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internal radio frequency interference problem with one of the payloads on the rockets caused the launch delay

five rockets form the core of NASA's Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX

program to study the high-altitude jet stream of wind that blows at speeds of 300 mph (483 kph) at heights of between  60 and 65 miles (97 to 105 kilometers) above Earth.

Theories have suggested that these high-altitude winds should only reach speeds of up to 50 mph (80 kph). The edge of space is commonly set at 62 miles (100 km) above Earth.

study the jet stream mystery, NASA scientists have loaded each ATREX rocket with a chemical tracer known as trimethyl aluminum. The experiment is designed to spray the material into the jet stream so observers on Earth can map the winds

chemical tracer is expected to be seen as glowing, milky white clouds visible to skywatchers along major stretches of the U.S. East Coast, running from southern Vermont and New Hampshire to the border of North and South Carolina.

next window to launch the ATREX rockets stretches from March 16 to April 3.

The Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX) is a Heliophysics sounding rocket mission that gathered information to better understand the process responsible for the high-altitude jet stream located 95-105 km (60 to 65 miles) above the surface of the Earth.

map of the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. shows the projected area where the rockets may be visible while the motors are burning through flight

high-altitude jet stream is higher than the one commonly reported in weather forecasts

winds found in this upper jet stream typically have speeds of 320 to well over 480 km/hr (200 to over 300 mph)

two of the rockets had instrumented payloads to measure the pressure and temperature in the atmosphere at the height of the high-speed winds

NASA will release more information on the outcome of the experiment after scientists have had time to review the data

This jet stream is located in the same region where strong electrical currents occur in the ionosphere.

a region with a lot of electrical turbulence, of the type that can adversely affect satellite and radio communications.

Not only did the rockets release the chemical tracers to allow scientists and the public to “see” the winds in space

Last month

presented their mission analysis for a trip to Mars, along with detailed computer modeling and initial experimental results

one of a handful of projects awarded a second round of funding last fall after already receiving phase-one money in a field of 15 projects chosen from more than 700 proposals

NASA estimates a round-trip human expedition to Mars would take more than four years using current technology

team have published papers calculating the potential for 30- and 90-day expeditions to Mars using a rocket powered by fusion, which would make the trip more practical and less costly

They have demonstrated successful lab tests of all portions of the process

Now, the key will be combining each isolated test into a final experiment that produces fusion using this technology

The research team has developed a type of plasma that is encased in its own magnetic field

Nuclear fusion occurs when this plasma is compressed to high pressure with a magnetic field.

The team has successfully tested this technique in the lab.

a small grain of sand of this material has the same energy content as 1 gallon of rocket fuel.

power a rocket, the team has devised a system in which a powerful magnetic field causes large metal rings to implode around this plasma, compressing it to a fusion state

The converging rings merge to form a shell that ignites the fusion, but only for a few microseconds

enough energy is released from the fusion reactions to quickly heat and ionize the shell

This super-heated, ionized metal is ejected out of the rocket nozzle at a high velocity. This process is repeated every minute or so, propelling the spacecraft

successfully demonstrated the metal-crushing process

The team had a sample of the collapsed, fist-sized aluminum ring resulting from one of those tests on hand for people to see and touch at the recent NASA symposium

Now, the team is working to bring it all together by using the technology to compress the plasma and create nuclear fusion

With the flip of a switch, the capacitors are simultaneously triggered to deliver 1 million amps of electricity for a fraction of a second to the magnet, which quickly compresses the metal ring.

The mechanical process and equipment used are reasonably straightforward

In actual space travel, scientists would use lithium metal as the crushing rings to power the rocket. Lithium is very reactive, and for lab-testing purposes, aluminum works just as well

Nuclear fusion may draw concern because of its application in nuclear bombs, but its use in this scenario is very different

The fusion energy for powering a rocket would be reduced by a factor of 1 billion from a hydrogen bomb, too little to create a significant explosion

Also,

concept uses a strong magnetic field to contain the fusion fuel and guide it safely away from the spacecraft and any passengers within

esigned to launch six passengers and two pilots into suborbital spa

offer a few minutes of weightlessness, then return to Eath

not set a date for beginning commercial service

company said May 30 that it expects to begin rocket-powered test flights before the end of 2012

SpaceShipTwo will soon return to flight, testing the aerodynamic performance of the spacecraft with the full weight of the rocket motor system on board

Integration of key rocket motor components, already begun during a now-concluding period of downtime for routine maintenance, will continue in the autumn

expects to begin rocket powered, supersonic test flights under the just-issued experimental permit toward the end of the year."

