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February 15, 2013

Asteroid to whiz past Earth Friday
Boston (AFP) Feb 15, 2013
NASA is closely tracking an asteroid large enough to destroy a city that is set to whiz past Earth on Friday in what the US space agency says is the closest flyby ever predicted for such a large object. The 150-feet (45-meter) wide asteroid - dubbed 2012 DA 14 - is expected to pass about 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) above the Earth at the time of closest approach, about 2:25 pm EST (1925 GMT), NASA said. "This distance is well away from Earth and the swarm of low Earth-orbiting satellites, ... read more

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Welcome Aboard Shenzhou 10 As we approach the launch of China's next human space mission, some questions still remain unanswered. This is not unusual for the relatively veiled nature of China's space program, but it does invi ... more		Magnetic shielding of ion beam thruster walls Electric rocket engines known as Hall thrusters, which use a super high-velocity stream of ions to propel a spacecraft in space, have been used successfully onboard many missions for half a century. ... more		Orion Lands Safely on Two of Three Parachutes in Test NASA engineers have demonstrated the agency's Orion spacecraft can land safely if one of its three main parachutes fails to inflate during deployment. The test was conducted Tuesday in Yuma, A ... more
				Telescopes Could Detect ET Life Signs Within 25 Years A team of Dutch astronomers has shown that with a new type of telescope it may be possible to detect signs of extraterrestrial life on planets orbiting other stars than the Sun. Although even the mo ... more		Low-Gravity Flights Will Aid ISS Fluids and Combustion Experiments Wouldn't it be fun to do experiments while floating free inside an airplane? Scientists from NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland get to do just that using suborbital flights. These planes fly ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Another Sea Launch Failure Sea Launch is currently a Russian spacecraft launch service that uses a mobile seagoing platform for direct equatorial launches of commercial payloads on Zenit 3SL rockets. Since its inception ... more		ILS Concludes Yamal 402 Proton Launch Investigation The International Launch Servies (ILS) Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) concluded its review on February 7, concurring on the most probable root cause and the associated corrective action plan ... 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		NASA Set for New Round Of J-2X Testing at Stennis Space Center NASA's progress toward a return to deep space missions continues with a new round of upcoming tests on the next-generation J-2X rocket engine, which will help power the agency's Space Launch System ... more
				Mars Rock Takes Unusual Form On Mars, as on Earth, sometimes things can take on an unusual appearance. A case in point is a shiny-looking rock seen in a recent image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. Some casual obs ... more		Rover Walkabout Continues at Cape York Opportunity is conducting the post-walkabout in-situ (contact) science campaign on the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater. On Sol 3208 (Jan. 31, 2013), the rover collecte ... more

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Rocketdyne Powers Atlas 5 Upper Stage, Placing New Landsat In Orbit Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne and RD AMROSS successfully propelled the most advanced Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft into orbit Monday for NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. ... more		Progress docks with ISS Russian cargo ship "Progress M-18M" has successfully docked with the ISS. The docking took place at 00:40 Moscow time. This is already the third successful shortened, 6-hour docking in the his ... 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		Getting the Right Spin on a Close-Passing Asteroid The record-setting close approach of an asteroid on Feb. 15 is an exciting opportunity for scientists, and a research team will use National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and NASA telescopes to ... more
				Insect drives robot to track down smells A small, two-wheeled robot has been driven by a male silkmoth to track down the sex pheromone usually given off by a female mate. The robot has been used to characterise the silkmoth's tracking beha ... more		Humans and robots work better together following cross-training Spending a day in someone else's shoes can help us to learn what makes them tick. Now the same approach is being used to develop a better understanding between humans and robots, to enable them to w ... more

Another Sea Launch Failure

Rocketdyne Powers Atlas 5 Upper Stage, Placing New Landsat In Orbit

ILS Concludes Yamal 402 Proton Launch Investigation

Rover Walkabout Continues at Cape York

Mars Rock Takes Unusual Form

In milestone, Mars rover collects first bedrock sample

Building a lunar base with 3D printing

US, Europe team up for moon fly-by

Russia to Launch Lunar Mission in 2015

Public to vote on names for Pluto moons

The PI's Perspective: The Seven-Year Itch

New Horizons Gets a New Year's Workout

	Foundation Helps Promote New Robotics Teams Worldwide The Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation and the Northrop Grumman Foundation has announced a partnership to establish 200 new VEX Robotics Competition teams in locations worldwide and ... 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		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

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

Ariane 5 delivers record payload off back-to-back launches this week		Can we live farther away from the Sun		Eutelsat and Arianespace sign new multi-year multiple launch services agreement		No asteroid risk in foreseeable future		Alphasat experiences heaven on Earth
Public to vote on names for Pluto moons		Planet color may suggest alien life		How The World's Saltiest Pond Gets Its Salt; Implications For Water On Mars		Ariane 5 Arrives At Kourou For 4th Automated Transfer Vehicle Mission		NASA Curiosity Rover Collects First Martian Bedrock Sample

Direct Infrared Image Of An Arm In Disk Demonstrates Transition To Planet Formation

Lockheed Martin Completes Assembly, Begins Environmental Testing of NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft

New NASA Mission To Help Us Better Estimate Asteroid Impact Hazard

Near impact: asteroid to narrowly miss Earth

Kepler Data Suggest Earth-size Planets May Be Next Door

Arianespace Launches Six Globalstar Birds Using Starsem Soyuz

NASA and ATK Complete Avionics and Controls Testing for SLS Booster

Earth-like planets may be closer than thought: study

Asteroid 2012 DA14 - Earth Flyby Reality Check

Sampling Several Rock Targets

Final checkout underway for the Starsem Soyuz launch with Globalstar spacecraft

Small Asteroid to Whiz Past Earth Safely

Mapping Mars

Weekend Test on Mars Was Preparation to Drill a Rock

Supersonic skydiver even faster than thought

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

South Korean Satellite Makes First Contact with Ground

Ahmadinejad says ready to be Iran's first spaceman

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