Nasa

WASHINGTON - NASA can land a spacecraft on a peanut-shaped asteroid 150 million miles away, but it doesn't come close to hitting the budget target for building its spacecraft, according to congressional auditors. NASA's top officials know it and even joke about it. This week auditors found that on nine projects alone NASA is nearly $1.1 billion over cost estimates that were set in the last couple of years. Congress' financial watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, reviewed NASA's newest big-money projects and found most were either over budget, late, or both.

Even robots like to have fun. NASA's rover on Mars showed off its playful side by snapping a picture of its own shadow. It's the latest self-portrait since the rover, named Opportunity, landed on the red planet in 2004. The photo was taken in March and NASA released it this week. The solar-powered, six-wheel rover was at an outcrop on the rim of a massive crater. The late afternoon sun set the crater aglow and Opportunity waited for just the right lighting to send a postcard back to Earth.

THE FINAL launch of the space shuttle is a bittersweet one. It is a celebration of an important era in space flight, but it also highlights that we do not as yet have a replacement capability. Efforts to lend government support to the burgeoning private-launch sector are met with resistance, if not suspicion. Efforts to enable NASA to conduct a sustainable program of scientific research and human exploration, which would provide untold benefits to life on Earth, fall victim to shortsighted political expediency.

It's been a long, strange trip for what appears to be several tiny chips of lunar rock that found their way into a casino mogul's hands after being collected by the first men on the moon. If they're real, they were plucked from the lunar surface by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, given by then-President Richard Nixon to former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Garcia, pilfered by a Costa Rican mercenary soldier-turned Contra rebel, traded to a Baptist missionary for unknown items, then sold to a flamboyant Las Vegas casino mogul who squirreled them away in in a safety deposit box. ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Astronaut Lisa Nowak was fired from NASA yesterday, a month after she was charged with trying to kidnap a woman she regarded as her romantic rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot. Nowak's dismissal did not reflect the space agency's belief in her guilt or innocence, NASA officials said. The agency said it lacked an administrative system to handle the allegations because Nowak is a naval officer on assignment to NASA, rather than a NASA civil servant.

HOUSTON -- The shooter in an apparent murder-suicide at the Johnson Space Center had received a poor job review and feared being fired, police said yesterday. William Phillips, 60, smuggled a snub-nosed revolver into the space center Friday, shot David Beverly, 62, and barricaded himself with a hostage before shooting himself in a building that houses communications and tracking systems for the space shuttle, officials said. Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said Phillips bought the .38-caliber revolver March 18, two days after receiving an e-mail citing...

NASA grudgingly released some results yesterday from an $11.3 million federal air safety study it previously withheld from the public over concerns it would upset travelers and hurt airline profits. It published the findings in a format that made it cumbersome for analysis by outsiders. The unprecedented research conducted over nearly four years relates to safety problems identified by some 29,000 pilots interviewed by telephone. Earlier characterizations from people who have seen the results said they would show that events like near-collisions and runway...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA fueled a space shuttle for the first time in more than two years yesterday, conducting a critical prelaunch test of Discovery's redesigned external tank. The 154-foot tank underwent major design changes after the Columbia disaster, which was caused by a chunk of insulating foam that fell off the tank during liftoff and gashed the shuttle's wing. None of the astronauts was aboard Discovery for the daylong tanking test. But the entire launch team was on hand in the firing room, and eight inspectors were at the pad to watch for any ice or...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The first humanoid robot ever launched into space is finally free. Astronauts at the International Space Station unpacked Robonaut on Tuesday, about two weeks after its arrival via shuttle Discovery. NASA broadcast the light-hearted unveiling ceremony yesterday. American Catherine Coleman and Italian Paolo Nespoli pried off the lid of the robot’s packing box, as though they were opening a coffin. TV cameras showed lots of foam inside, but no robot. “It’s like unearthing a mummy,’’ radioed a payload controller at Marshall Space Flight Center...

Astronauts may have had the 'right stuff' to go to the moon, but when it comes to keeping track of what they brought back, NASA seems to have misplaced some of that stuff. In a report issued by the agency's Inspector General on Thursday, NASA concedes that more than 500 pieces of moon rocks, meteorites, comet chunks and other space material were stolen or have been missing since 1970. That includes 218 moon samples that were stolen and later returned and about two dozen moon rocks and chunks of lunar soil that were reported lost last year.

