NASA: News About the Space Exploration Agency - Page 60

Jun 8, 2007 6:43 AM CDT

Most Massive Star Ever Weighs In

Astronomers say hefty gas giant is 100 times heavier than the sun

(Newser) - The most massive star yet discovered has been "weighed," astronomers say, and it tips the scales at a whopping 114 times the mass of the sun. The enormous star forms the bigger half of a rapidly orbiting binary system and it far outstrips both its companion star and...

China Helps Nigeria Into Space

May 24, 2007 7:10 AM CDT

China Helps Nigeria Into Space

Excluded by US, Beijing builds satellites for developing countries

(Newser) - China is launching its own space program, after years of getting a cold shoulder from NASA. Beijing is developing satellite technology for developing nations—the same nations it's looking to for resources to fuel its runaway economic growth, the New York Times notes. Last week saw the launch of a...

NASA Reveals Superpowered Telescope

May 11, 2007 4:38 PM CDT

NASA Reveals Superpowered Telescope

Giant camera will replace Hubble, see across universe

(Newser) - NASA has uncovered a prototype for a new telescope that will outmagnify the dominant Hubble. The James Webb Space Telescope will cost $4.5 billion and float nearly a million miles from Earth when it launches in six years; its supercharged hexagonal mirror will transmit images of the farthest and...

King of Supernovas Sheds Light on Early Stars

May 8, 2007 8:19 AM CDT

King of Supernovas Sheds Light on Early Stars

(Newser) - Researchers are reporting the biggest stellar explosion ever recorded—a discovery which could shed light on how the universe was shaped. The star, 150 times more massive than the sun, went out with a bang 100 times more powerful than typical supernovas. Astronomers think the first stars after the Big...

Astronaut
Wally Schirra Dies at 84

May 3, 2007 2:14 PM CDT

Astronaut Wally Schirra Dies at 84

Schirra the third American to orbit the earth, the fifth in space

(Newser) - Astronaut Wally Schirra, a reporter once said, geared up for space flight with "the ease of preparing for a family picnic." The third American to orbit the earth and the fifth ever to fly into space, Shirra died today. He was 84.

Final Frontier Tests Terra Firma Ethics

May 1, 2007 7:49 PM CDT

Final Frontier Tests Terra Firma Ethics

NASA ponders death, sex during long space voyages

(Newser) - As NASA plans a three-year manned mission to Mars during the next three decades, Oregon Trail ethics are being updated. What do you do with bodies of pioneers who don't make it? A new document on crew health from the space agency deals with death and interment where no man...

NASA Shutters Ideas Factory

Mar 22, 2007 8:47 AM CDT

NASA Shutters Ideas Factory

(Newser) - In a cost-cutting move, NASA is shutting down its futuristic think tank, source of way-ahead-of-the-curve ideas, many of them worthy of a Star Trek script. Closing the Institute for Advanced Concepts will save $4 million out of NASA’s $16 billion dollar budget. But former NASA scientist Keith Cowing describes...

NASA Discovers Seas On
Saturn's Moon

Mar 14, 2007 9:18 PM CDT

NASA Discovers Seas On Saturn's Moon

(Newser) - NASA's radar detected evidence of huge seas—one of them larger than any of the Great Lakes—on the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan. Although the spacecraft, Cassini, cannot confirm that the dark images are liquid until passing over the area again as scheduled in May, scientists believe they are...

NASA Dumps Deranged Astronaut

Mar 8, 2007 1:16 PM CST

NASA Dumps Deranged Astronaut

Nowak will be sent back to the Navy

(Newser) - Love-lorn Lisa Nowak made history again Wednesday, when she became the first astronaut ever to get a pink slip from NASA. The space agency remanded her to the U.S. Navy, for whom she was officially on assignment at NASA.