17 January – NASA announces that the Kepler space observatory has developed a reaction wheel issue

2 January A study by Caltech astronomers reports that the Milky Way Galaxy contains at least one planet per sta

3 January

8 January

20 January – Scientists prove that quadruple-helix DNA is present in human cells

25 January

An international team of scientists develops a functional light-based "tractor beam", which allows individual cells to be selected and moved at will. The invention could have broad applications in medicine and microbiology

30 January – South Korea conducts its first successful orbital launch

6 February

Astronomers report that 6% of all dwarf stars – the most common stars in the known universe – may host Earthlike planets

Scientists discover live bacteria in the subglacial Antarctic Lake Whillans

American scientists finish drilling down to the subglacial Lake Whillans, which is buried around 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) under the Antarctic ice

10 February NASA's Curiosity Mars rover uses its onboard drill to obtain the first deep rock sample ever retrieved from the surface of another plane

15 February A 10-ton meteoroid impacts in Chelyabinsk, Russia, producing a powerful shockwave and injuring over 1,000 people

28 February

Astronomers make the first direct observation of a protoplanet forming in a disk of gas and dust around a distant sta

A third radiation belt is discovered around the Eart

1 March – Boston Dynamics demonstrates an updated version of its BigDog military robot

3 March – American scientists report that they have cured HIV in an infant by giving the child a course of antiretroviral drugs very early in its life. The previously HIV-positive child has reportedly exhibited no HIV symptoms since its treatment, despite having no further medication for a year

researchers replace 75 percent of an injured patient's skull with a precision 3D-printed polymer replacement implant. In future, damaged bones may routinely be replaced with custom-manufactured implants

7 March

A study concludes that heart disease was common among ancient mummies

11 March

12 March NASA's Curiosity rover finds evidence that conditions on Mars were once suitable for microbial life after analyzing the first drilled sample of Martian rock, "John Klein" rock at Yellowknife Bay in Gale Crater. The rover detected water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, chloromethane and dichloromethane. Related tests found results consistent with the presence of smectite clay minerals

14 March CERN scientists confirm, with a very high degree of certainty, that a new particle identified by the Large Hadron Collider in July 2012 is the long-sought Higgs boson

18 March

NASA reports evidence from the Curiosity rover on Mars of mineral hydration, likely hydrated calcium sulfate, in several rock samples, including the broken fragments of "Tintina" rock and "Sutton Inlier" rock as well as in the veins and nodules in other rocks like "Knorr" rock and "Wernicke" rock.[177] Analysis using the rover's DAN instrument provided evidence of subsurface water, amounting to as much as 4% water content, down to a depth of 60 cm

27 March – A potential new weight loss method is discovered, after a 20% weight reduction was achieved in mice simply by having their gut microbes altered.

NASA scientists report that hints of dark matter may have been detected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station

3 April

15 April A functional lab-grown kidney is successfully transplanted into a live rat in Massachusetts General Hospital

18 April – NASA announces the discovery of three new Earthlike exoplanets – Kepler-62e, Kepler-62f, and Kepler-69c – in the habitable zones of their respective host stars, Kepler-62 and Kepler-69. The new exoplanets, which are considered prime candidates for possessing liquid water and thus potentially life, were identified using the Kepler spacecraft

21 April The Antares rocket, a commercial launch vehicle developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation, successfully conducts its maiden flight

After years of unpowered glide tests, Scaled Composites' SpaceShipTwo hybrid spaceplane successfully conducts its first rocket-powered fligh

29 April

1 May IBM scientists release A Boy and His Atom, the smallest stop-motion animation ever created, made by manipulating individual carbon monoxide molecules with a scanning tunnelling microscope

A new study finds that children whose parents suck on their pacifiers have fewer allergies later in life

NASA reports that a reaction wheel on the Kepler space observatory may be malfunctioning and may result in the premature termination of the observatory's search for Earth-like

15 May

16 May Water dating back 2.6 billion years, by far the oldest ever found, is discovered in a Canadian mine

27 May Four-hundred-year-old bryophyte specimens left behind by retreating glaciers in Canada are brought back to life in the laboratory