Boston Micromachines Corp. , a Cambridge company specializing in adaptive optics systems, said it has been awarded a $750,000 contract from NASA to support the space agency's Exoplanet Exploration program. NASA is searching for planets outside of the solar system, but that search is hindered by the constraints of space-based imaging technology. Boston Micromachines' specialty is MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) deformable mirrors, which are used in adaptive optics systems.

Two NASA ships are waiting in a New Hampshire port before heading out into the North Atlantic to monitor the launch of the first commercial spacecraft to carry cargo to the International Space Station. The vessels Freedom Star and Liberty Star are in Portsmouth Harbor waiting for the launch of the SpaceX. The launch has been delayed and no launch date is currently scheduled. The New Hampshire port was chosen as a staging point because of its proximity to the location in the North Atlantic where equipment on the vessels will monitor the launch.

Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut An international challenge using space-themed activities to teach children about fitness, nutrition, and space. Teachers award points to students for their effort, and NASA converts points from schools in 15 countries into steps to propel Astro Charlie, an online cartoon character, from Earth to the moon. Schools post updates online about their activities. Duration of program: six weeks of activities, plus follow-up blogging. ACTIVITIES Base Station Walkback - Walk one mile to increase endurance.

SHARON - If the awe of space flight inspires Tim Vigorito's students as much as it did him, he's got a good thing going. Vigorito's effervescent passion for space came to the attention of NASA through an industry newsletter, leading the space agency to select the town of Sharon, where he teaches physical education at Heights Elementary School, as one of three US communities to participate in the first year of an international program called "Mission...

LOS ANGELES - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is defending itself in a workplace lawsuit filed by a former computer specialist who argues he was dismissed for promoting his views on intelligent design, the belief that a higher power must have had a hand in creation because of its complexity. David Coppedge, who worked on the Cassini mission exploring Saturn and its moons, contends that he was discriminated against because he engaged his co-workers in conversations about intelligent design and handed out DVDs on the idea while at work.

WASHINGTON - NASA said yesterday it is not giving up on Mars, but it will have to get there later and at a lower price. Earlier this month, President Obama's budget canceled joint US-European robotic missions to Mars in 2016 and 2018. Now top science officials say they are scrambling to come up with a plan by the end of the summer for a cut-rate journey to the red planet in 2018. John Grunsfeld, NASA sciences chief, said he thinks there is a better-than-even chance that NASA will not miss the 2018 opportunity.

Since it was released two days ago, this fascinating video, courtesy of NASA, has racked up more than 1.6 million views. It's easy to see why. The time-lapse was created with photos taken by Expedition 29 on the International Space Station from August to October, and they paint a breathtaking view of our planet. It's a truly stunning piece of work. Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo .

WASHINGTON - Abandoning its secrecy claims, NASA promised Congress yesterday that it will disclose results of an unprecedented federal aviation survey that found that near-collisions, runway interference, and other safety problems occur far more often than previously recognized. The agency's chief also said, however, that before any release NASA would scrub the data to make sure none of the 24,000 pilots who were interviewed anonymously could be identified, taking until the end of the year to do what a survey specialist told Congress could be done...

NASA said Monday it's not giving up on Mars, but it'll have to get there later and at a lower price. Earlier this month, the president's budget canceled joint U.S.-European robotic missions to Mars in 2016 and 2018. Now top science officials say they are scrambling to come up with a plan by the end of the summer for a cut-rate journey to the red planet in 2018. NASA sciences chief John Grunsfeld said he thinks there's a better than even chance that NASA will not miss the 2018 opportunity.

A privately built rocket has made its first free-flight in the California desert as part of a NASA program exploring vertical landing systems for solar system exploration. The autonomous flight occurred earlier this month at the Mojave Air and Space Port about 90 miles north of Los Angeles. Masten Space Systems' unmanned rocket named Xombie lifted off the ground, flew horizontally and landed at a pad 164 feet away. The demonstration lasted 67 seconds. In 2009, Masten won a $1 million prize in a NASA-backed simulated...