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So NASA is apparently taking public suggestions for where to point the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. No doubt the agency is anticipating a slew of requests for Victoria Crater or Olympus Mons, and I salute such educational endeavor ... More >>
Photo courtesy NASAThis week will be a great one for seeing the International Space Station -- especially tonight, NASA says.Assuming the night sky stays clear, the ISS will be visible for three minutes starting at 6:09 p.m.Look five degrees above north-northwest and track it as it heads to 11 de ... More >>
Used cars long ago become "pre-owned." Kamp Krusty isn't a "fat camp," it's an "image enhancement camp." Torture is now "enhanced interrogation."The silly-euphemism bar is set pretty high these days. But NASA is taking a shot at winning the competition, not because it is easy but because it ... More >>
Photo by General MotorsNASA and General Motors have announced a new space robot, called Robonaut 2, or R2 for short (The name "Desperately Hoping to be Relevant via Outdated Pop Culture References," or RHROPCR, was apparently rejected for being too long.)"Our challenge today is to build machines ... More >>
NASA famously bombed the moon last year in a desperate attempt to prove there's water on it. While water was indeed discovered, we have yet to hear any reliable figures on collateral damage to the affected areas or the native population.It turns out, instead of almost triggering a Earth-Moon war ... More >>
What's hot on the web today? Making fun of NASA for goofy mission posters.Gizmodo got its hands on mission posters made for internal NASA use -- they're on the web at the agency's Space Flight Awareness page -- and went to town."NASA Mission Posters Are Hilariously Painful," reads the headline, a ... More >>
Photos courtesy BonhamsA while back, there was some general web guffawing over what was perceived as NASA's lame mission posters, which have trended towards spoofing popular movies. (We kinda liked them, actually.)Now we're getting a glance at how bad things used to be.On Tuesday -- the 40th anni ... More >>
Porn in space: America demands thisNASA announced today a "Face in Space" program, where you can upload pictures of yourself that will be transferred to the International Space Station."Launch your face into space," the agency says.Why just the face? Why not....other parts?NASA spokesman Ja ... More >>
Time for my radiation, guysCommuters on the Gulf Freeway will get a new billboard to ponder sometime soon: "NASA: Takea Giant Leap for Mankind. Stop Torturing Monkeys," it will say.It comes courtesy of animal-rights group PETA, who we guess should get points for avoiding the "Houston, We Have A P ... More >>
Accused child-porn fan advises on outing sex offenders.
NASA goes undergroundNASA may be out of the moon business and seen a lot of other space-related dreams curtailed, but now it looks like they can direct their energies underground.The government of Chile has asked for NASA's help in dealing with the 33 miners trapped in a tight space a half-mile u ... More >>
It must have a whiff of Tang, messieurs!So apparently the space program needs some next-gen trash bags, and they need to find out if those bags can stand up to every manner of substance that they will be containing.This will include many empty cups of Tang and according to the video after the jum ... More >>
NASA and monkeys: Not a love storyUpon seeing this week's cover of the Houston Press, there aren't too many people who would take up the "fry 'em with radiation, stick 'em in a cage and study 'em" mantle. Squirrel monkeys are cute and mostly defenseless. April Evans thinks they're cute, but that ... More >>
The world's a sucker for trapped-in-a-mine stories ("trapped in a well" works, too), so it's no surprise that a ton of people are following the rescue of those Chilean minors.NASA, which can use all the budget support it can get, wants everyone to know that they played a big role in the rescue, and ... More >>
Life just got betterYou, like all people, just LOVE Foursquare, the web application that lets you keep up with where people you don't care about are at any given moment.Because if you don't know that someone has earned enough points to be "Mayor of Lupe Tortilla's" or some such crap, your life wi ... More >>
