Monday, October 2

NASA

Space Center Houston Opens Registration for 2023-2024 Conrad Challenge
NASA

Space Center Houston Opens Registration for 2023-2024 Conrad Challenge

Space Center Houston Proudly Presents an Igniting Innovation and Entrepreneurship Challenge for a Better World Space Center Houston continues to exhibit a strong focus on STEM learning with the launch of the Conrad Challenge, an extraordinary innovation competition that propels young minds towards a future defined by innovation, entrepreneurship and global impact. Students aged 13-18 evolve into entrepreneurs, combining science, technology and innovation, to tackle global challenges head-on. Registration will remain open until Friday, November 3, 2023, at 11:59 P.M. EDT, when all registered teams must submit the requirements for Activation Stage. “It is remarkable to witness the transformative power of innovation and entrepreneurship through our student participants,” said N...
Fireball lights up the sky over Salt Lake City – NASA Blogs
NASA

Fireball lights up the sky over Salt Lake City – NASA Blogs

A bright meteor flew through the skies over northern Utah on Saturday morning, later raining down meteorites over the Great Salt Lake. Residents of the Salt Lake City area were startled by loud booms at 8:30 a.m. MDT on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022. Eyewitnesses saw a fireball in the sky, 16 times brighter than the full Moon. GOES 17 Geostationary Lightning Mapper detection of the Aug. 13, 2022, fireball over northern Utah. Credits: NOAA Approximately 22,000 miles out in space, NOAA’s Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLM) onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) 17 and 18 detected the meteor, which was first seen 50 miles over West Valley City. However, it is difficult to pinpoint its exact trajectory. “Daytime fireballs are very tough to analyze,” said Bill Cook...
NASA — Guy Bluford Changed the Course of Space History
NASA

NASA — Guy Bluford Changed the Course of Space History

Exactly sixty years ago today, we opened our doors for the first time. And since then, we have opened up a universe of discovery and innovation. There are so many achievements to celebrate from the past six decades, there’s no way we can go through all of them. If you want to dive deeper into our history of exploration, check out NASA: 60 Years and Counting. In the meantime, take a moonwalk down memory lane with us while we remember a few of our most important accomplishments from the past sixty years!In 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which effectively created our agency. We officially opened for business on October 1. To learn more about the start of our space program, watch our video: How It All Began. Alongside the U.S. Air Force, we implemente...
Japanese space robotics company GITAI raises $15 million
NASA

Japanese space robotics company GITAI raises $15 million

WASHINGTON — Japanese startup GITAI has raised an additional $15 million to continue work on lunar robotics technologies, three months after raising $30 million. The company, with offices in Tokyo and Torrance, California, said Aug. 29 it raised the funding as a further extension of a Series B round. The company initially raised $17 million for that Series B round in 2021 and added $30 million to it in May. The new funding is a mix of debt and equity. MUFG Bank provided a $7 million loan while the rest came from investments by Green Co-Invest Investment Limited Partnership, Pacific Bays Capital and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital. Sho Nakanose, found and chief executive of GITAI, told SpaceNews the additional funding will ensure the company can continue developme...
NASA

Mars-Saturn, Jupiter-Venus Conjunctions Happening This Month! – NASA Blogs

Skywatchers, you have the opportunity to see not just one, but two planetary conjunctions during the month of April 2022! A conjunction is a celestial event in which two planets, a planet and the Moon, or a planet and a star appear close together in Earth’s night sky. Conjunctions have no profound astronomical significance, but they are nice to view. In our Solar System, conjunctions occur frequently between planets because the planets orbit around the Sun in approximately the same plane –  the ecliptic plane – and thus trace similar paths across our sky. The first planetary meet up occurs on the mornings of April 4 and 5 before sunrise and includes Mars and Saturn, with Saturn being the brightest. These two planets will come together, appearing as almost a single point of light. Howeve...