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Russia has reneged on an agreement to deliver a total of 10 kilograms of plutonium-238 to the United States in 2010 and 2011 and is insisting on a new deal for the costly material vital to NASA’s deep space exploration plans. The move follows the U.S. Congress’ denial of President Barack Obama’s request for $30 million in 2010 to permit the Department of Energy to begin the painstaking process of restarting domestic production of plutonium-238. Bringing U.S. nuclear laboratories back on line to produce the isotope is expected to cost at least $150 million and take six years to seven...

Science: For two years, our space agency has refused Freedom of Information requests on why it has repeatedly corrected its climate figures. A leading researcher threatens to sue to find more inconvenient truths. What's become known as "Climate-Gate" may be about to explode on this side of the pond as well. Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has threatened a lawsuit against NASA if by year-end the agency doesn't honor his FOI requests for information on how and why its climate numbers have been consistently adjusted for errors. "I assume that what is there is highly...

The U.S. Senate gave final passage to an energy and water spending bill Oct. 15 that denies President Barack Obama’s request for $30 million for the Department of Energy to restart production of plutonium-238 (pu-238) for NASA deep space missions. The House of Representatives originally approved $10 million of Obama’s pu-238 request for next year, but ultimately adopted the Senate’s position before voting Oct. 1 to approve the conference report on the 2010 Energy-Water Appropriations bill (H.R. 3183). The bill now heads to Obama, who is expected to sign it. NASA relies on pu-238 to power long-lasting spacecraft batteries that...

NASA is running out of the special kind of plutonium needed to power deep space probes, worrying planetary scientists who say the U. S. urgently needs to restart production of plutonium-238. But it's unclear whether Congress will provide the $30 million that the administration requested earlier this year for the Department of Energy to get a new program going. Nuclear weapons use plutonium-239, but NASA depends on something quite different: plutonium-238. A marshmallow-sized pellet of plutonium-238, encased in metal, gives off a lot of heat. "If you dim the lights a little bit, it glows a little red, because it's...

One of the gravest dangers facing future astronauts traveling to Mars will be radiation in space: If the long trip doesn't kill them, cancer eventually could. These threats can, however, be defeated. In Star Trek, a deflector shield surrounded the Starship Enterprise, and radiation bounced off it. Now tests show it's possible to create a real deflector shield that would have the same effect. A new study found that a portable magnetic shield could be the key to protecting spacefarers during long-duration missions. A spaceship could be outfitted with a mini magnetosphere that would force the harmful charged particles in...

As 40 years have passed since Gagarin’s flight, new sensational details of this event were disclosed: Gagarin was not the first man to fly to space. Three Soviet pilots died in attempts to conquer space before Gagarin's famous space flight, Mikhail Rudenko, senior engineer-experimenter with Experimental Design Office 456 (located in Khimki, in the Moscow region) said on Thursday. According to Rudenko, spacecraft with pilots Ledovskikh, Shaborin and Mitkov at the controls were launched from the Kapustin Yar cosmodrome (in the Astrakhan region) in 1957, 1958 and 1959. "All three pilots died during the flights, and their names were never...

The plume is seen as an umbrella-shaped feature in the long exposure image to the right Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back images of a huge volcanic eruption on Jupiter's moon Io.A massive dust plume, estimated to be 150m (490ft) high, can be seen erupting from the Tvashtar volcano on Io. On Wednesday, the US probe flew by Jupiter, using the planet's gravity to boost its speed, reducing the travel time to its ultimate target of Pluto. New Horizons also took photos of the icy moons Europa and Ganymede in the run-up to its encounter with Jupiter. Turning...

PARIS (AFP) - What's the biggest hurdle to setting up a colony on the Moon or getting mankind to Mars and beyond? Experts poring over plans to return to the Moon by 2018 and later stride to Mars believe the greatest-ever gamble in the history of space may ultimately depend on keeping the mind and body sound. Anxiety, loneliness and tensions with crewmates, a daily battle to maintain fitness and avoid accidents, DNA-shredding radiation from solar flares or cosmic rays -- all these make mental and physical health the key to whether a long-term mission will succeed or fail catastrophically....

We must stop the U.S. Administration from foisting this disastrous anti-science, antiexploration agenda on NASA. I want to help the Society fend off these attacks that are threatening both space science and human and robotic exploration of other worlds. PETITION TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH Your administration's proposal to cut the budget for NASA's Space Science and exploration programs will inflict long-term, possibly irreparable, harm to the future of space exploration. Your own Vision for Space Exploration is being distorted. This budget, if passed, threatens to cancel decades of vital exploration, the very thing that gains the United States international...

