Oct. 29, 2008 Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov Paulette Campbell Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. 240-228-6792 paulette.campbell@jhuapl.edu RELEASE: 08-275 MESSENGER SPACECRAFT REVEALS MORE HIDDEN TERRITORY ON MERCURY WASHINGTON -- A NASA spacecraft gliding over the battered surface of Mercury for the second time this year has revealed more previously unseen real estate on the innermost planet. The probe also has produced several ...Continue Reading

Oct. 29, 2008 Steve Cole Headquarters, Washington 202-358-0918 stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov Jen Hirsch Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 617-253-1682 jfhirsch@mit.edu RELEASE: 08-276 NASA MEASUREMENTS SHOW GREENHOUSE GAS METHANE ON THE RISE AGAIN WASHINGTON -- The amount of methane in Earth's atmosphere shot up in 2007, bringing to an end approximately a decade in which atmospheric levels of the potent greenhouse gas were essentially stable. The new study is based on data from a worldwide NASA ...Continue Reading

Oct. 28, 2008 J.D. Harrington Headquarters, Washington 202-358-5241 j.d.harrington@nasa.gov Cynthia M. O'Carroll Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 301-286-4647 cynthia.m.ocarroll@nasa.gov CONTRACT RELEASE: C08-063 NASA SELECTS GODDARD PROGRAM ANALYSIS AND CONTROL CONTRACTOR GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA has selected ASRC Research and Technology Solutions, LLC, of Greenbelt, Md., to provide mission support services under the Program Analysis and Control (PAAC III) contract. The work will support NASA' ...Continue Reading

Oct. 28, 2008 Grey Hautaluoma/Ashley Edwards Headquarters, Washington 202-358-0668/1756 grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov ashley.edwards-1@nasa.gov MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-218 NASA TO UPDATE REPORTERS ABOUT CONSTELLATION PROGRAM WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a media teleconference Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 1 p.m. EDT, to brief reporters about recent developments and ongoing progress in NASA's Constellation Program. Constellation will build the spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and re ...Continue Reading

Oct. 28, 2008 Sonja Alexander Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1761 sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov Mike Mewhinney Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. 650-604-3937 michael.mewhinney@nasa.gov RELEASE: 08-272 NASA SELECTS 142 SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH PROJECTS WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected 142 proposals for negotiation of Phase 2 contract awards in the Small Business Innovation Research program, known as SBIR. The selected projects have a total value of ...Continue Reading

Oct. 28, 2008 Steve Cole Headquarters, Washington 202-358-0918 stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov RELEASE: 08-274 NASA-ENHANCED DUST STORM PREDICTIONS TO AID HEALTH COMMUNITY WASHINGTON -- NASA satellite data can improve forecasts of dust storms in the American Southwest in ways that can benefit public health managers. Scientists announced the finding as a five-year NASA-funded project nears its conclusion. Led by investigators Stanley Morain of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and William Sprigg of the ...Continue Reading

Oct. 28, 2008 Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov Jennifer Huergo Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. 240-228-5618 jennifer.huergo@jhuapl.edu Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6278 guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov RELEASE: 08-273 NASA ORBITER REVEALS DETAILS OF A WETTER MARS WASHINGTON -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has observed a new category of minerals spread across large regions of Mars. This discover ...Continue Reading

Oct. 27, 2008 Michael Curie Headquarters, Washington 202-358-4715 michael.curie@nasa.gov Candrea Thomas Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 321-867-2468 candrea.k.thomas@nasa.gov MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-217 NASA TO HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE ABOUT STATUS OF NEXT SHUTTLE LAUNCH CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA managers have scheduled a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for no earlier than 6 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 30, to discuss the status of the next space shuttle launch. The news conference will begin ...Continue Reading

The following sections were updated since 24 October 2008. -- FIRE (1 updated events, 1 new images) -- FIRES IN QUEENSLAND Several parts of Queensland, Australia, were experiencing bushfires in late October 2008. * http://naturalhazards.nasa.gov/shownh.php3?img_id=15113 *** MODIS(Aqua) image from Oct 24 2008 (Posted on Oct 27 2008 1:21PM) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Natural Hazards is a service of NASA's Earth Observatory. http://naturalhazards.nasa.gov/ http://earthobs ...Continue Reading

Oct. 27, 2008 Sonja Alexander Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1761 sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov Becky Ramsey X PRIZE Foundation, Washington 202-595-4329 prcontact@xprize.org RELEASE: 08-271 NASA $350,000 PRIZE GOES TO ARMADILLO AEROSPACE IN LUNAR CHALLENGE WASHINGTON -- Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas, earned $350,000 in NASA prize money during the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge in Las Cruces, N.M. The challenge is a two-level, $2 million competition designed to accelerate commercial sp ...Continue Reading