th anniversary of Apollo 17, but before astronaut Harrison Schmitt could fly to the surface of the Moon, he had to learn how to fly. Jason Catanzariti interviews the astronaut on his flight training experience and how it prepared him for his Apollo mission.
MORE...