Russia will join the U.S Moon exploration program if Washington provides the necessary funding, a Russian space representative said Tuesday. After U.S. President George W. Bush announced his Vision for Space Exploration in 2004, a plan for new manned lunar missions, the country's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) elaborated a program that envisions the construction of a manned lunar base, which will require broad international cooperation. "If the U.S. offers the necessary financing for Russia to participate in its national lunar program, Russia is likely to accept the proposal," said Igor Panarin, a spokesman for the Russian Space Agency....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week. But apparently U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth at the international space station, didn't get the memo. Williams, through no fault of his own, let it slip Tuesday that the new vehicle's name is Orion. "We've been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name — Orion," Williams said, taping a message in advance for the space agency that was transmitted accidentally...

Low cost orbital launch vehicle. Year: 1977. Family: LCLV. Country: Germany. Status: Hardware. $200 million was spent from 1975-1987 by Lutz Kayer in a serious attempt to develop a low-cost satellite launcher using clusters of mass-produced pressure-fed liquid propellant modules. The project was finally squelched by the German government under pressure from the Soviet and French. In the early 1970's Willy Brandt's Ministry of Science and Technology solicited a contract for demonstration of launch vehicle technology an order of magnitude cheaper and more reliable than existing boosters. Lutz Kayser's research company won the contract and developed a radically new rocket...

Space advocates at this year's International Space Development Conference, put on by the National Space Society (NSS), said they believe they can help save the world. If they are united on any single philosophical point, it is this: space exploration can and will make life better on Earth. Naturally, the means of making life better can vary, ranging from scientific inquiry to politics to economics. Charles Elachi, Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, when asked why we explore, stated, “If we didn’t, we’d still be in caves.” Elon Musk, taking a page right from the NSS's Mission Statement, says he wants to...

Even at NASA, host to some of the brightest engineering minds, the term "collaborative engineering" might not elicit excitement until you imagine its possibilities -- better spacecraft designs within a shorter turnaround time. Thanks to a recently launched NASA software system, more efficient space mission planning soon could be a reality. Developed by a team of engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., the new system was created to support the NASA design teams charged with engineering the spacecraft of tomorrow – advanced vehicles to realize the Vision for Space Exploration. The vision plans for the return...

Simon Mitton, a fellow of Saint Edmunds College at the University of Cambridge, recently sat down with Charles Cockell, geomicrobiology professor at the Open University in the UK. In part two of their interview, Cockell discusses the reasons for studying microbes in space. He also explains why humans must someday face those conditions as well, as we expand outwards into the solar system and beyond.

U.S. to Piggyback on India's Mission to Orbit the Moon NASA's chief signs a deal that will put two of the agency's mapping instruments on the unmanned spaceflight planned for 2008. By Paul Watson, Times Staff Writer May 10, 2006 NEW DELHI — American outsourcing to India is approaching a new frontier: outer space. The two nations' space agencies signed an agreement Tuesday in India's high-tech hub of Bangalore to fly two U.S. lunar mapping instruments on India's unmanned mission to orbit the moon, scheduled for 2008. Because sending a U.S. spacecraft to the moon again remains a possibility only...

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060410_happy_face.html

Is the surface of a planet the best place for an expanding technological civilization?" O’Neill’s question to his advanced physics students inspired a young generation of thinkers to examine the possibilities of space migration. In the middle 1970s, the accomplishments of Apollo were fresh in our minds and the next steps forward seemed only paused but not yet abandoned. We still dared to have great dreams, and great choices seemed to be opening up. The results of Dr. O’Neill’s initial classroom think tank were described in his Physics Today article in 1975. His 1976 book The High Frontier explored the...

In a document titled "A Renewed Spirit of Discovery" released on the same day that President Bush announced his Vision for Space Exploration in January 2004, the White House directed NASA, as part of the new "Vison for Space Exploration" to "Conduct advanced telescope searches for Earth-like planets and habitable environments around other stars". In a statement released today, the Planetary Society expressed their strong concerns about the cancellation of this and other space science missions. Planetary Society President, Wesley T. Huntress, Jr., observed that this action amounts to "essentially transferring funds from a popular and highly productive program into...

