Night Sky

NASA and President Obama are honoring the life and legacy of Sally Ride on the day a national tribute was held for the first American woman in space.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will hold media availabilities at all three of the agency's centers in California this week, highlighting progress on the asteroid mission, commercial crew transportation and space technology development.

NASA and Sally Ride Science are inviting journalists to tonight's "Sally Ride: A Lifetime of Accomplishment, A Champion of Science Literacy," a national tribute to America's first woman in space. The special event will be held at the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., at 7 p.m. EDT.

NASA released a synopsis Friday announcing plans to issue an announcement for proposals for the commercial use of Launch Pad 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The announcement is expected next week.

NASA's first mission to sample an asteroid is moving ahead into development and testing in preparation for its launch in 2016.

NASA will host a news teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, today, May 15, to discuss the status of the agency's Kepler Space Telescope.

Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Space Systems Dream Chaser flight vehicle arrived at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., Wednesday to begin tests of its flight and runway landing systems.

NASA and Sally Ride Science are inviting the general public and journalists to "Sally Ride: A Lifetime of Accomplishment, A Champion of Science Literacy," an educational tribute to America's first woman in space on Monday, May 20. The special event will be held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., at 7 p.m. EDT.

The director and some actors in the film "Star Trek Into Darkness" will join NASA as it hosts a Google+ Hangout from noon to 12:45 p.m. EDT, May 16, about how work aboard the International Space Station is turning science fiction into reality.

Three members of the International Space Station Expedition 35 crew undocked from the orbiting laboratory and returned safely to Earth Monday, May 13, wrapping up a mission lasting almost five months. The departure marks the beginning of Expedition 36.

NASA has exercised a second two-year award term option with Bastion Technologies Inc. of Houston for continued services to support the Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

NASA has selected Development Projects Inc. of Dayton, Ohio, to manage a new Centennial Challenge prize competition involving unmanned aircraft systems in 2014.

The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Mars has selected a second target rock for drilling and sampling. The rover will set course to the drilling location in coming days.

Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems of Louisville, Colo., has completed its first major, comprehensive safety review of its Dream Chaser Space System.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will see technologies NASA is developing to make flying and the national air transportation system safer, cleaner and more efficient during a trip to NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., Friday, May 10.

NASA Television will provide live coverage May 12-14 as three crew members aboard the International Space Station end five months in orbit and return to Earth for a scheduled landing May 13.

NASA will commemorate the 40th anniversary of America's first space station Monday, May 13, with a televised roundtable discussion featuring Skylab astronauts, a current astronaut and agency managers planning future space missions.

A NASA-led modeling study provides new evidence that global warming may increase the risk for extreme rainfall and drought.

A new NASA airborne mission has created the first maps of the entire snowpack of two major mountain watersheds in California and Colorado, producing the most accurate measurements to date of how much water they hold.

NASA has selected 14 proposals from small business and research institution teams to continue development of innovative technologies that are needed for future NASA missions and could become viable commercial products and services.

NASA is inviting members of the public to submit their names and a personal message online for a DVD to be carried aboard a spacecraft that will study the Martian upper atmosphere.

Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will visit NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and testing facilities at the agency's Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss., Friday, May 3.

NASA has signed a $424 million modification to its contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for full crew transportation services to the International Space Station in 2016 with return and rescue services extending through June 2017.

NASA Expedition 35 astronaut and flight engineer Chris Cassidy aboard the International Space Station will conduct a live air-to-ground talk with students of Fredricksburg High School in Texas at 12:40 p.m. EDT (11:40 a.m. CDT) Thursday, May 2.

The Herschel observatory, a European space telescope for which NASA helped build instruments and process data, has stopped making observations after running out of liquid coolant as expected.