NASA has taken a major step toward building the next crew exploration vehicle by completing the Orion Project’s preliminary design review, or PDR. Orion is being designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and other destinations.

Backdropped by Earth’s horizon and the blackness of space, the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module is visible in Discovery’s payload bay, as is the shuttle’s vertical stabilizer, orbital maneuvering system pods, Orbiter Boom Sensor System and docking mechanism in this image shot from an aft flight deck window. For the STS-128 mission, Leonardo carried 7.5 tons of supplies to the station, including two research racks (the Fluid Integrated Rack and the Materials Science Research Rack), a new station crew quarters, the Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI-2), the Air Revitalization System Rack and the COLBERT treadmill. Image Credit: NASA

NASA’s Glenn Research Center has awarded a one-year contract option to Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) of Greenbelt, Md., for engineering and scientific services.

For as-yet-unknown reasons, the Chandrayaan-1 probe has lost radio contact with Earth less than 10 months after entering into orbit around the moonimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/424063/s/5eb0b04/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=India’s first lunar probe fails after less than a yearlink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17715-indias-first-lunar-probe-fails-after-less-than-a-year.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=spaceflight” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=India’s first lunar probe fails after less than a yearlink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17715-indias-first-lunar-probe-fails-after-less-than-a-year.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=spaceflight” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/48804769453/u/0/f/424063/c/749/s/99289860/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/48804769453/u/0/f/424063/c/749/s/99289860/a2.img” border=”0″//a

table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7 style=vertical-align:top;trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serif/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbr /div style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1 //divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=Ramp;sa=Tamp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.movieweb.com%2Fnews%2FNEqAPsttCPAPuwamp;usg=AFQjCNFbW7hssICVsnWxQs7_-jRTn2R-LQbGalaxy Quest Takes to bOuter Space/b on Blu-ray on November 17th/b/abr /font size=-1bfont color=#6f6f6fMovieWeb/font/b/fontbr /font size=-1You can relive a bspace/b classic in high definition this November. Galaxy Quest will be released in Blu-ray on November 17. We don#39;t have any pricing details, b…/b/fontbr /font size=-1 class=p/fontbr /font class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1amp;ned=usamp;ncl=dJkkJb6OwAMyM2Mnobrb/b/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7 style=vertical-align:top;trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serif/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbr /div style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1 //divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=Ramp;sa=Tamp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.msnbc.msn.com%2Fid%2F32629706%2Fns%2Ftechnology_and_science-space%2Famp;usg=AFQjCNFyOxTR0ZDKMvPIMd3mEeO6G-TmDAbMouse hotel opens on bspace/b station/b/abr /font size=-1bfont color=#6f6f6fmsnbc.com/font/b/fontbr /font size=-1See a stellar blast, a solar eclipse, liftoffs and other bouter/b-bspace/b highlights from July. quot;Each mouse is in its own little compartment,quot; Robinson told b…/b/fontbr /font size=-1 class=p/fontbr /font class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1amp;ned=usamp;ncl=dE-ElBt58TYelnMnobrband morenbsp;raquo;/b/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

The ‘Station Fire’ that doubled in size overnight has not reached the summit of Mount Wilson, home to telescopes once used by Edwin Hubble, but the area is still at riskimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10898/s/5ea7370/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=California fire threatens historic observatorylink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17714-california-fire-threatens-historic-observatory.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=space” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=California fire threatens historic observatorylink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17714-california-fire-threatens-historic-observatory.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=space” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/48804756229/u/0/f/10898/c/749/s/99251056/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/48804756229/u/0/f/10898/c/749/s/99251056/a2.img” border=”0″//a

table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7 style=vertical-align:top;trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=Ramp;sa=Tamp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.straitstimes.com%2FBreaking%252BNews%2FTech%252Band%252BScience%2FStory%2FSTIStory_423226.htmlamp;usg=AFQjCNF9cxBFrR0ZyUKfSRyyickYCe0Czwimg src=http://nt2.ggpht.com/news/tbn/jhFThzPI7LsCZM/6.jpg alt= border=1 width=80 height=80 /br /font size=-2Straits Times/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbr /div style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1 //divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=Ramp;sa=Tamp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dnaindia.com%2Fopinion%2Feditorial_lunar-eclipse_1286741amp;usg=AFQjCNHv2kYKJ3xuAfIF6DusvgNOmIGybQbLunar eclipse/b/abr /font size=-1bfont color=#6f6f6fDaily News Analysis/font/b/fontbr /font size=-1India iscommitted to bouter space/b. But there is a discussion that can happen about the failure of Chandrayaan I. We are not a very scientifically aware b…/b/fontbr /font size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=Ramp;sa=Tamp;url=http%3A%2F%2Ftimesofindia.indiatimes.com%2Farticleshow%2F4955466.cmsamp;usg=AFQjCNGOsFhWBHI2MyXAg4I-MBdZngu5eQComment: No Setback/afont size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrTimes of India/nobr/font/fontbr /font size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=Ramp;sa=Tamp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arabnews.com%2F%3Fpage%3D7%26section%3D0%26article%3D125906%26d%3D30%26m%3D8%26y%3D2009amp;usg=AFQjCNFRoE_qr-5OhMpII2VOyWv3Q5PIKwEditorial: Challenge of bspace/b/afont size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrArab News/nobr/font/fontbr /font size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=Ramp;sa=Tamp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.in.msn.com%2Fnational%2Farticle.aspx%3Fcp-documentid%3D3198451amp;usg=AFQjCNFVPeGMmbqb702QUYHu35EjN6U5HQDid a hyperactive sun kill India#39;s moon mission?/afont size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrMSN India/nobr/font/fontbr /font size=-1 class=p/fontbr /font class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1amp;ned=usamp;ncl=dIpljjtHxk7kD3Mj2Vypuxgj6aehMnobrball 759 news articlesnbsp;raquo;/b/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7 style=vertical-align:top;trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serif/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbr /div style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1 //divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=Ramp;sa=Tamp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wbjournal.com%2Fnews44366.htmlamp;usg=AFQjCNGasH8P9CjQ5qGONqdOv5ZSdAvSMwbFrom bOuter Space/b To The Inner Ear/b/abr /font size=-1bfont color=#6f6f6fWorcester Business Journal/font/b/fontbr /font size=-1Hypertronics recently sent circuit board-to-circuit board connectors into bspace/b on the shuttle Atlantis as part of the mission to replace components of the b…/b/fontbr /font size=-1 class=p/fontbr /font class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1amp;ned=usamp;ncl=dxKEQpU4mSc7TbMnobrb/b/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

NASA will host a teleconference Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 3 p.m. EDT to discuss the conclusion of the preliminary design review for the Orion crew exploration vehicle.