"The space station is an international treasure, the size of a
football field, and an inspiring sight in its own right flying
through the sky at five miles per second," said Mike Suffredini,
International Space Station program manager. "But I can't imagine a
better way to share the experience with family and friends than
during a trip to one of our national parks, where the stars seem to
shine brighter whether they're natural or man-made."

Sightings depend on lighting, weather conditions and the station's
location as it orbits 200 miles above Earth at 17,500 mph. With the
help of the Park Service, NASA recently imported the coordinates of
507 locations, including national parks and seashores, historic
sites, monuments, and wild and scenic rivers. The station's Mission
Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston uses these
locations and the orbital path of the space station to predict times
when people can see the station zoom across the sky.

National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said, "The night sky is one
of many spectacular resources national park visitors enjoy.
Coordinating park locations with the space station flight schedule
gives visitors another opportunity to reflect on human connections
with the world and beyond."

Sighting predictions are available on NASA's SkyWatch website, via the
agency's new mobile website, and NASA iPhone and iPad applications.
Park rangers who present night sky programs and park event calendars
also will have the information available for park visitors.

"It's a good idea to check the sighting opportunities ahead of time,"
said Chad Moore, director of the National Park Service night sky
program. "Many remote national parks, which offer the best night sky
conditions, have limited Internet or cell phone coverage."

The announcement of the collaboration between NASA and the National
Park Service coincides with sighting opportunities on several parks'
anniversaries. On Friday, Oct. 1, the 120th anniversary of Yosemite
National Park, the station will pass overhead at 5:03 a.m. PST. On
Oct. 2, the station will pass over Sequoia National Park at 5:29 a.m.
PST and Kings Canyon National Park at 5:30 a.m. PST on the parks'
120th anniversaries. Oct. 2 is also the 42nd anniversary of Redwood
National Park, which the station will fly over at 5:29 a.m. PST.

The space station usually appears over the western horizon and
disappears over the eastern horizon in a matter of minutes. The best
time to observe the station is near dawn or dusk, when the viewer is
in near-darkness, and the passing station continues to reflect light
from the rising or setting sun.

For detailed sightings information and a guide to using the
information, visit:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For more information about national parks and the night sky, visit:

http://www.nature.nps.gov/air/lightscapes

For information about the National Park Service, visit:

http://www.nps.gov

Source: NASA

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Reporters may dial-in toll free at: 800-857-5728; passcode:
authorization. Non-toll free and international callers should use:
212-287-1624 with the same passcode.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

Source: NASA

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"This important vote today in the House of Representatives on a
comprehensive NASA authorization charts a vital new future for the
course of human space exploration. We are grateful that the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010
received strong support in the House after its clearance in the
Senate, and can now be sent on to the President for his signature.

"The President has laid out an ambitious new plan for NASA that
pioneers new frontiers of innovation and discovery. The plan invests
more in NASA; extends the life of the International Space Station;
launches a commercial space transportation industry; fosters the
development of path-breaking technologies; and helps create thousands
of new jobs. Passage of this bill represents an important step
forward towards helping us achieve the key goals set by the President.

"This important change in direction will not only help us chart a new
path in space, but can help us retool for the industries and jobs of
the future that will be vital for long term economic growth.

"NASA appreciates all of the hard work and effort that has gone into
advancing this legislation."

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

Source: NASA

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National Science Foundation, placed the planet in an area where
liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. If confirmed, this
would be the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered and the first
strong case for a potentially habitable one.

To astronomers, a "potentially habitable" planet is one that could
sustain life, not necessarily one where humans would thrive.
Habitability depends on many factors, but having liquid water and an
atmosphere are among the most important.

The new findings are based on 11 years of observations of the nearby
red dwarf star Gliese 581using the HIRES spectrometer on the Keck I
Telescope. The spectrometer allows precise measurements of a star's
radial velocity (its motion along the line of sight from Earth),
which can reveal the presence of planets. The gravitational tug of an
orbiting planet causes periodic changes in the radial velocity of the
host star. Multiple planets induce complex wobbles in the star's
motion, and astronomers use sophisticated analyses to detect planets
and determine their orbits and masses.

"Keck's long-term observations of the wobble of nearby stars enabled
the detection of this multi-planetary system," said Mario R. Perez,
Keck program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Keck is
once again proving itself an amazing tool for scientific research."
Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz,
and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution lead the Lick-Carnegie
Exoplanet Survey. The team's new findings are reported in a paper
published in the Astrophysical Journal and posted online at:

http://arxiv.org

"Our findings offer a very compelling case for a potentially habitable
planet," said Vogt. "The fact that we were able to detect this planet
so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common."

The paper reports the discovery of two new planets around Gliese 581.
This brings the total number of known planets around this star to
six, the most yet discovered in a planetary system outside of our
own. Like our solar system, the planets around Gliese 581 have
nearly-circular orbits.

The new planet designated Gliese 581g has a mass three to four times
that of Earth and orbits its star in just under 37 days. Its mass
indicates that it is probably a rocky planet with a definite surface
and enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere.
Gliese 581, located 20 light years away from Earth in the
constellation Libra, has two previously detected planets that lie at
the edges of the habitable zone, one on the hot side (planet c) and
one on the cold side (planet d). While some astronomers still think
planet d may be habitable if it has a thick atmosphere with a strong
greenhouse effect to warm it up, others are skeptical. The
newly-discovered planet g, however, lies right in the middle of the
habitable zone.

The planet is tidally locked to the star, meaning that one side is
always facing the star and basking in perpetual daylight, while the
side facing away from the star is in perpetual darkness. One effect
of this is to stabilize the planet's surface climates, according to
Vogt. The most habitable zone on the planet's surface would be the
line between shadow and light (known as the "terminator").

For more information, visit:

http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events

http://carnegiescience.edu

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/gliese_581_feature.html

Source: NASA

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This modification brings the total potential value of the contract to $2.25 billion.

The space shuttle's three main engines, along with the solid rocket
boosters, provide the thrust to launch the space shuttle. At 14 feet
long and seven and a half feet in diameter at the nozzle exit, the
liquid propellant rocket engines have a combined thrust of more than
1.2 million pounds.

For more information about NASA's Space Shuttle Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Source: NASA

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