Photo courtesy NASAYou're looking at one of the highest-resolution photos ever taken from the International Space Station, posted this week by NASA. NASA says it has a resolution of two the three meters per pixel, due to (WARNING: geek talk incoming) "using lens "doublers" to increase the op ... More >>
Photo courtesy April EvansApril Evans quit NASA over the experimentsPETA is proclaiming victory in their ongoing battle to stop radiation experiments on monkeys that had been planned by NASA. Well, folks, you did it. After scores of protests and more than 100,000 letters, phone calls, and e- ... More >>
NASA tells the lab to forget monkey experimentsLast week we told you of PETA's victory announcement in the battle against having NASA conduct radiation experiments on monkeys, a controversy that had been building and to which we devoted a cover story. In response to our questions, NASA point ... More >>
For 15 years now, NASA has been putting out an Astronomy Picture of the Day, picking whatever hits their fancy from the archives or new stuff coming in from up above. Here are ten of the best they posted this year. 10. Atlantis takes off Photos courtesy NASAIn the early morning hours of Jul ... More >>
Something occurred to me the other day as I was reading the sports ticker announcing that our own Houston Texans were hiring Wade Phillips as the new defensive coordinator and, in fact, keeping Gary Kubiak as head coach, in the face of a wave of anti-Kubiak gnashing of teeth. Have you ever had a f ... More >>
Check out the gorgeous NASA video promo above. Gives you warm, fuzzy feelings about the space program, doesn't it? The only problem? The video isn't actually from NASA. It was created by YouTube user damewse, who expressed frustration with the space exploration agency's lack of media savvy, espec ... More >>
NASA photosThe singularity is coming, you carbon-based piece of shitZDnet's put out a photo gallery of the new robot, R2, who is in the shuttle headed up to the International Space Station as we speak. The pictures aren't new, but seeing them all together can give you the creeps. (You can a ... More >>
This is a trailer for Apollo 13: Mission Control, posted on NASA's Buzzroom blog today. The show is not a NASA production, it's an interactive theater piece that, as far as we can tell, is done in New Zealand and Australia. The show's website says: To transport you to Houston, Texas, the theatre ... More >>
Discovery's been at the International Space Station for days now, and still no robot action. Even President Obama's getting antsy. He told the astronauts yesterday they should let R2 out of his packaging and allow him to "stretch his legs." (We're sure they had to bite their tongues to keep from bl ... More >>
NASA has put together an impressive montage of the last take-off of the space shuttle Discovery, using a wide range of cameras on the launch pad and the vehicle. There's about five minutes or so of preflight stuff here, so fast-forward if you prefer.
All images NASANASA has released the first images from the Messenger, which is orbiting Mercury. They hardly make the planet seem like the burning cauldron we've always expected it to be. Looks kinda cold, actually.
On the latest "Between The Lines" segment on CW 39's Newsfix, I unloaded about the horror of Houston not receiving a space shuttle, now that the NASA program is over with. Hopefully Florida, Washington, D.C., and New York will make do with these retired spacecraft. It's not like any of the ... More >>
Using any of these will void the policy.With NASA getting out of the shuttle business, the next big thing is expected to be space tourism. It can be a dangerous thing, but luckily there is the Texas Legislature to make sure, as they always do, that no one can sue a company for pretty much an ... More >>
NASA has released hi-def video of the shuttle Endeavour's final liftoff, from cameras mounted at various points on the outside of the vehicle. Your tax dollars at work! Enjoy.
NASALooking like something out of Hollywood, this new picture by a member of the current Endeavour mission shows the International Space Station as if it was a space sailing ship, headed for the golden glow of the horizon.
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>
NASA is now streaming "Flyin' High," that brand-new ZZ Top song bound for the International Space Station Rocks Off told you about yesterday, on its Web site. Now all us Earthlings can listen too.