The Planetary Society Cites Cancelled Plans for a Europa and Other Science Missions Pasadena, CA, — The NASA Budget released today shortchanges space science in order to fund 17 projected space shuttle flights. Despite recent spectacular results from NASA's science programs, this budget puts the brakes on their growth within the agency. It seriously damages the hugely productive and successful robotic exploration of our solar system and beyond. According to this budget, flight projects that were already underway, such as the Space Interferometry Mission, will be delayed. Others, such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder and a mission to Jupiter's moon...

Something spectacular may happen in 2012. New Horizons, a NASA space craft with a probe will travel at 26,700mph over four billion miles to Pluto. It will be in close proximity of Pluto by 2012. New Horizons probe will travel faster than any previous spacecraft on its journey to the planet farthest from the Sun, its moon Charon and the mysterious, icy Kuiper Belt. Relatively little is known about the ninth planet Pluto. It is an unknown zone of the solar system. Many scientists have started believing that Pluto will surprise all in the earth by 2012. There are fair...

Many believe that the US intention to place a payload on Chandrayan-I is a major area of engagement between the two countries. It is a reflection of the changed perceptions in Washington after years of suspicion about the Indian space entity's alleged involvement in transgressing stringent US laws to obtain dual-use high-technology items. This had impeded cooperation during a time when India and the US were in opposite Cold War alignments. India considers its missile, space and nuclear programs to be closely interlinked, with nuclear deterrence against Pakistan and China and benefits to the people through satellite technology and nuclear...

Heavy-lift launch vehicles (HLLVs) are regarded by many as the key technology for an aggressive, sustainable program of human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit. Indeed, decades of both lunar and Mars mission analysis have been dominated by plans calling for the development of at least Saturn 5-class launch technology, capable of delivering 100 metric tons (tonnes) or more to low orbit—and on the surface, this would seem quite prudent. Any human expedition beyond Earth will necessarily mass hundreds of tonnes initially, and since bigger boosters can carry much larger amounts of payload in far fewer launches, they have been championed...

A potential rival of Boeing Co. hopes to do Monday what strikes and technical problems have prevented Boeing from doing recently: Launch a rocket. If it goes forward Monday, the launch will be SpaceX's first. The customers are the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force. It will carry a satellite that it hopes will measure space plasma, which can adversely affect GPS and other space-based civil and military communications. California-based Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said SpaceX's planned launch will not affect Boeing. "We wish them the best as they try to enter this difficult market," Beck said.

Given all the attention that has been focused on NASA’s new plans to return to the Moon, it’s easy to forget that the United States is not the only nation with lunar exploration plans. While the US is the only country with definitive plans to send humans to the Moon (rumormongering about Chinese plans notwithstanding), the US is not the only country planning to mount robotic lunar expeditions—nor is it even in the lead in this area. By the time the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission, the first in NASA’s series of lunar missions, launches in 2008, no fewer than...

Some things take more thought than others. We've been watching all summer as the details of NASA's new exploration plan come out, trying to decide what to make of it all. We're pretty much obliged to, since we're part of a coalition called Space Exploration Alliance that exists to support NASA exploration funding - we signed up with SEA last year, supporting the initial increases while we waited hopefully to see just how much actual useful NASA reform we might get. (Standard Disclaimer: NASA is not one monolithic outfit, but a diverse flock of organizations flying in loose formation. Nor...

A breakthrough by a team of British, US and French scientists will help protect astronauts, spacecraft and satellites from radiation hazards experienced in space. Reporting in the journal Nature this week, the team describe how their study of rare and unusual space storms provided a unique opportunity to test conflicting theories about the behaviour of high energy particles in the Van Allen radiation belts* - a volatile region 12000 miles (19,000 km) above the Earth. Lead author, Dr Richard Horne of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) says "Solar storms can increase radiation in the Van Allen belts to levels that...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has pulled the plug on a $65 million nuclear propulsion research program at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, leaving 150 employees in limbo. "NASA and Naval Reactors have mutually agreed to terminate their partnership to work on Prometheus," as the program was called, a Knolls spokeswoman said Friday afternoon. "NASA has been changing its priorities. I don't have many details on this," she added. Lockheed Martin Corp. operates Knolls under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy. Knolls employs 2,700 people, including 1,500 engineers, at its laboratory in Niskayuna and at another site in West...

