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Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the most famous nebulas in the sky. The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars are on the right in this sharp and colorful image that includes the smaller nebula M43 near center and dusty, bluish reflection nebulae NGC 1977 and friends on the left. Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible giant molecular cloud complex, these eye-catching nebulae represent only a small fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of interstellar material. Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also identified what appear...

MORE proof that space is amazing, this time from the not-too-distant constellation of Orion, where one star is currently being bombarded with green crystal rain. The embryonic star is described as "Sun-like" - as in our Sun - and named HOPS-38. The crystals are a green mineral called olivine and have been spotted raining down from the clouds of gas engulfing HOPS-68 by NASA's Spitzer infrared detectors. Olivine can be found on Earth, in gemstones and on the green sand beaches of Hawaii. They've also been spotted before by NASA's Stardust and Deep Impact comet-watchers, but this is the first...

Pakistan to ask US for two more Orion planes Muhammad Saleh Zaafir Tuesday, May 24, 2011 ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will ask the United States to supply it two additional PC-3 Orion planes for its Navy to make up the deficiency of the loss of two planes which were destroyed by the terrorists on Sunday evening at Mehran Air Base Karachi in an act of terrorism. Pakistan being an ally of the US in the so-called war on terrorism reserves the right for making such demand. The Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) that will discuss various aspects of the matter in...

The Earth could soon have a second sun, at least for a week or two. The cosmic phenomenon will happen when one of the brightest stars in the night sky explodes into a supernova. And, according to a report yesterday, the most stunning light show in the planet’s history could happen as soon as this year. Earth will undoubtedly have a front row seat when the dying red supergiant star Betelgeuse finally blows itself into oblivion. The explosion will be so bright that even though the star in the Orion constellation is 640 light-years away, it will still turn night...

Can nothing kill the P-3C Orion? By Stephen Trimble on November 10, 2010 I am reporting in next week's magazine that a subset of the P-3C Orion fleet will outlive its planned retirement by the Boeing 737-based P-8A Poseidon. I'll post the link to the article here when it's available. I consider the story a testament to the P-3C's record of freakish survival skills. Adapted from the doomed, 1950s-era Lockheed L-188 Electra airliner, the Orion first survived its predecessor's untimely demise in the regional airliner market. It should have been replaced by the Lockheed P-7 in the early 1990s, but...

NASA's new Orion space capsule is steadily coming together in preparation for a 2013 test flight, even though neither its funding nor its mission is set in stone. The capsule's manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, is gearing up its Orion production facility in Florida, says it can complete a working version by the end of 2012 and is even drawing up its own scenario for flying the spacecraft to an asteroid.

NASA's latest five-segment solid rocket development motor (DM-2)   (Source: NASA) DM-2 awaits its first test fire Rocket will see first action in 2015 delivering new rescue capsule (Orion) to the ISS The U.S. space program is about to go through some dramatic changes.  President Barack Obama has moved ahead with plans to retire the Space Shuttle in 2011.  U.S. missions to the International Space Station will be provided by Russia's aging Soyuz modular spacecraft. Meanwhile, the U.S. government will work to fill its manned spacecraft needs with more permanent replacements from private sector companies like SpaceX and will fill in the...

NASA is pushing ahead with work on its new Orion space capsule and Ares rockets despite their ambiguous status as lawmakers discuss the agency's 2011 budget request.  Orion and Ares are part of Constellation, a NASA program designed to take astronauts back to the moon. Under his 2011 budget proposal, President Barack Obama called for canceling Constellation and urged NASA to work toward sending humans to an asteroid and then on to Mars. The outlook for Constellation's fledgling rocket and capsule spacecraft is not clear. Obama did recommend continuing development of Orion -- but only as an escape ship that...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has received from Lockheed Martin its first mid-life upgrade P-3 Orion patrol aircraft, the company announced. The upgrade replaced the patrol craft's outer wings, center wing lower surface and horizontal stabilizer with new production components. "We are excited about our partnership with Customs and Border Protection," said Ray Burick, Lockheed Martin P-3 Programs vice president, "and we are committed to providing them with modernization enhancements to sustain the P-3 for decades to come. The MLU integrates well with our 10-year site and depot P-3 Fleet Maintenance Program, now under way with CBP." Lockheed Martin said...

