Astronauts Send First Tweet From Space
NASA Flight Engineer TJ Creamer sent the first Twitter tweet from space on the International Space Station. The ISS received a software upgrade where the astronauts will have personal access to the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Creamer tweeted: Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! 
More soon, send your ?s
NASA Finds Cocaine Near Space Shuttle Discovery
NASA has sniffed out an employee getting high on cocaine in a shuttle processing hangar at Kennedy Space Center.
A NASA shuttle worker found a plastic bag of white cocaine outside a bathroom. The worker informed security and later 200 workers were tested for the drug.
Bob Cabana, a former astronaut and director of Kennedy Space Center said, This is a rare and isolated incident, and I’m disappointed that it happened, but it should not detract from the outstanding work that is being done by a dedicated team on a daily basis. We are conducting an investigation and working with center security and law enforcement officials to get to the bottom of it.
NASA Launches Comet Hunting Spacecraft
NASA has launched The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, space camera to map stars, brown dwarfs, galaxies, asteroids and comets. The spacecraft will orbit Earth and scan the sky for 9.5 months. WISE is designed to give information about the size, composition, and texture of comets and asteroids.
Ned Wright, WISE principal investigator from UCLA said, Infrared technology has come a long way since then. The old all-sky infrared pictures were like impressionist paintings … now, we’ll have images that look like actual photographs.
NASA Launches Shuttle Atlantis
NASA launches the shuttle Atlantis for the International Space Station, carrying six astronauts, 15 tons of spare parts and equipment as a hedge against failures after the shuttle fleet is retired next year.
NASA Says World Will Not End In 2012
NASA has created a FAQ page to tell people in 2012 will not end like the movie of the same name.
From the NASA FAQ:
Question (Q): Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.
Answer (A): Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.
NASA Crashed 2 Spacecrafts On Moon To Find Water
NASA crashed two spacecrafts into the moon south pole in a search for hidden ice, a source of water for fuel. The intention of the crash is to throw up a plume of spray from any ice that was there.
Michael Bicay, director of science NASA said, We didn’t see a big splashy plume like we wanted to see.
Source: U.S. spacecraft crash on moon in search of water
Will Asteroid Apophis Hit Earth In 2036?
The large asteroid Apophis was discovered in 2004 with the size of 2 football fields is said to hit earth on April 13 2036. But recent research from NASA indicated that it has only a very slim chance of impacting into Earth.
Earth can now relax. Scientists have recalculated the asteroids path and it is slated to come within 18,300 miles above Earth’s surface in 2029.
Source: NASA downgrades threat of large asteroid
New Surface Photos Of Mars
NASA has released more than 1,500 new telescopic images of the surface of Mars, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRise) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
More images are available here.
NASA’s Kepler Look For Earth Like Planets
NASA’s new planet hunting Kepler space telescope the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet beyond Earth’s solar system that orbits its own star. The information came from a 10 test data since launch in March which shows the high precision of the measurements made by the telescope.
Jon Morse, director of the Science Mission Directorate’s Astrophysics Division at NASA said, “As NASA’s first exoplanets mission, Kepler has made a dramatic entrance on the planet-hunting scene. Detecting this planet’s atmosphere in just the first 10 days of data is only a taste of things to come. The planet hunt is on!”.
Source: NASA’s Kepler Spies Changing Phases on a Distant World
Shuttle Endeavour Grounded By Thunderstorms
The launch of the US space shuttle Endeavour has been delayed for the fourth time due to thunderstorms in the area of Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Nasa’s launch director, Pete Nickolenko said, Looks like the team is ready but the weather is not. At this time we are no-go.
Source: Bad weather delays space shuttle launch
