LOS ANGELES  (LACMA PR) — The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announces its Art + Technology initiative, a new program and lab space that promotes innovative ideas and fosters collaboration across disciplines and industries. The endeavor will award grants, in-kind support, and facilities at the museum to help artists take purposeful risks in order to explore new boundaries in both art and science.

The Art + Technology Lab and artist projects at LACMA are made possible by Accenture, DAQRI, and NVIDIA, with additional support from Google and SpaceX. A grant from the Los Angeles County Productivity Investment Fund is supporting the public lab at the museum to house the initiative, including artist demos and public programming.

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ISS Commercial Resupply Services Mission (Orb-1) Launch Date: No Earlier Than December 19, 2013 Launch Site: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, VA Launch Window: 9:19 – 9:24 pm EST (02:19 – 02:24 am GMT Dec. 20) Cygnus Arrival at ISS : No Earlier Than December 22, 2013 December 15, 2013 Update Via Orbital Sciences Corporation The Cygnus team has been authorized to load the final cargo in the Pressurized Cargo […]

Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica (Ad Astra PR) – Ad Astra Rocket Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ad Astra Servicios Energéticos y Ambientales, Costa Rica, SRL (AASEA), in partnership with Costa Rica’s state-owned Petroleum Refinery, RECOPE, unveiled today the country’s first hydrogen generation and storage facility, a pilot project focusing on clean, renewable energy with applications in the transportation sector.

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An artist rendering of the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration hosted aboard a Space Systems Loral commercial communications satellite. (Credit: NASA Goddard)

GREENBELT, MD. (NASA PR) — NASA’s next laser communication mission recently passed a Preliminary Design Review (PDR), another major milestone towards the launch of the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) scheduled for 2017.

The PDR is a major agency evaluation milestone of the engineering plan to execute the build and launch of LCRD onboard a Space Systems Loral commercial satellite. “The board concluded that the LCRD review was a resounding success,” said Tupper Hyde, chairperson of the PDR. “They met all review success criteria and the LCRD team is ready to proceed with mission plans to conduct this ground-breaking demonstration.”

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ISS Commercial Resupply Services Mission (Orb-1) Launch Date: No Earlier Than December 19, 2013 Launch Site: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island, VA Launch Window: 9:19 – 9:24 pm EST (02:19 – 02:24 am GMT Dec. 20) Cygnus Arrival at ISS : No Earlier Than December 22, 2013 December 14, 2013 Update At NASA’s direction, Orbital’s Cygnus operations team deferred loading the mission’s final cargo into the spacecraft earlier today, postponing […]

As British Prime Minister David Cameron and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang look on, representatives from the UK Space Agency and the China National Space Administration sign a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on space science, space applications, education and training. (Credit: CNSA)

Backed by an £80m ($131 million) fund, the UK Space Agency has embarked on an ambitious effort to forge deeper cooperative ties with other nations, with the first target being the surging Chinese space program.

The new five-year Global Collaborative Space Program seeks to leverage the nation’s expertise in satellite telecommunications, space data applications and small satellites, the UK Space Agency says. Initial funding will be focused on using space assets and data for social and economic development.

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Yutu rolls out onto the moon. (Credit: CNSA)

UPDATE: The Yutu rover has rolled out onto the moon.

China successfully soft landed a vehicle on the surface of the moon today, becoming only the third nation to accomplish this feat and the first to do so in 37 years.

The Chang’e-3 lander touched down in Sinus Iridum with its Yutu lunar rover. Yutu will be deployed for a three-month exploration of the surface. The lander and the rover each possess a sophisticated suite of instruments.

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Paul Greenberg demonstrates the Microscale Particulate Classifier to Luz Jezirorowski, chief of occupational health at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The larger standard electric mobility classifier and detector are in the background. (Credit: NASA)

CLEVELAND, Ohio (NASA PR) — Why should you be concerned about nanoparticles, and what are they anyway? You are probably being exposed to these extremely small particles every day and are unaware of their consequences. But is something so small really that scary? Scientists say the answer may be yes.

Nanoparticles, also known as ultrafines, are fragments of matter that are less than 100 nanometers in diameter. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, compared to a sheet of paper that is 100,000 nanometers thick. Environmental studies on particles this small have been limited because the instruments used to measure these particles are large and cumbersome, and they use a lot of power. The Microscale Particulate Classifier, however, is a miniaturized version of this larger instrument and was developed by NASA for use on future missions aboard the International Space Station.

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Coming out of the sun, SpaceShipTwo glides to a landing trailed by its chase plane, left, and WhiteKnightTwo, barely visible at lower right. (Credit: Douglas Messier)

Here are some photos from SpaceShipTwo’s glide test on Dec. 11, 2013.
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Launch Pad 39A with the space shuttle Endeavour. (Credit: NASA)

Editor’s Note: Blue Origin’s GAO appeal was the only thing holding up the decision. Once a decision was issued on Thursday, NASA was able to move ahead.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., to begin negotiations on a lease to use and operate historic Launch Complex (LC) 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Permitting use and operation of this valuable national asset by a private-sector, commercial space partner will ensure its continued viability and allow for its continued use in support of U.S. space activities.

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