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The NASTAR Suborbital Scientist Training Program provides space flight physiology training for prospective ‘Suborbital Scientist-Astronauts’ interested in understanding how to take advantage of emerging low-cost, frequent suborbital ‘human-in-the-loop’ experiments and Research & Education Mission (REM) opportunities.

12 Suborbital Scientists signed up to participate in the inaugural course on January 12-13, 2010 at The National AeroSpace Training And Research (NASTAR) Center, located just outside Philadelphia, PA. The researchers, students and grad students that participated were supported from the following institutions: SwRI, Boston University, the Denver Museum of Natural Sciences (DMNS), the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Central Florida and the University Space Research Association (USRA).

The NASTAR Suborbital Scientist Training Program includes an overview of the commercial space research industry, high altitude training, suborbital space flight training and distraction factor management training. Trainees practice comprehensive Astronaut training techniques and learn how to mentally and physically prepare themselves and their experiment for the extreme environmental conditions experienced during spaceflight.

Courses Available. Contact NASTAR Center at 215-355-9100 or info@nastarcenter.com to sign up or go to www.nastarcenter.com for further information on this, or other courses. Video courtesy of NASTAR and Jim Arthurs, Image Shoppe

Hickson 31 (Credit: NASA, ESA, and S. Gallagher (The University of Western Ontario), and J. English (University of Manitoba))

Have you heard of 'living fossils'? The coelacanth, the ginko tree, the platypus, and several others are species alive today which seem to be the same as those found as fossils, in rocks up to hundreds of millions of years old.

Now combined results from the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer, Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), and Swift show that there are 'living galaxy fossils' in our own backyard!
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Read the rest of Better Late Than Never: Dwarf Galaxies Finally Come Together (741 words)

© Jean Tate for Universe Today, 2010. |
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A Hubble Space Telescope image of the typical globular cluster Messier 80, an object made up of hundreds of thousands of stars and located in the direction of the constellation of Scorpius. The Milky Way galaxy has an estimated 160 globular clusters of which one quarter are thought to be ‘alien’. Image: NASA / The Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA. Click for hi-resolution version.

We're being invaded! About one-fourth of the star clusters in our galaxy are actually invaders from other galaxies, according to a new paper. Research from a team of scientists from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia shows that that many of our galaxy’s globular star clusters are actually foreigners – having been born elsewhere and then migrated to our Milky Way. “It turns out that many of the stars and globular star clusters we see when we look into the night sky are not natives, but aliens from other galaxies,” said Duncan Forbes. “They have made their way into our galaxy over the last few billion years.”
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Read the rest of Alien Star Clusters Are Invading the Milky Way (321 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. |
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Space shuttle Endeavour lands in darkness on Runway 15 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Sandra Joseph and Kevin O’Connell

Congressional legislators in Florida are mounting a campaign to extend space shuttle operations to 2015, adding two flights each year. U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas said a bipartisan plan is in the works, which would require adding another $200 million to the NASA budget for 2010 and between $1.5 – $2 billion a year starting in the 2011-12 budget year. "We're not going to do anything that's not safe," Kosmas was quoted in Florida Today, adding that securing the funding would be difficult in tight budget times, but "we're going to go for it," she said.

At Kennedy Space Center early Monday morning after Endeavour returned home safely following the STS-130 mission, space shuttle program managers confirmed that while the shuttles are in good shape to continue flying, extending the program is not the direction their teams have been headed.
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Read the rest of Could the Space Shuttle Program Be Extended to 2015? (795 words)

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Falcon 9 now vertical on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral. Credit: Chris Thompson/SpaceX

Is the future here? Over the weekend, SpaceX rolled their Falcon 9 launch vehicle out to the launchpad at Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral. If all systems check out, SpaceX looks to do an engine test sometime this week, which should provide some dramatic rumbling and shaking here in Florida. The rocket measures 47 meters long (154 feet) and 4 meters (12 feet) wide, and for the upcoming test launch (date currently not set), the payload will be a dummy of the company's Dragon capsule being developed to carry equipment to the International Space Station for NASA.
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Read the rest of Photo Gallery: Falcon 9 Now Vertical on the Launchpad (194 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. |
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“Scientists Alan Stern and Dan Durda describe the coming era of suborbital spaceflight and how it will open up great possibilities for researchers, educators, and the public beginning later this year.”

First LOFAR high-band image (Credit: James Anderson, MPIfR)

This image is a software-calibrated image with high signal-to-noise ratio at a frequency of 120 MHz, of the radio sky above Effelsberg, Germany, on November10, 2009. It has North at the top and East at the left, just as a person would have seen the entire sky when lying on their back on a flat field near Effelsberg late in the afternoon on November 10, if their eyes were sensitive to radio waves.

The two bright (yellow) spots are Cygnus A – a giant radio galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole – near the center of the image, and Cassiopeia A – a bright radio source created by a supernova explosion about 300 years ago – at the upper-left in the image. The plane of our Milky Way galaxy can also be seen passing by both Cassiopeia A and Cygnus A, and extending down to the bottom of the image. The North Polar Spur, a large cloud of radio emission within our own galaxy, can also be seen extending from the direction of the Galactic center in the South, toward the western horizon in this image. "We made this image with a single 60 second "exposure" at 120 MHz using our high-band LOFAR field in Effelsberg", says James Anderson, project manager of the Effelsberg LOFAR station.

"The ability to make all-sky images in just seconds is a tremendous advancement compared to existing radio telescopes which often require weeks or months to scan the entire sky," Anderson went on. This opens up exciting possibilities to detect and study rapid transient phenomena in the universe.
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Read the rest of All-Sky Radio Image in 60 Seconds, No Moving Parts (566 words)

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ISS as seen by the departing Endeavour crew on STS-130. Credit: NASA

The main computer on the International Space Station failed early Sunday, and subsequent multiple computer anomalies prompted communication blackouts. The one main computer has two backup systems, and NASA reported that the three command & control computers are switching between prime, backup and standby. A software issue is suspected, and diagnosis continues. The computer system is critical to all aspects of space station operation.
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Read the rest of Multiple Computer Failures on the ISS (295 words)

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NASA astronaut George Zamka, STS-130 commander, is pictured in a window of the newly-installed Cupola of the International Space Station while space shuttle Endeavour remains docked with the station.

(Editor's Note: Ken Kremer is at the Kennedy Space Center for Universe Today covering the flight of Endeavour)

The crew of Endeavour is packing up their gear in the crew cabin and preparing for a Sunday evening (Feb. 21) landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida as a forecast of possible rain showers threatens to delay their return to Earth. (…)
Read the rest of Endeavour Crew Preps for Sunday Landing as Showers Threaten Delay (544 words)

© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2010. |
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Key questions relevant to fundamental physics and cosmology, namely the nature of the mysterious dark energy and dark matter (Euclid); the frequency of exoplanets around other stars, including Earth-analogs (PLATO); take the closest look at our Sun yet possible, approaching to just 62 solar radii (Solar Orbiter) … but only two! What would be your picks?

These three mission concepts have been chosen by the European Space Agency's Science Programme Committee (SPC) as candidates for two medium-class missions to be launched no earlier than 2017. They now enter the definition phase, the next step required before the final decision is taken as to which missions are implemented.
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Read the rest of ESA's Tough Choice: Dark Matter, Sun Close Flyby, Exoplanets (Pick Two) (499 words)

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