Future astronauts sent on long duration flights to Mars or beyond will have to worry about more risks than merely launching into space and reentering planetary atmospheres safely. Space radiation, prolonged exposure to weightlessness and the psychological impact of extended confinement inside a space ship are just some of the challenges detailed in Naked Science: Spacemen (9 p.m. EDT, National Geographic Channel). While much of the material covered in Spacemen may seem old hat to dedicated followers of NASA’s space exploration efforts, the program provides a basic primer of the fundamental obstacles facing astronauts in Earth orbit today and in...

ince the time when man first rubbed two sticks together and sparked fire, it has been a fact of life: He who masters a new technology has an obvious edge over he who doesn't. The United States has mastered the technology required to put into space sophisticated objects that give this country military and economic advantages. Gen. Lance Lord, commander of the Air Force Space Command, is bound and determined to keep that edge. ''America uses and America needs space,'' Lord said last week while in Fort Worth to deliver a speech to the Fort Worth Airpower Council. His command's...

China is planning to study the effects of outer space on sperm by sending the semen from pedigree pigs into orbit. Some 40 grams of pig sperm will be taken on board the Shenzhou VI spacecraft for its October launch. Some of the sperm will be kept outside the spacecraft's biological capsule and some inside, according to China's Xinhua news agency. Surviving sperm will be returned to earth and used to compare the effect of microgravity on the semen. The pigs chosen are a breed called Rongchang, named after an area in the southwest of the country and famed for...

A major US research body has warned that cuts in Nasa's 2006 budget will hamper progress in understanding our planet and the rest of the Universe. The American Geophysical Union says there are signs space and Earth science have dropped in priority at Nasa. The AGU says research in these areas is threatened by the financial demands of meeting President Bush's Moon-to-Mars initiative and other manned programmes. It also says Nasa is doing "more than it can with the resources provided". "The problem is that Nasa has a great deal on its plate," said Eric Barron, who has chaired an...

There may be many problems apparent at NASA and among the U.S. aerospace giants these days, but there also are signs that space exploration is about to undergo a renaissance, with an explosion of creativity unseen in decades. To explain this conclusion will require telling a personal anecdote, which begins in the mid-1980s. At the time, I had become fascinated with the sport of caving and was getting involved in several exploration projects. Together with other enthusiasts, we pushed the limits of known caves to find virgin and previously unexplored passages - to go literally where no one had gone...

The Planetary Society, a U.S. nonprofit group devoted to space exploration, plans to launch the world's first solar sail spacecraft as early as June 21. Cosmos 1 will be launched from a submerged Russian submarine in the Barents Sea and carried into orbit by a converted intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Initially orbiting the Earth at an altitude of about 500 miles (800 kilometers), the spacecraft will gradually move outward by solar sailing—propelled by the pressure of light particles from the sun striking the craft's eight triangular sails. The journey has no destination. The mission's goal is simply to prove that...

CNN: Are we at the dawn of a new space age? Rurt Rutan: I think so for sub-orbital personal space flights, which are very different from going to a resort hotel in orbit. They go outside the atmosphere to give people the view and then they give you four or five minutes of weightlessness.

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - Ten years after finding the first planet outside our solar system, scientists say they may be ready to move into a new phase of planetary exploration -- one that examines distant worlds for signs of Earth-like life. So far, astronomers have discovered some 145 so-called extrasolar planets orbiting stars besides our sun. All are gas giants like Jupiter, thought to be inhospitable to life as it is known on Earth. But some of the world's premier planet hunters indicated this could change in the next decade. "Within a few years, we may be able to detect things...

Moscow - A Russian court ruled that an astrologer could proceed with a lawsuit against the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration for plans to bombard a comet whose destruction would "disrupt the natural balance of the universe", said Itar-Tass on Friday. Star-reader Marina Bai's case was thrown out of a lower court because Russia had no jurisdiction over Nasa. But, the ruling was overturned when her lawyer, Alexandra Molokhova, was able to show that the agency's office in the US embassy in Moscow did fall under Russian jurisdiction. Bai seeks a ruling that would restrict Nasa in its...

European space scientists are expected to adopt in May a broad blueprint for space exploration between 2015 and 2025, despite the fact their spending power for that period is as unknown as the deep-space phenomena they want to explore.

The Nation, a left-leaning magazine, published an article about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's influence over NASA and its budget. The article largely rehashes the issues most regular readers of this blog are familiar with: DeLay's addition of JSC into his Congressional district, his last-minute move to top off NASA’s FY05 budget request, and the recent reorganization of the House Appropriation Committee's subcommittee structure. Like many such articles, it includes an arguably questionable comment from John Pike: "With NASA changing its spending priorities to support President Bush's vision for space exploration that will return humans to the moon and take...