29 May

Russian scientists announce the discovery of mammoth blood and well-preserved muscle tissue from an adult female specimen in Siberia

A new treatment to "reset" the immune system of multiple sclerosis patients is reported to reduce their reactivity to myelin by 50 to 75 percent

4 June

During the Shenzhou 10 mission, Chinese astronauts deliver the country's first public video broadcast from the orbiting Tiangong-1 space laboratory

20 June

China's Shenzhou 10 manned spacecraft returns safely to Earth, having conducted China's longest manned space mission to date

26 June

20 June

20 June

6 July

Scientists report that a wide variety of microbial life exists in the subglacial Antarctic Lake Vostok, which has been buried in ice for around 15 million years. Samples of the lake's water obtained by drilling were found to contain traces of DNA from over 3,000 tiny organisms

15 July

ASA engineers successfully test a rocket engine with a fully 3D-printed injector

19 July

NASA scientists publish the results of a new analysis of the atmosphere of Mars, reporting a lack of methane around the landing site of the Curiosity rover

Earth is photographed from the outer solar system. NASA's Cassini spacecraft releases images of the Earth and Moon taken from the orbit of Saturn

29 July – Astronomers discover the first exoplanet orbiting a brown dwarf, 6,000 light years from Earth

exoplanet

7 January

Astronomers

report that "at least 17 billion" Earth-sized exoplanets are estimated to reside in the Milky Way Galaxy

20 February

NASA reports the discovery of Kepler-37b, the smallest exoplanet yet known, around the size of Earth's Moon

10 June

Scientists report that the earlier claims of an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, a star close to our Solar System, may not be supported by astronomical evidence

25 June – In an unprecedented discovery, astronomers detect three potentially Earthlike exoplanets orbiting a single star in the Gliese 667

11 July For the first time, astronomers determine the true colour of a distant exoplanet. HD 189733 b, a searing-hot gas giant, is said to be a vivid blue colour, most likely due to clouds of silica in its atmosphere

NASA announces that the failing Kepler space observatory may never fully recover. New missions are being considered

15 August

Phase I clinical trials of SAV001 – the first and only preventative HIV vaccine – have been successfully completed with no adverse effects in all patients. Antibody production was greatly boosted after vaccination

3 September

12 September NASA announces that Voyager I has officially left the Solar System, having travelled since 1977

NASA scientists report the Mars Curiosity rover detected "abundant, easily accessible" water (1.5 to 3 weight percent) in soil samples

26 September

In addition, the rover found two principal soil types: a fine-grained mafic type and a locally derived, coarse-grained felsic type

mafic

as associated with hydration of the amorphous phases of the soi

perchlorates, the presence of which may make detection of life-related organic molecules difficult, were found at the Curiosity rover landing site

earlier at the more polar site of the Phoenix lander) suggesting a "global distribution of these salts

Astronomers have created the first cloud map of an exoplanet, Kepler-7b

30 September

8 October The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to François Englert and Peter Higgs "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider"

16 October Russian authorities raise a large fragment, 654 kg (1,440 lb) total weight, of the Chelyabinsk meteor, a Near-Earth asteroid that entered Earth's atmosphere over Russia on 15 February 2013, from the bottom of Chebarkul lake.

Researchers have shown that a fundamental reason for sleep is to clean the brain of toxins. This is achieved by brain cells shrinking to create gaps between neurons, allowing fluid to wash through

17 October

22 October – Astronomers have discovered the 1,000th known exoplanet

4 November - Astronomers report, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of sun-like stars and red dwarf stars within the Milky Way Galaxy

11 billion of these estimated planets may be orbiting sun-like stars

5 November – India launches its first Mars probe, Mangalyaan

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory has made the first discovery of very high energy neutrinos on Earth which had originated from beyond our Solar System

21 November

1 December – China launches the Chang'e 3 lunar rover mission, with a planned landing on December 16

3 December – The Hubble Space Telescope has found evidence of water in the atmospheres of five distant exoplanets: HD 209458b, XO-1b, WASP-12b, WASP-17b and WASP-19b

9 December NASA scientists report that the planet Mars had a large freshwater lake (which could have been a hospitable environment for microbial life) based on evidence from the Curiosity rover studying Aeolis Palus near Mount Sharp in Gale Crater

