What’s next for NASA?, Mario Livio, Baltimore Sun “In recent days, some of those criticizing NASA’s proposed budget have tried to paint a picture of an agency without a vision. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. NASA’s far-reaching ambitions in space science have been, and will continue to be, truly inspiring” Keith’s note: While Livio does make a number of cogent points about space science, I find […]

Astronaut John Grunsfeld Appointed Space Telescope Science Institute Deputy Director, NASA “Dr. John M. Grunsfeld has been appointed Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., effective January 4, 2010. He succeeds Dr. Michael Hauser, who stepped down in October. STScI is the science operations center for NASA’s orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope planned to be launched in 2014.” Keith’s note: […]

Hubble Project Pioneer Rodger Doxsey Passes Away “Dr. Rodger Doxsey, head of the Space Telescope Science Institute’s (STScI) Hubble Mission Office, passed away on October 13 after a prolonged illness. The New York native was 62 years old. Doxsey oversaw Hubble science operations at STScI in Baltimore, Md., for nearly three decades.”

The Shape and Surface Variation of 2 Pallas from the Hubble Space Telescope, Science (subscription required) “Fig. 1 Deconvolved 336-nm WFPC2 images of Pallas from 8 September 2007. We observed Pallas at an angular size of 0.326 arc sec and a phase of 4.2, resulting in a scale of ~75 km/pixel. Pallas’ spin pole (pointing upward) and south pole () are marked, and the corresponding sub-Earth longitude is labeled; north […]

Custom Eyeballs Can Tailor Your Eyesight to Your Career, io9 “Need to see a thousand meters in the dark? Want one eye that’s perfect for reading and another for long distances? Some eye surgeons are already at work reshaping corneas not only to fix patients’ vision, but fit their careers. … What do we have to thank for this custom technology? The space program. Wavefront technology, which was developed by […]

The Hubble Constant: High Interest, Miles O’Brien “I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Hubble Repair Missions. After all, I cut my teeth on the space beat covering the legendary STS-61 mission in December 1993 the first, the most dramatic – and certainly the most important – of the five astronaut telescope calls now inscribed in the space history books. So I must confess I am […]

Hubble’s Next Discovery — You Decide “Hubble’s Next Discovery — You Decide” is part of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s observations. People around the world can vote to select the next object the Hubble Space Telescope will view. Choose from a list of objects Hubble has never observed before and enter a drawing for one of 100 new Hubble pictures of […]

NASA Internal Email: STS-125 Launch Date and Pad 39B Mods “Our current plans remain the baseline….. 125 flies first, and we continue to press for 5/12. November is off the table….. 127 plans for June 13 We keep working pad mods on Pad B to keep the dual pad option open that allows Ares to fly in August We keep on the track to do the early rollout for OV-104 […]

“This year, say it in stars! Send your friends and relatives best wishes for the season with our printable holiday cards. Messages of joy and peace are illuminated by the natural splendor of the universe. The cards are designed to be printed out at photo stores or online photo labs, though you can also use a home printer.” Download cards here

NASA Managers Delay Hubble Servicing Mission “NASA managers have announced that they will not meet a February 2009 launch date for the fifth and final shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.” NASA Updates Thursday’s Hubble Servicing Mission And Space Shuttle Readiness Review Briefing Time Telecon notes: The ground spare to replace a defective unit aboard Hubble will not be ready to support a February 2009 launch so a new […]

NASA Hubble Space Telescope Status Report #6 October 23, 2008 “The Hubble Space Telescope Science Instrument Control and Data Handling system was reactivated on Thursday, October 23. This should enable Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 science observations to resume on Saturday, October 25. The Advanced Camera for Surveys Solar Blind Channel science observations should resume later next week. The Independent Review Team, chaired by Wallops Flight Facility director John Campbell, and […]

Hubble Science Operations Deferred While Engineers Examine New Issues “Activation of Hubble Space Telescope science instruments and resumption of science observations has been suspended following two anomalies seen in systems onboard the telescope yesterday. The investigation is continuing. Contingency procedures for a potential switch to a hybrid SI C&DH configuration that would use portions of its Side A and portions of its Side B were tested this morning in HST […]

Hubble Status Report #2 NASA Hubble Space Telescope Status Update #1 “The Hubble Space Telescope team completed switching the required hardware modules to their B-sides about 9:30 a.m. this morning and received telemetry that verified they had good data. Everything at this point looks good.” NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Status Report #4715 “At 284/14:25:46 UTC, the SSM HV Protection capability through the NSSC-1 was successfully restored via Ops Request […]

NASA: Briefing on Hubble Problem Status “NASA will host a media teleconference at 12:30 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, Oct. 14, to brief reporters about the status of efforts to revive the data handling unit that failed on the Hubble Space Telescope in late-September. The failure halted almost all science operations on the orbiting observatory. Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio“ Notes: There is very little aging that […]

SpaceX Launch Successful Hubble Repair Mission on Hold (broadcast Friday, October 3rd, 2008), Science Friday “2:00 pm EDT: Ed Weiler, Associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters”

A Celestial Landscape in Celebration of 10 Years of Stunning Hubble Heritage Images “The landmark 10th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s Hubble Heritage Project is being celebrated with a ‘landscape’ image from the cosmos. Cutting across a nearby star-forming region are the “hills and valleys” of gas and dust displayed in intricate detail. Set amid a backdrop of soft, glowing blue light are wispy tendrils of gas as well […]

Hubble Space Telescope Problem Delays STS-125 Launch “Due to the significant Hubble Space Telescope malfunction that occurred over the weekend affecting the storage and transmittal of science data to Earth, NASA will evaluate the investigation results before fully determining the impact to launch of the STS-125 servicing mission. Under consideration is the possibility of flying a back-up replacement system as part of the payload, which could be installed during the […]

NASA to Discuss Hubble Anomaly and Servicing Mission Launch Delay “NASA will host a media teleconference at 6 p.m. EDT today to discuss a significant Hubble Space Telescope anomaly that occurred this weekend affecting the storage and transmittal of science data to Earth. Fixing the problem will delay next month’s space shuttle Atlantis’ Hubble servicing mission. The malfunctioning system is Hubble’s Control Unit/Science Data Formatter – Side A. Shortly after […]

NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report #4691 NICMOS Confirmation of an Extrasolar Panet Candidate Directly Detected with ACS With ACS/HRC coronagraphy, we have achieved the direct detection of a planet candidate in F606W and F814W around a bright nearby star with a debris belt. The planet candidate lies 18 astronomical units interior to the dust belt and we detect counterclockwise orbital motion in observations separated by 1.75 years. The candidate […]