NASA

President Obama has signed the NASA Space Exploration Act into law, paving the way for a manned mission to an asteroid by 2025.A manned mission to Mars will also reportedly occur sometime during the 2030s.NASA Chief Charles Bolden said, "Today's vote of confidence from the president ensures America's space program will remain at the forefront of a bright future for our nation."The law will move past NASA's previous moon-oriented exploration, with a $19 billion budget going towards NASA next year.A space shuttle will be added to NASA's current fleet, before the fleet retires in 2011.The International Space Station will also be extended through 2020.

In preparation for its Oct. 25, 2011 launch, NASA awarded Astrotech Corporation (NASDAQ:ASTC) with a $35 million Vandenberg Air Force Base indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract.The company will be providing facilities and payload processing services for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project at the California base. The project, according to the NASA website, is a joint mission of NASA and the NPOESS Integrated Program Office to track atmospheric and sea surface temperature and land and ocean biological productivity, among other things.NASA's previous contract with Astrotech, then known as SPACEHAB, for payload processing services began in 2007 and ran through 2009. The SPACEHAB contract was also valued at $35 million.Astrotech has won six of seven similar missions to date.Astrotech closed 1.94 percent lower on Monday at $1.01.

"NASA found two cracks in the space shuttle's external fuel tank that led to the delays in the Discovery's launch earlier this month.Discovery was due to launch on November 5th, on its final mission, to the International Space Station, which is now delayed until November 30th.While removing the shuttle's external fuel tank foam insulation Tuesday morning, technicians at the agency uncovered two cracks on a section of the tank's exterior.An unidentified NASA technician found the cracks, and immediately took photos of them and posted them on his son's blog, Gizmodo reported.NASA acknowledged the photos and the discovery of the crack Wednesday afternoon."

"Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE:ORB) completed the Mission Operations Center for NASA's International Space Station. The cargo mission is set to begin in 2011.Mr. David W. Thompson, Orbital's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: """"After nearly three years of developing the Taurus II rocket and the Cygnus spacecraft, we are less than a year away from our first scheduled launch to the ISS. The Mission Operations Center dedicated to the COTS and CRS programs is a critical element in our overall system architecture, providing us with robust command and control systems for the upcoming missions, as well as providing direct connectivity capabilities with our Houston-based customers at NASA's Johnson Space Center."""

Learn about the NASA riblet technology. Also learn about the use of the riblet in yaught races and airplanes.

Learn about the job of George Aldrich as a NASA sniffer. In this video you will see how important a NASA sniffer is for the space missions of NASA.

Heidi Hammel, senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute, explains that NASA's funding goes into exploration, science and aeronautics.

In this week's episode of App Judgment, David Prager reviews NASA's foray into mobile apps with NASA for the iPhone.

It's a mystery scientists have been trying to uncover for years. How much water is there on the moon? NASA will try to uncover how much water actually exists on the moon by smashing a rocket into its surface. Video courtesy of Reuters.

To mark the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, the first mission to place humans on the moon, NASA released partially restored videos of memorable moments from the July 20 moonwalk.

If you ever want to watch the first steps on the moon then you're in luck! I will show you how to watch refurbished NASA first Apollo 11 moon landing videos in HD. You can watch them for free anytime you want! To get to see the actual footage and have it in HD is amazing!

NASA Launched Space Shuttle Endeavour CST

NASA Day Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:45:00 EDT

Little Rock, AR - FOX16 Top Stories of the day -- Arkansas universities help NASA find signs of life on Mars

NASA takes to the skies to study earthquake faults in Southern California.

NASA Plans To Launch Endeavour On Wednesday

Here is a view of NASA's Minotaur I rocket sending several satellites into space from the beach in Cape May, N.J.

Learn about NASA's Voyager Images from Jupiter 1979 in this educational video from dizzo95.

Learn about NASA's Viking Missions to Mars 1975 - 1977 in this educational video from dizzo95.

Merrill 8th Graders Earn National Recognition in NASA Design Contest Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:51:00 EST

A NASA rocket carrying a climate satellite failed to successfully launch into orbit and fell into the ocean near Antarctica. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), costing 278 million (USD), was designed to study global carbon dioxide emissions. If the satellite proves unsalvageable it will come as a huge blow to climate change scientists.

01/14/09 Verizon Business and NASA agree upon a deal today that would make Verizon the primary conferencig services provider to all NASA centers, facilities, and select contractor locations.

NASA instructors offer a firsthand look at the training astronauts endure before they can withstand an appearance on Larry King Live.

(Miami, FL) With a visit to the Hubble Space Telescope off until next spring at the earliest, NASA on Thursday chose Nov. 14 for its next space shuttle launch, a flight by Endeavour to the international space station.

(Los Angeles, CA) The giant telescope has been broken with some parts literally frozen, but now NASA engineers say they know how to turn it back on. Sandra Mitchell reports.

3 part music video essay by Chris Valentine about NASA's human space exploration program and it's importance to our society. The video essay is centered on the ill-fated STS 107/Columbia disaster. Music from many popular artists.

3 part music video essay by Chris Valentine about NASA's human space exploration program and it's importance to our society. The video essay is centered on the ill-fated STS 107/Columbia disaster. Music from many popular artists.

3 part music video essay by Chris Valentine about NASA's human space exploration program and it's importance to our society. The video essay is centered on the ill-fated STS 107/Columbia disaster. Music from many popular artists.

US space agency Nasa has launched the interstellar boundary explorer, or Ibex, toward the edges of the solar system.