12 December NASA announces, based on studies with the Hubble Space Telescope, that water vapor plumes were detected on Europa, moon of Jupiter

14 December – The unmanned Chinese lunar rover Chang'e 3 lands on the Moon, making China the third country to achieve a soft landing there

18 December

nomers have spotted what appears to be the first known "exomoon", located 1,800 light years away

20 December – NASA reports that the Curiosity rover has successfully upgraded, for the third time since landing, its software programs and is now operating with version 11. The new software is expected to provide the rover with better robotic arm and autonomous driving abilities. Due to wheel wear, a need to drive more carefully, over the rough terrain the rover is currently traveling on its way to Mount Sharp, was also reported

reportedly the goal with Grasshopper is to eventually create a reusable first stage for its Falcon 9 rocket

would be able to land safely instead of falling back into the ocean and not being usable again

Grasshopper test program is to have three phases of test launches

SpaceX’s facility in McGregor, Texas

Phases 1 and 2 would consist of very low test fires

with the rocket rising to not more than 73 meters (240 feet) during Phase 1 and

204 meters (670 feet

Both Phase 1 and 2 flights would last up to 45 seconds.

Phase 3 tests have the goal of increasingly higher altitudes with higher ascent speeds and descent speeds

altitude test sequence likely would be 366 meters (1,200 feet); 762 meters (2,500 feet); 1,524 meters (5,000 feet); 2,286 meters (7,500 feet); and 3,505 meters (11,500) feet

maximum test duration would be approximately 160 seconds. If all goes well

Grasshopper would land back on the launch pad

don’t know yet what condition these engines might be in

they hit the ocean at high velocity and have been in salt water for more than 40 years

The Saturn V used five F-1 engines in the first stage

F-1 is still the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine ever developed

producing one and a half million pounds of thrust, burning 6,000 pounds of rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen every second

On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 was launched and the five F-1s burned for just a few minutes, and then plunged back to Earth into the Atlantic Ocean.

the engines remain the property of NASA

hopes that the space agency would allow the recovered engines to be displayed at the Smithsonian or another museum

no public funding will be used to attempt to raise and recover the engines, as it’s being undertaken by him privately

Musk met last week with Texas Gov. Rick Perry to discuss locating a launchpad at the southernmost tip of the Lone Star State.

SpaceX has not disclosed what incentives it has been offered or the timing of its decision

Musk recently indicated that Texas might have the inside track

Florida officials acknowledge the competition is keen. They're hoping to leverage the fact that SpaceX already has one launchpad at Cape Canaveral

SpaceX officials said the one Florida pad isn't enough to handle both its government work and flights for commercial customers

d a deal with Intelsat, a major satellite operator, for a future launch aboard a massive new rocket that is still under developmen

manifest already shows more than a half-dozen commercial flights through 2014 in which SpaceX will carry satellites to orbit.

Florida officials also note they have a track record of helping the company. Space Florida, the state's aerospace booster, has invested more than $8.5 million so far to help establish the company at Cape Canaveral.

Florida faces one obstacle that has no immediate solution. The Air Force and NASA already use Cape Canaveral for launches - of government satellites and space probes - and SpaceX at times could be forced to wait its turn until the range is clear.

autonomous as possible, having

Puerto Rican officials are making geography a core argument in their pitch.

Puerto Rico is closer to the equator than Cape Canaveral or Brownsville, which means SpaceX rockets would use less fuel (and thus cost less to launch to orbit) because rockets get more of a "boost" from Earth's rotation near the equator.

In 1926, the first US liquid-fuel rocket flight was launched by Robert Goddard in a field in Auburn, Mass. He thought stable flight could be obtained by mounting the rocket ahead of the fuel tank. The tank was shielded from the flame by a metal cone and was pulled behind the rocket by the lines for gasoline fuel and oxygen. The design worked, but did not produce the hoped-for stability. The rocket burned about 20 seconds before reaching sufficient thrust (or sufficiently lightening the fuel tank) for taking off. During that time it melted part of the nozzle. It took off to a height of 41-ft, leveled off and within 2.5 seconds hit the ground 184 feet away, averaging about 60 mph. The camera ran out of film, so no photographic record of that flight remains.

