NASA Probe Sees Solar Wind Decline
The 33-year odyssey of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached a distant point at the edge of our solar system where there is no outward motion of solar wind. Now hurtling toward interstellar space some 17.4 billion...
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Super-Earth Atmosphere
A team of astronomers, including two NASA Sagan Fellows, has made the first characterizations of a super-Earth's atmosphere, by using a ground-based telescope...
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Kepler Discovers
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered the first confirmed planetary system with more than one planet crossing in front of, or transiting, the same star...
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NASA has signed a $36.9 million contract modification to space shuttle main engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., to provide continued shuttle main engine prelaunch and launch support from April 1 through July 31.
The contract modification also provides two additional options that if exercised, would bring the potential contract amount for all six months to $56 million.
This modification supports the flyout of the Space Shuttle Program and brings the total potential value of the contract to $2.29 billion. The original contract began on Jan. 1, 2002.
The majority of the work will take place at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's headquarters in Canoga Park.
Three main engines and two solid rocket boosters provide the thrust to launch the space shuttle. At 14-feet long and seven-and-a-half feet in diameter at the nozzle exit, the liquid propellant main engines have a combined thrust of more than 1.2 million pounds.