The Cardinal

Composite map of the world assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite for nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC. Scientists unveiled on December 5, 2012, an unprecedented look at planet Earth at night. A global composite image, constructed using cloud-free night images from [...]

Read the full story

A commercial cargo ship rocketed into orbit Sunday from Cape Canaveral in pursuit of the International Space Station, the first of a dozen supply runs under a mega-contract with NASA. It was the second launch of a Dragon capsule by the SpaceX company. SpaceX, also known as Space Exploration Technologies Corporation,is a space transport company [...]

Read the full story

NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong died Saturday, August 25, 2012. He was the first human being to walk on the surface of the Moon. His first spaceflight was the NASA Gemini 8 mission in 1966, but he’s famous for proclaiming as he stepped on the Moon on July 20, 1969, “That’s one small step for a [...]

Read the full story

VIDEO: Coronal mass ejection captured on April 16, 2012 by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. A beautiful prominence eruption producing a coronal mass ejection (CME) shot off the east limb (left side) of the sun on April 16, 2012. Coronal mass ejections are often associated with solar flares. An M1 class (medium-sized) solar flare occurred at [...]

Read the full story

Artist’s conception illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech. NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the “habitable zone,” the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly [...]

Read the full story

The world’s biggest extraterrestrial explorer is on its way to Mars. NASA on Saturday launched the six-wheeled, one-armed robotic rover, nicknamed Curiosity. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity was launched November 26, 2011 at 10:02 EST. The MSL is scheduled to land on Mars at Gale Crater between August 6 and August 20, 2012. The [...]

Read the full story

On November 8, 2011 at 23:28 UT (5:28 p.m. CST) the asteroid safely passed 0.85 lunar distances (324,600 km or 201,700 miles) from the Earth. November 9, 2011 at 07:13 UT (1:13 a.m. CST) the asteroid is expected to pass 0.00160 AU (239,000 km; 149,000 mi) from the Moon. During the close approach the asteroid [...]

Read the full story

Screen shot of UARS tracking graphic from n2yo.com at about 8:50 a.m. CDT showing satellite headed over Madagascar (Chicago time). UPDATE: The satellite is reported to have fallen as it was traveling eastward over Canada, the Atlantic Ocean and Africa between 10:23 p.m. CDT Friday September 23, 2011 and 12:09 a.m. CDT Saturday September 24, [...]

Read the full story

May 16, 2011 at 8:56 A.M. EDT Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canavral, Florida. International Space Station assembly mission which will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and the ELC-3 to the space station. This will be the final mission of Endeavour. Originally thought to be the last space shuttle [...]

Read the full story

At 10:21 UTC on 04/05/2010 one of the final four Space Shuttle missions lifted off for Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Space Shuttle Discovery and her crew of 7 will be bringing Leonardo to the International Space Station for a two week and three EVA stay. This is the HD Ascent video as seen on [...]

Read the full story

NASA Graphic: Kennedy Space Center 1st Landing Opportunity – Orbit 237. UPDATE: Both conditions for successful viewing of the Discovery Space Shuttle were not met early today: The landing route and the weather. The Space Shuttle landing was postponed to a third landing attempt with a route away from Chicago. Also, the Infrared Satellite image [...]

Read the full story

Video animation for conceptual design of a Personal Air Vehicle [NO AUDIO]. Conceptual design focusing on the ability of a redundant electric propulsion system to provide new capabilities for Vertical Takeoff and Landing aircraft. Specifically utilizing electric motor variable rpm to accomplish a low tipspeed prop-rotor (400 ft/sec tip speed at hover and 200 ft/sec [...]

Read the full story