You saw it on the news. You read about it in the press. But now you can learn the inside story of the team that launched the world’s first civilian rocket into space.

As many of you know, I was one of the team leaders of this historic mission.  On May 17, 2004, after years of agonizing rocket crashes and catastrophes — some quite spectacular — we accomplished our remarkable goal.

I stuffed the book with 90 full-color photos to bring the adventure to life in vivid detail.  It’s 244 pages long in a wonderfully oversized 6×9 format.  (Paperback size wouldn’t do justice to the glorious color images.)  Check out the covers here.

You can order the book from Amazon by clicking here.

I encourage you to check out my book’s companion Web site at www.TheNewRaceToSpace.com.  You’ll see lots of interesting videos and other neat stories. And, as a bonus, you can save $2.00 if you use the Web site’s special ordering link and enter Discount Code NDE55XNW.

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered an Earth-like planet with balmy 70-degree temperatures: “Kepler-22b”.  The plant is 2.4 times the diameter of Earth, and orbits its sun in 290 days.

But we won’t be visiting anytime soon, as the planet is 600 light years away.  How far is 600 light years?  Well, consider that light travels 186,287 miles each second.  Now multiply 186,287 miles times the number of seconds in 600 years.  Whew!

Scientists have pointed the 42 dish antennas that comprise California’s Allen Telescope Array on Kepler-22b to see if it can detect any radio waves — to perhaps catch a Keplerian broadcast of “Dancing with the Stars” (sorry — couldn’t resist that).

Something to think about:  If scientists on Kepler-22b were scanning Earth for radio or TV broadcasts, they wouldn’t hear anything.  Radio waves travel at the speed of light.  So, they’d be examining Earth as it was 600 years ago — and radio was invented here less than 150 years ago.

For additional details about this planetary discovery, including a video of the mission managers discussing their find, check out the following article in the San Jose Mercury News:  http://bit.ly/smOSZF

Artist’s conception courtesy of NASA / Ames/ JPL-Caltech

As I reported in an earlier post, NASA’s Curiosity rover is about twice as long and about five times heavier than the most recent Opportunity and Spirit rovers.  But what’s really unique is that it’s powered by a radioisotope power system instead of solar panels.  The result:  Curiosity should be able to operate continuously through sandstorms and Martian winters for years.

If you’d like to read more about NASA’s Curiosity rover and its innovative power plant, check out a CNET article at this link:  http://cnet.co/rs8Xlz

Image courtesy of NASA

NASA has introduced a plan to pay private aerospace companies $1.6 billion to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS).  A variety of new commercial aerospace companies are expected to compete for the job of providing “turnkey” launch, flight, return, maintenance, and ground-support operations.

The commercialization of space will be an exciting era.  The retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet may provide a short-term space-transportation gap, but — in the long run — the opportunities and new doors that will open will be amazing.

ISS graphic courtesy of NASA

Less than a month into its five-year journey to Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft took this nifty picture of the Earth and moon, as part of the vehicle’s “JunoCam” checkout procedures.  The Earth is the larger bright spot on the left, and the moon is the dot on the right.

The Juno spacecraft has 439 million miles to travel before it gets to Jupiter.  One can only imagine the other photos it may take along its celestial course.

For more information regarding the photo, check out the NASA JPL article at http://1.usa.gov/pDDjTh

For more information on the Juno mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/juno

Many people believe that the first human to step foot on Mars will be from the U.S.  Well, think again.

Discovery published today an interesting article (“Russia and Europe to Send Man to Mars?”) that challenges the common perception that an American would be first to walk on the red planet.

The article quotes Jean-Jacques Dordain, the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), as saying that the ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) would “carry out the first flight to Mars together.”

Russia and the ESA are wrapping up a project in which six individuals simulated a year-and-a-half round-trip to Mars; the team lived the entire time in a cramped 550-cu.-ft. simulated spaceship. The experiment, which will conclude in November, has examined the effects of continuous, close-quarter working on the mind and body.

With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, Russia clearly leads in “heavy lift” rocket technology.  And just this week they unveiled the design of a new manned spacecraft at an international air show.  Bottom line:  Russia and Europe have “the right stuff” — and are doing the right things — to propel them to the goal of Mars.

For the thought-provoking Discovery article, check out http://bit.ly/olFmgH

Mars image courtesy of NASA

Visit the following link http://1.usa.gov/qjThYb to watch the Perseids meteor shower from the comfort of your computer.  You’ll connect to NASA’s Web cameras.  Tonight (Friday, August 12th into tomorrow morning) is the shower peak.  At the Web site, you can also chat with NASA astronomers and support team.  Of course, you can watch the meteor shower the ol’ fashioned way by strolling out into your backyard.  For the best viewing, give yourself a few minutes for your eyes to fully adjust to the dark.  Enjoy!

One of my readers asked me to research something he spotted a couple of years ago: a mouse suspended in mid air without any perceivable support mechanisms.

Yes, it did occur. It was a rather unique NASA experiment. The trick? Scientists used a superconducting magnet to levitate the water inside of a mouse. Here’s an article from LiveScience: http://bit.ly/kb330d

If NASA could develop the system on a larger scale, it’s possible that the same technique could be used with humans to simulate the effects of microgravity. (We’re 60 – 70% water, so the technique should, in theory, work.)

If that fizzles for NASA, fear not: Perhaps the gadget could become part of the next Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas.

SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation), a leading private aerospace firm founded by Elon Musk (co-founder of PayPal), intends to fly its Dragon capsule via the company’s Falcon launch vehicle to the ISS on November 30th.  It would be huge news if they can pull off this feat, especially with the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet.

According to Garrett Reisman, a veteran NASA astronaut and now an employee of SpaceX:  “The next flight of the Dragon we’re going to go all the way and berth it to the space station, drop cargo off and bring stuff back.”

Stay tuned for more information. 

Dragon capsule image courtesy SpaceX

According to published reports, in nine years Russia intends to de-orbit and dump the ISS into the Pacific Ocean in nine years.  Other ISS partners, however, have different intentions.  The consortium of the U.S. (NASA), Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency (ESA) has expressed support to keep the space station flying until at least 2028.

In March 2001, the Russian MIR space station was disposed of similarly, as Russia de-orbited the station into the South Pacific Ocean.

Additional information about Russia’s apparent plans for the ISS can be read at http://bit.ly/pxdAR2.  Photo courtesy of NASA

Physicists at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology reaffirmed Einstein’s position that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light — thus squashing hopes that time travel and other sci-fi temporal concepts are not possible. The physicists studied the travel of a single photon in a vacuum (like that of space). So humankind’s dreams of gallivanting around the cosmos, in some warp-speed spacecraft, are just not going to happen. Well, at least not in our present universe. But that’s another story…

For more information, visit http://bit.ly/p1ddmu

Image courtesy of Discovery News

The Space Shuttle program may be over, but NASA is looking to spread its wings in other high-flying missions.

For instance, NASA has a presidential mandate to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 — a mind-boggling challenge on multiple dimensions.  As a recent Washington Post article describes:  “You can’t land on an asteroid because you’d bounce off — it has virtually no gravity. Reaching it might require a NASA spacecraft to harpoon it. Heck, astronauts couldn’t even walk on it because they’d float away.”

Check out the very interesting piece by the Washington Post, describing the many technological hurdles of a manned mission to an asteroid, at this link:  http://wapo.st/oNK3Wr

Image courtesy NASA / JPL

Look out, Mars.  Here comes one bad-ass dune buggy.  If all goes as planned, the Mars Sciences Laboratory (MSL) — nicknamed “Curiosity” — will blast off to Mars early this winter.  It’s about the size of a Mini Cooper — five times larger than the previous rovers Spirit and Opportunity — and can travel faster, farther, and over rougher terrain than its Mars-vehicle cousins.

Curiosity is an audacious technical marvel in search of past or present life on Mars.  It uses a state-of-the-art radioactive power system to generate electricity and heat.  It’s jam-packed with a multi-million-dollar laboratory of scientific instruments.  And its ingenious landing system is right out of a science-fiction novel:  A “sky crane” will literally lower Curiosity from an above-flying descent stage to the Martian surface.

The launch window is November 25th through December 18th.  Pencil in August 2012 for a wild ride down to the Martian surface.

Rendering courtesy NASA / JPL-Caltech

Click through the following slide show of 15 stunning Space Shuttle images:  http://huff.to/o7i0zG

Even though tomorrow’s launch of the Space Shuttle marks the end of this venerable space-launch system, NASA still has a few innovations up its sleeve — including a bag designed to turn astronaut urine into a “sugary drink.”

In the 1960s, the rage was “Tang” in space.  Today it’s a sports drink that I’ve dubbed “Sweet Pee.”  (If that name becomes a hit, remember where you heard it first.)

Image courtesy Wired Magazine

(Space.com) “A piece of space junk zoomed uncomfortably close by the International Space Station today (June 28), so close that the outpost’s six-man crew had to take shelter in Russian space capsules in case of a collision.  The space debris made its closest approach to the space station at 8:08 a.m. EDT (1208 GMT), coming within 850 feet (260 meters) of the space station, where it posed a slim chance of hitting the station. However, the debris passed by the station without incident and the spaceflyers were able to re-enter the station after about a half hour.”

For the complete Space.com article, please visit http://bit.ly/k2BVd6

Image courtesy of NASA

The photos include the first color close-ups of the planet.  There have been “fly by” missions of the tiny planet.  But this is the first long-term, planet-orbiting mission.  The goal is to examine the geology, atmosphere, and magnetosphere during the craft’s year-long mission.  The vehicle was launched nearly seven years ago, on August 3, 2004.  For more details on this intriguing mission, and a great close-up photo, visit http://bit.ly/gUDTQz

Photo: Kelly Walker (via Wikimedia Commons)

On March 26, 1931,  in Boston,  Leonard Nimoy was born.  I’m asked all of the time what propelled my interest in rocketry and aerospace.  My earliest inspirations were NASA’s Mercury launches, followed by launching model rockets with my dad and my cousin David when I was a young child.  But the clincher was Star Trek, the brilliantly conceived and written TV series.  As chronicled in my new book, The New Race To Space, I’ve had the great fortune of meeting many of my childhood TV heroes.  The “final frontier” energizes me to this day.

(Ars Technica) “Each year’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) seems to include at least one session on the search for ET. This year was no exception, with some very interesting presentations on what astrobiologists look for, the plans for the next Mars rover, and the role of NASA’s Planetary Protection Officer. “  For the complete article, click here.

NASA blames nosecone for failure.  Details here.