MOJAVE - XCOR Aerospace will continue its own work in developing a composite liquid oxygen fuel tank for NASA's new space exploration plans under a $7 million contract announced Monday. The Mojave-based rocket engine company won the competitive contract as part of the space agency's effort to develop key technologies for manned exploration of the moon, Mars and beyond. "We get a chance to do what we want to do to the benefit of us, to the benefit of NASA and other folks," company co-founder Aleta Jackson said. Over the last few years, XCOR has developed a combination of materials...

Nuclear power would allow missions to orbit - not merely fly by The US space agency (Nasa) is progressing with ambitious plans to explore the Solar System using nuclear power. Their hope, eventually, is to use electricity generated by nuclear power to propel a space probe and power its instruments on a voyage to the icy moons of Jupiter, satellites that just possibly might harbour life beneath their ice. Before then, nuclear technology could be proved with a less ambitious mission, perhaps a nuclear-powered probe to the Moon. As long ago as 1907, just two years after Einstein discovered his...

Had trouble finding an electrician, a carpenter, a bricklayer, or any one of a number of other skilled craftspeople for that little project you just can’t handle yourself? Probably. We often read about the scarcity of those we used to call "trades people." (Well, we really used to call them "trades men," but that’s neither proper nor accurate any more.) The trade unions were strong and had extensive apprentice programs so young people could learn the trade from the experts—people who usually had rough hands, sometimes used less than perfect grammar, but sure knew how to build and repair things....

HOUSTON – When NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart over East Texas almost two years ago, killing its crew of seven, many wondered: What will become of the struggling space agency? Prior to the accident, there was growing criticism of cost overruns, poor management, and lack of a clear mission. After the accident, NASA found itself without a shuttle to continue its work on the International Space Station; even today, the shuttle is incomplete. And leading the agency through these years of turmoil was a self-described bean counter with no aerospace experience. Now, after three years, Sean O'Keefe has announced...

NASA has selected six Northrop Grumman Corporation proposals valued at approximately $137 million over four years to develop human and robotic technologies that would have pivotal roles in its Vision for Space Exploration.

The Cosmos 1 team announced today that the world's first solar sail spacecraft will be set for launch on March 1, 2005 from a submerged submarine in the Barents Sea. Cosmos 1 - a project of The Planetary Society - is sponsored by Cosmos Studios. "With the spacecraft now built and undergoing its final checkout, we are ready to set our launch date," said Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society and Project Director of Cosmos 1 ."The precedent-setting development of the first solar sail spacecraft has had its ups and downs like a roller coaster ride, but now...

A EUROPEAN spacecraft powered by a Star Trek-style thruster has flown through a “lunar gateway” that puts it on course to reach the Moon on Monday. Smart-1 has fired its revolutionary ion engine to reach a point at which it can be captured by the Moon’s gravity. Yesterday morning the washing machine-sized probe cleared the “Lagrangian point” at which the gravity of the Earth and the Moon are in perfect balance. The craft is now assured of orbiting the Moon. “Smart-1 has passed through the gateway to the Moon,” said Bernard Foing, of the European Space Agency (ESA), the probe’s...

New Russian-U.S. Crew Heads Into Space By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - A new Russian-U.S. crew headed to the international space station Thursday, surging into orbit aboard a Soyuz spacecraft none of the three astronauts has piloted before. The Soyuz have been the only manned vehicles able to reach the orbiting research lab since the U.S. space shuttle fleet was grounded 20 months ago after the Columbia burned up on re-entry. Russians Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and American Leroy Chiao were flying their first mission in a Soyuz spacecraft — a rare rupture with a tradition...

WASHINGTON -- House and Senate negotiators still expect to resolve their differences over a bill that would establish regulations for suborbital launch firms that plan to carry paying passengers into space. But with U.S. lawmakers slated to leave town the first week of October, proponents say time is running out to enact the legislation this year.

David and Geske Core bore little resemblance to the image of the square-jawed, broad-chested space traveller of the comic books. When they left the earth's atmosphere in 2001, the silver-haired and bespectacled couple were both the wrong side of 70. They never came back.

A desert airdrome in Mojave, California is on the final glide path to getting government approval for becoming an inland gateway to space. The Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites)'s Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) is expected next month to certify that the Mojave Airport Civilian Flight Test Center as a non-federal spaceport to handle horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft. As such, Mojave Airport can offer a range of launch and landing services making it a hub for high-flying craft intended to help spark public space travel. The Mojave Airport is located approximately 100 miles north of...