Lockheed Martin Orion Team Fabricates World’s Largest Heat Shield Structure Innovative high-temperature material system to provide better crew protection DENVER, March 1st, 2010 -- The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT]-led team developing the Orion crew exploration vehicle achieved a major technology milestone by completing fabrication of the world’s largest heat shield structure. The shield is five meters (16.4 feet) in diameter and is critical to the protection of the spacecraft and its crew from the extreme temperatures experienced during re-entry. The work was completed at Lockheed Martin’s composite development facility in Denver, Colo. The crew exploration vehicle is at the height...

During World War II in the Pacific, many native tribes were astounded by their first contact with an advanced technological civilization, when the Americans would come in, clear a strip in the jungle, set up a control tower and loud giant silver birds would appear from the sky bearing canned food, trinkets, fuel and other supplies. After the war, the Americans went away for the most part, but the memories remained. Many of the natives, changed forever by the experience, decided to replicate it. They cleared their own strips, built control towers of thatch and palm, and waited for the...

NASA will likely have to continue flying its aging space shuttle fleet beyond its planned 2010 retirement date in order to complete construction of the International Space Station, a presidential panel said Tuesday. Former astronaut Sally Ride, a member of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, said that it was unlikely NASA could meet the current deadline of retiring the space shuttle by next year, as is currently planned. The first operational flights of the agency's replacement for the shuttle, the Orion spacecraft, may also be delayed a year or so beyond its 2015 target, she added....

A bright star may soon explode in a supernova, according to data released by U.C. Berkeley researchers Tuesday. The red giant Betelgeuse, once so large it would reach out to Jupiter's orbit if placed in our own solar system, has shrunk by 15 percent over the past decade in a half, although it's just as bright as it's ever been. "To see this change is very striking," said retired Berkeley physics professor Charles Townes, who won the 1964 Nobel Prize for inventing the laser. "We will be watching it carefully over the next few years to see if it will...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA gave visitors to the National Mall in Washington a peek at a full-size mock-up of the spacecraft designed to carry U.S. astronauts back to the moon and then on to Mars one day. The U.S. Navy-built Orion crew exploration vehicle will replace the space shuttle NASA plans to retire in 2010, and become the cornerstone of the agency's Constellation Program to explore the moon, Mars and beyond. "We're just very proud to build this, do some testing and demonstrate to America that we're moving beyond the space shuttle onto another generation of spacecraft," said Don Pearson,...

NASA will showcase the next generation of spacecraft that will return humans to the moon in a day-long public event March 30 on the National Mall in Washington. The full-size mockup of the Orion crew exploration vehicle will be parked on the Mall between 4th and 7th Streets, SW, in front of the National Air and Space Museum. Reporters are invited to attend a briefing by the vehicle at 10 a.m. EDT. The spacecraft mockup is on its way from water testing at the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division in Bethesda to open water testing in the Atlantic off...

WASHINGTON — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking U.S. space agency officials to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle next year. Obama pledged during his campaign to inject an additional $2 billion into NASA aimed in part at narrowing the gap between the space shuttle's retirement and the introduction of a successor system. While NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and his senior managers are adamant that Ares and Orion are the right vehicles to fill that role, Obama did not endorse either system...

WASHINGTON — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking U.S. space agency officials to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle next year. Obama pledged during his campaign to inject an additional $2 billion into NASA aimed in part at narrowing the gap between the space shuttle's retirement and the introduction of a successor system. While NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and his senior managers are adamant that Ares and Orion are the right vehicles to fill that role, Obama did not endorse either system...

WASHINGTON — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking U.S. space agency officials to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle next year.

Acknowledging that a NASA authorization bill is unlikely to be enacted this year, three Republican senators – including presidential candidate John McCain (R-Ariz.) – have written President George W. Bush imploring him to direct NASA to hold off for at least a year taking any action that would preclude the agency from flying space shuttles beyond 2010. McCain, joined by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and David Vitter (R-La.), also cited Russia's recent military incursion into neighboring Georgia earlier this month as evidence that Russia's continued cooperation on the international space station program should not be taken for granted. Once...

A mock-up of NASA's Orion space shuttle successor twisted, tumbled and fell from thousands of feet up after a parachute failed to inflate properly during a July 31 test. The programmer chute was designed to stabilize the mock-up before beginning a test of its parachute recovery system, but instead sent the capsule careening toward the desert floor at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona. "This is the most complicated parachute test NASA has run since the '60's," said Carol Evans, test manager for the parachute system at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We are taking a close...