OnSputnik

Last week's launch of the new International Space Station (ISS) Photosynths was the result of 18 months of dedicated work by a great team of people across the Agency and at Microsoft. Having played a role in facilitating the collaboration, I thought I'd invite some of the team members here on my blog to share their personal recollections of how it all came together. The project serves as a good example of how NASA succesfully collaborates with private industry to innovate ways of bringing space exploration to the public.

The Space Elevator Spring Chat Series begins March 17 and will be running every Tuesday for at least 4 weeks. Our first guest will be: Ben Shelef, Co-founder, The Spaceward Foundation & the International Space Elevator Consortium. Join the Chat: March 17 2:30 PM Eastern Time/ 11:30 AM Pacific Time Topic: The Space Elevator concept including an update on the Space Elevator Challenges http://www.spaceelevator.com/chat

Engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and students at the California Institute of Technology have designed and tested a versatile, low-mass robot that can rappel off cliffs, travel nimbly over steep and rocky terrain, and explore deep craters. This prototype rover, called Axel, might help future robotic spacecraft better explore and investigate foreign worlds such as Mars. On Earth, Axel might assist in search-and-rescue operations. [More]

The Heinlein Prize Trust announces the Microgravity Research Competition to reward innovation in the use of microgravity to advance biotech, nanotech, combustion, metallurgy, and other fields. Sponsored by the Trust and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), the competition offers a $25,000 prize and transportation to and from Low Earth Orbit for the winning experiment aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. [More]

These pictures were taken by Mike Massee of XCOR's 5K18 "Lynx" engine, as a supplemental to the company's initial announcement last month. Testing of the Lynx engine is now underway at XCOR facilities on the Mojave Air and Space Port. [More]