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December 18, 2012

Beating Heart of J-2X Engine Finishes Year of Testing
Huntiville AL (SPX) Dec 19, 2012
NASA on Thursday took another step toward human exploration of new destinations in the solar system. At the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, engineers conducted the final test-firing of the J-2X powerpack assembly, an important component of America's next heavy-lift rocket. The J-2X engine is the first human-rated liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen engine developed in the United States in decades. Designed and built by NASA and industry partner Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Pa ... read more

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CU-Boulder team develops swarm of pingpong ball-sized robots University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor Nikolaus Correll likes to think in multiples. If one robot can accomplish a singular task, think how much more could be accomplished if you had hun ... more		Venus transit and lunar mirror could help astronomers find worlds around other stars On 6 June 2012 Venus passed directly between the Earth and the Sun, in a so-called transit where the planet appears as a silhouette against the solar disk, something that will not happen again until ... more		Payload integration complete for final 2012 Ariane 5 mission The Skynet 5D satellite has joined its Mexsat Bicentenario co-passenger on Ariane 5, marking a new milestone in preparations for Arianespace's seventh and final heavy-lift flight of 2012 from the Sp ... more
				Lights to combat astronaut insomnia NASA says it will use lighting technology to help astronauts on the International Space Station sleep better during their "nights" in orbit. ... more		NASA probes crash into the moon Two NASA probes crashed into the moon on Monday after spending months gathering data by orbiting miles above the lunar surface, the US space agency said. ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride NASA has named the site where twin agency spacecraft impacted the moon Monday in honor of the late astronaut Sally K. Ride, who was America's first woman in space and a member of the probes' mission ... more		Operation to "rescue" Yamal-402 a success Experts of the Thales Alenia Space company have completed a unique operation to "rescue" Yamal-402 satellite. On December 9 the Breeze-M upper stage of Russia's Proton heavy-lift rocket failed ... more		Space Force establishes Systems Delta 85 to strengthen space defense integration North Korea has 'undeclared' ICBM base near China border: report Iran says Europe has no right to extend deadline for snapback sanctions		Station Crew Does Maintenance as Soyuz Rolls to Launch Pad Final launch preparations are under way at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as three Expedition 34 flight engineers get ready for their launch to round out the standard six-person crew on the I ... more
				ISS Orbit Raised Ahead of Crew Arrival The International Space Station's orbit has been increased by almost 2.5 kilometers in a test of the station's new emergency debris avoidance system, Mission Control told RIA Novosti. The new ... more		Enabling ChemCam to Measure Key Isotopic Ratios on Mars and Other Planets On August 6th, 2012 the automatic rover "Curiosity" landed on Mars. One of the scientific instruments on board is ChemCam, which has a pulsed laser capable of ablating a focused spot on a remote sam ... more

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BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module Mass Properties Measurement The mass properties of the BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module Structural and Thermal Model have been measured. The transfer module's primary task is to provide solar-electric propulsion during the ... more		Arctic town eyes future as Europe's gateway to space Sweden's small Arctic town of Kiruna has a surprisingly international airport with regular flights to London and Tokyo, but it has even bigger plans: to offer commercial space flights. ... more		'Cyborg jellyfish' could aid in deep-sea research, inspire next-gen underwater vehicles Brazil records 65 percent drop in Amazon area burned by fire Agriculture spread across Europe through coexistence and gradual mixing		China Makes First Asteroid Fly By China's space probe Chang'e-2 has successfully conducted a maneuver in which it flew by the asteroid Toutatis, about seven million km away from the Earth. Travelling in deep space, Chang'e-2 m ... more
				Rocket Burn Sets Stage for Dynamic Moon Duos' Lunar Impact The lunar twins of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission have each completed a rocket burn that has sealed their fate. The burns modified the orbit of the formation-flying ... more		No plans of sending an Indian on moon 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 ... more

ISRO planning 10 space missions in 2013

Arctic town eyes future as Europe's gateway to space

Payload integration complete for final 2012 Ariane 5 mission

Opportunity Checking Out Some Rocks At Matijevic Hill

Enabling ChemCam to Measure Key Isotopic Ratios on Mars and Other Planets

Curious About Life: Interview with Darby Dyer

NASA Gravity Probes Prepare to Hit the Moon

GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride

No plans of sending an Indian on moon

Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On

Dwarf planet Makemake lacks atmosphere

Keck Observations Bring Weather Of Uranus Into Sharp Focus

	Asteroid Toutatis Slowly Tumbles by Earth Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have generated a series of radar data images of a three-mile-long (4.8-kilometer) asteroid th ... more		NASA Progressing Toward First Launch of Orion Spacecraft Recent engineering advances by NASA and its industry partners across the country show important progress toward Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), the next step to launching humans to deep space. ... more		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. Even the previous day's story of the United States launching, for the thir ... more		Curious About Life: Interview with Darby Dyer The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover has 10 science instruments, and each will be used in the coming weeks and months to help characterize the environment of Mars and determine if the planet ... more

Prototype system transforms urine into solar powered fertilizer and clean water

Rice University scientists launch powerful new online tool to streamline mineral identification

Researchers use electrochemistry to boost nuclear fusion rates

Research: Tiny robots may think as a group		ASU researchers propose new way to look at the dawn of life		ISRO planning 10 space missions in 2013		Opportunity Checking Out Some Rocks At Matijevic Hill		NASA Gravity Probes Prepare to Hit the Moon
NASA Awards Commercial Crew Certification Contracts		Fast20XX research project - ideas for travelling at hypersonic speed		Hat Trick for X-37B		North Korea launches long-range rocket		Curiosity Rover Nearing Yellowknife Bay

Student Team Provides Real-Time Video of Asteroid Toutatis

Cassini Spots Mini Nile River on Saturn Moon

Big Asteroid Tumbles Harmlessly Past Earth

Apollo's Lunar Dust Data Being Restored

What happens to plant growth when you remove gravity?

Medical Ops, Fan Checks for Space Crew; New Trio Checks Soyuz

Charitum Montes: a cratered winter wonderland

Search for life extends to the stars

Opportunity Continues Rock Studies

Custom robots could do Fukushima cleanup

To reach final frontier, NASA can't go it alone: analysts

Thales Makes Second Attempt to Adjust Yamal Orbit

US sends futuristic plane back into space

Russia works to fix satellite's off-target orbit

China patent office becomes world's largest: WIPO

ULA Launch Monopoly to End

Mining ancient ores for clues to early life

Russia saves satellite after launch glitch

US to launch anew secretive space plane

To the moon and back for less than 2 billion dollars

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