A press release from his office said the presence of the private space company would boost jobs in the region

There’s little information on SpaceX’s website about what the Raptor engine is or specific development plans

Space News reports that it would be used for deep-space missions

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has mentioned the engine previously when talking about Mars missions, according to multiple media reports

test the whole engine at Stennis

the first phase starts with the components

E-2 stand at Stennis is big enough for components, but we would need a bigger stand for the whole Raptor

reportedly hashing out a Space Act agreement to establish user fees and other parameters

Once that’s finished, the testing will begin, perhaps as early as next year

SpaceX currently does most of its rocket testing in Texas

Last year

he said they had found the engines from Apollo 11, but it may be been difficult to determine exactly which flight the ones found were from

NASA launched 65 F-1 engines, five per flight, on 13 Saturn V boosters between 1967 and 1973

Supposedly there would be serial numbers to make the identification of which flight these engines were from

still on the ship, so perhaps the identification will come later

Each of the engines stands 19 feet tall by 12 feet wide and weigh over 18,000 pounds.

Five F-1 engines were used in the 138-foot-tall S-IC, or first stage, of each Saturn V

three weeks at sea, working almost 3 miles below the surface

photographed many beautiful objects in situ and have now recovered many prime pieces

They tested the spaceship’s Reaction Control System, the newly installed thermal protection coating on the vehicle’s tail booms, and the “feather” re-entry system.

the RCS will allow its pilots to maneuver the vehicle in space so that passengers will have great views of Earth, as well as aiding the positioning process for spacecraft re-entry

The new reflective protection coating on SS2’s inner tail boom surfaces is being evaluated to help maintain vehicle skin temperatures while the rocket motor is firing. Remove this ad

The WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft brought SS2 to an altitude around 46,000 ft.

Then SS2 was released, and its rocket motor was ignited, powering the spaceship to a planned altitude of 71,000 ft.

SS2’s highest altitude to date, and it also reached a speed of Mach 1.4.

Officials had not announced a new target launch date

SpaceX was targeting liftoff of the 22-story rocket at 5:39 p.m. EST (2239 GMT) Thursday, aiming to achieve the first Thanksgiving Day launch from Florida's Space Coast since 1959

The launch was pushed back to Thursday after multiple technical problems thwarted an initial launch attempt Monday

The rocket's mission is to place the SES 8 television broadcasting satellite into orbit

e highest altitude ever achieved by a SpaceX launch.

the flight is critical to SpaceX's future in the commercial launch market, in which it competes against stalwart launch vehicles from Europe and Russia to haul large telecommunications satellites into orbit.

The Falcon 9 pressurized its propellant tanks, switched to internal power and ignited its nine Merlin 1D first stage engines a few seconds before the appointed launch time

the Falcon 9's computer-controlled countdown sequencer recognized a problem and called off the launch

As engineers continued to study the problem, SpaceX elected to restart the countdown to preserve a chance to launch Thursday

Ultimately, however, SpaceX said they could not get comfortable with the issue in time and ordered another hold with less than a minute left in the day's second countdown.

Musk tweeted. “Detailed review of rocket telemetry needed to tell if due to initial splashdown or subsequent tip over and body slam.”

SpaceX wanted to test the “flyback” ability to the rocket, slowing down the descent of the rocket with thrusters and deploying the landing legs for future launches so the first stage can be re-used

The previous test of the landing system was successful, but the choppy seas destroyed the stage and prevented recovery

the six satellites launched

are the first part of what the company hopes will be a 17-satellite constellation. They hope to have all 17 satellites in orbit by the end of the 2014

In its statement, Orbcomm suggested that i

had enough access to the satellite in less than four days in orbit to validate the performance of its major subsystems.

Orbcomm said that, had its satellite been the primary payload on SpaceX’s Oct. 7 flight, the mission would have been a success

OG2 satellite bus systems including power, attitude control, thermal and data handling were also tested to verify proper operation

The solar array and communications antenna deployments were successful

Orbcomm requested that SpaceX carry one of their small satellites

few hundred pounds, vs. Dragon at over 12,000 pounds

on this flight so that they could gather test data before we launch their full constellation next year.

The higher the orbit, the more test data they can gather, so they requested that we attempt to restart and raise altitude

NASA agreed to allow that, but only on condition that there be substantial propellant reserves, since the orbit would be close to the space station

Orbcomm understood from the beginning that the orbit-raising maneuver was tentative

They accepted that there was a high risk of their satellite remaining at the Dragon insertion orbit.