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February 11, 2013

NASA Curiosity Rover Collects First Martian Bedrock Sample
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 11, 2013
NASA's Curiosity rover has, for the first time, used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars. The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep in a patch of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock, can be seen in images and other data Curiosity beamed to Earth Saturday. The rock is believed to ... read more

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Direct Infrared Image Of An Arm In Disk Demonstrates Transition To Planet Formation An international team of astronomers led by Satoshi Mayama (Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan) and Ruobing Dong (Princeton University, U.S.A.) has made observations with the Subaru Tel ... more		Lockheed Martin Completes Assembly, Begins Environmental Testing of NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft Lockheed Martin has completed the assembly of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft. The orbiter is now undergoing environmental testing at the company's Space Systems fac ... more		How The World's Saltiest Pond Gets Its Salt; Implications For Water On Mars Antarctica's Don Juan Pond might be the unlikeliest body of water on Earth. Situated in the frigid McMurdo Dry Valleys, only the pond's high salt content - by far the highest of any body of water on ... more
				Earth-like planets are right next door Using publicly available data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found that six percent of red dwarf stars have habitable, ... more		Satellite undergoes extreme testing Europe's largest telecom satellite has successfully faced a test recreating conditions it will deal with when it is launched this summer, scientists say. ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

In milestone, Mars rover collects first bedrock sample In a first, the Mars rover Curiosity has penetrated a rock on the Red Planet and collected a sample from its interior, the US space agency announced Saturday. ... more		Ariane 5 delivers record payload off back-to-back launches this week On Thursday, February 7, 2013, Arianespace successfully carried out the 54th Ariane 5 launch in a row, orbiting two telecommunications satellites: Amazonas-3 for Spanish operator Hispasat, and Azers ... more		India signs $7 bn deal for 97 domestically made fighter jets France doubles down on threat to build future fighter jet alone US approves $1.2 bn missile sale to Germany		New NASA Mission To Help Us Better Estimate Asteroid Impact Hazard Every year, sensors designed to detect nuclear explosions see harmless bursts in Earth's upper atmosphere from the breakup of an asteroid a few yards across. Tiny asteroids are much more numerous th ... more
				Near impact: asteroid to narrowly miss Earth Hold on to your hats: an asteroid will zoom within spitting distance of Earth next week, in what NASA said Thursday is the closest flyby ever predicted for an object this large. ... more		Kepler Data Suggest Earth-size Planets May Be Next Door Using publicly available data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics estimate that six percent of red dwarf stars in the galaxy have Earth ... more

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Arianespace Launches Six Globalstar Birds Using Starsem Soyuz Wednesday's successful orbiting of six spacecraft on a Starsem Soyuz mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome marks the wrap-up of launch services currently contracted with Arianespace by Globalstar for the ... more		NASA and ATK Complete Avionics and Controls Testing for SLS Booster NASA and ATK (ATK) completed the second in a series of development tests for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) booster program on January 30 at ATK's Promontory, Utah, test facility. This key a ... more		Simulations of Exoplanet Formation May Help Inform Search for Extraterrestrial Life Ancient hot springs reveal how microbes thrived before Earth gained oxygen Framework proposed to study planetary scale impact of life		Ariane 5 Arrives At Kourou For 4th Automated Transfer Vehicle Mission The Ariane 5 for Arianespace's upcoming flight with an Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) resupply spacecraft has arrived in French Guiana, maintaining the mission pace for this industry-leading launc ... more
				Earth-like planets may be closer than thought: study Scientists looking for habitable planets may not have to stray far from our galactic neighborhood, said a new study Wednesday, which calculated an Earth-size planet could be orbiting a red dwarf as near as 13 light years away. ... more		Asteroid 2012 DA14 - Earth Flyby Reality Check Small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to Earth on February 15, so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites. NASA's Nea ... more

Ariane 5 delivers record payload off back-to-back launches this week

Ariane 5 Arrives At Kourou For 4th Automated Transfer Vehicle Mission

Arianespace Launches Six Globalstar Birds Using Starsem Soyuz

Mapping Mars

Sampling Several Rock Targets

Weekend Test on Mars Was Preparation to Drill a Rock

Building a lunar base with 3D printing

US, Europe team up for moon fly-by

Russia to Launch Lunar Mission in 2015

The PI's Perspective: The Seven-Year Itch

New Horizons Gets a New Year's Workout

Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On

	Sampling Several Rock Targets Opportunity is moving around the inboard edge of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater, performing in-situ (contact) science investigations. On Sol 3200 (Jan. 23, 2013), the rover complet ... more		Mapping Mars Nearly 90% of Mars' surface has been mapped by the high-resolution stereo camera on ESA's Mars Express, which celebrates ten years since launch this June. The mosaic comprises 2702 individual ... more		Weekend Test on Mars Was Preparation to Drill a Rock The bit of the rock-sampling drill on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity left its mark on a Martian rock this weekend during brief testing of the tool's percussive action. The successful activity, ca ... more		Supersonic skydiver even faster than thought Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian skydiver who jumped from the edge of space in October, fell at 1.25 times the speed of sound, even faster than thought, organisers said Wednesday. ... more

Uranium enrichment: Why Iran refuses to step back

Redwire to Deliver Solar Array Wings for Axiom Station's First Module

Germany's Merz rejects claims he is slowing green shift

Are Super-Earths Actually Mini-Neptunes?		Cassini Sees Titan Cooking up Smog		BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter Proto-Flight Mechanical and Propulsion Bus undergoes bake-out		Final checkout underway for the Starsem Soyuz launch with Globalstar spacecraft		Small Asteroid to Whiz Past Earth Safely
South Korean Satellite Makes First Contact with Ground		Ahmadinejad says ready to be Iran's first spaceman		Building a lunar base with 3D printing		Flight Control Test-2 for SLS at ATK		Dawn Look Backs

Iran's Bio-Capsule Comes Back from Space

NASA Launches Rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia

Researchers develop model for identifying habitable zones around star

Stars can be late parents

Zenit Engine Worked Normally

A Hero For Humankind: Yuri Gagarin's Spaceflight

Internet wonders which monkey Iran sent into space

Floating platform unharmed after Zenit launch failure

Intelsat 27 Launch Unsuccessful

Herschel Finds Past-Prime Star May Be Making Planets

Astrium wins ESA contracts to design Ariane 6 and continue development of Ariane 5 ME

Mercury's crust likely made of magnesium-rich basalt

Site of space rocket launch to become home of S. Korea's space program

NASA Wallops Rocket Mission January 29 Prepping for Future Projects

Payload preps continue for first Ariane 5 flights of 2013

NASA Takes Strides Forward to Launch Americans from U.S. Soil

TW Hydrae: There's more to astronomers' favorite planetary nursery than previously thought

NASA's Cassini Watches Storm Choke on Its Own Tail

Sierra Nevada Corporation and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company Partner On Dream Chaser Programs

AAS Division For Planetary Sciences Issues Statement On Mars 2020 Program

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