With a loud roar and mighty column of flame, NASA and ATK Aerospace Systems successfully completed a two-minute, full-scale test of the largest and most powerful solid rocket motor designed for flight. The motor is potentially transferable to future heavy-lift launch vehicle designs. The stationary firing of the first-stage development solid rocket motor, dubbed DM-2, was the most heavily instrumented solid rocket motor test in NASA history. More than 760 instruments measured 53 test objectives.

The NASTAR(R) Center, the premier commercial space training and research center in the world, has completed the initial phase of a research effort focused on commercial human spaceflight and systems development related to emergency detection and response using an Atlas V flight profile, under a contract with Special Aerospace Service (SAS) on August 16, 2010.

Ken Kremer: Huge murals of artwork commemorating three decades of historic explorations and scientific achievements by all five of America's Space Shuttle Orbiters - Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour - now grace the Shuttle Firing Room inside the Launch Control Center (LCC) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"NASA MSFC is seeking a partner capable of providing a spacecraft bus as a part of a technology development proposal team. Responses to this RFI will provide information necessary for the selection of spacecraft providing partners for the proposal team in late Summer/early Fall 2010. This RFI seeks input from vendors with experience and facilities for designing, fabricating, and integrating Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites. Vendors must be able to provide low risk, highly reliable design solutions and have a history of successfully delivering spacecraft bus systems to support Flight projects." More.

James Cameron, director of "Avatar," the most successful film ever released, is featured in a series of new NASA public service announcements that describe the many contributions of the agency's Earth science program to environmental awareness and exploration of our home planet.

Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 24 flight engineer, works with High Definition Video (HDV) camera equipment in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. high res (1.4 M) low res (104 K)

Orion Ground Test Article (GTA) readied for pressure testing at NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. Credit: NASA

Ken Kremer: The crucial pressure testing phase for NASA's pioneer Orion crew test capsule has begun inside the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, Louisiana. It will be subjected to a wide ranging and stringent testing regime by the joint NASA/Lockheed Orion team at multiple different facilities over the coming year to validate the spacecraft design.