NASA released a nice photo yesterday of the shuttle Endeavour docked to the space station; today they've released the video. It's seven minutes or so of the shuttle attached to the station as they hurtle through space. It's also silent, and so it needs a soundtrack. Classical? Something by Yes or ... More >>
NASAJust upper-right of the center? That's a MAN, babyYesterday we posted some great new video from NASA of the shuttle Endeavour docked to the International Space Station, seven minutes of mostly silent footage that screamed out for a soundtrack. We synched up David Bowie's "Width of a Circ ... More >>
As the space shuttle program winds down, people will be reflecting on all the contributions to society NASA has made. Among them: Air hockey. The game was developed by NASA contractors, and it remains huge, especially in the Houston area. Our cover story this week, "Hover Boards," examines the ph ... More >>
Atlantis: Last chance for souvenirsIf you're making the last-ever trip on the space shuttle, you want to make it count. And if the list put together by collectSPACE.com is any indication, this last flight is taking along enough souvenirs to outfit a small army. Almost all the items are put ... More >>
KTRK tweeted this picture, taken from a monitor turned to NASA TV. NASA says the lightning came within a third of a mile of the launch pad. NASspaceflight.com is keeping a running account of preparations, and it notes the lightning strike "was VERY powerful at nearly 70,000 amps (realize you ... More >>
20,000 flags and 10,000 patches aboard
What's with all the damn Coldplay?NASA, always on the lookout for good publicity, has made a cottage industry out of the wake-up music it uses to rouse crews orbiting the earth. They recruit artists to record messages that are played after the song, because the first thing you want to hear ... More >>
NASA/Hair BallsNo more cool pictures like this for a long time :(If you're an astronaut, you recently might have awoken you from a sound night's rest on the space shuttle to the sounds of U2, Beyonce, Electric Light Orchestra, Aaron Copeland, or even some old Coldplay. On those more unlucky d ... More >>
NASANASA says this picture is "unprecedented," and who are we to doubt them? Taken from the International Space Station, the shot shows Atlantis beginning its descent through the earth's atmosphere, as things heat up and everyone says prayers to the heat-shield god.
Boyd MeierKym in the simBe sure to check out our pics from the Atlantis astronauts' homecoming at Johnson Space Center. You often hear the expression "a once in a lifetime experience," and while this may or may not always be true, for those lucky enough to participate in a NASA Tweet-up, not ... More >>
NASA celebrates its 53rd birthday this week, but it will be a subdued occasion as the space shuttle era ends, top talent leaves and the agency seems adrift. In its heyday the agency didn't worry about no damn budgets, and as a result it had a hand in developing some very strange planes. Among them ... More >>
NASA released this morning some neat new images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the landing site of Apollo 17. The enhanced photos give the best look yet of the astronauts' footprint tracks through the dust and the parts of the Lunar Module that were left on the surface.
NASANASA's first manned rocket in a long timePut it down in stone -- in just six years, and for just $18 billion, the rocket pictured in the artist's rendering above will be flying astronauts. NASA says so, so it must be true. The agency announced today the design for the manned rocket that ... More >>
NASA: If only there was a movie about a two-sun planet....NASA officials hyped a press conference yesterday about a new discovery via the way they know best: Trot out the Star Wars references. People connected with the movie and SFX gurus Industrial Light & Magic were on the panel to discuss ... More >>
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>
The telephone is ringing...NASA geeks rejoice: The agency has made some of their audio greatest hits available for use as ringtones. var so = new SWFObject("http://media.houstonpress.com/players/vvmMiniPlayer2.swf?k={rlD=Tlzq4o=&autoPlay=no","theSWF", "91", "32", "8", "#FFFFFF"); so.write ... More >>
This could be youTired of your dead-end job? Get into a profession that's guaranteed to be well-funded for the foreseeable future and beyond: manned space travel!! NASA is once again opening up the application process for astronaut jobs, even though, you know, there are no more shuttle missi ... More >>
Light this candle.Mayor Annise Parker joined today with the mayor of Huntsville, Alabama -- do we really need to tell you his name is Tommy Battle? No, really, it is -- to inform NASA and all politicians who vote on it that they better get going on NASA's new project. The two "have formally ... More >>
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