Video: Student experiments launched aboard NASA rocket

NASA successfully launched a Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital sounding rocket carrying student experiments at 6 a.m. EDT, Thursday, from Wallops Flight Facility, Va.

More than 200 middle school and university students and instructors participating in “Rocket Week” at Wallops.

The launch was part of the RockOn and RockSat-C programs designed to teach students skills required to develop experiments for suborbital rocket flight. In addition, middle school educators through the Wallops Rocket Academy for Teachers are learning about applying rocketry basics in their curriculum.

The payload flew to an altitude of 71.4 miles and descended by parachute into the Atlantic
Ocean off the coast of Wallops where it was recovered and returned.

New Hampshire-based aviation firm offers final resting place for cremated remains

Are a loved one's cremated remains sitting in a closet or collecting dust on a shelf? Take Wing Air, a New Hampshire-based aviation firm, now offers an affordable solution to finding a final resting place for cremated earthly remains in a more heavenly fashion. From its home airport in Nashua, Take Wing Air will scatter the ashes of a departed family member, loved one, or pet by air at the family's predetermined location while soaring the skies above the mountains, lakes, and seacoasts of New England and New York.

Bill Dino, owner and operator of Take Wing Air, says, "I first got the idea of doing aerial ash scattering commercially after I performed this service for my own parents." After doing a little research, Dino found there was a need for such a service in the area.

As part of their service, Take Wing Air provides a witnessed certificate documenting the time and location of the release of the cremains and a Google map overlay of the flight. They are also able to honor special requests such as music, flyovers or readings.

Take Wing Air uses a specially modified twin engine plane that allows a loved one's ashes to be released through the bottom of the aircraft in a safe and dignified manner; the cremains will always drift down and away from the plane. There is never an issue of cremated ash coming back into the cockpit or impacting the side of the plane. Dino reports this is a common problem with many competing services.

Video: F-35B launched into the skies from ski-jump

The F-35B Lightning II successfully launched into the skies from a ski-jump for the first time on Friday. The land-based test — conducted by the F-35 Lightning II Pax River Integrated Test Force — took place at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.

Video: Boeing rehearses 787-9 Dreamliner display for 2015 Paris Air Show

Watch as Boeing’s expert crew rehearses the flying display that will be performed at the 2015 Paris Air Show.

Pornhub launches campaign to fund first sex tape in space

Pornhub, an online destination for adult entertainment, announced Wednesday it has officially launched an Indiegogo campaign to crowdfund the first ever sex tape in space. The "Sexploration" campaign, which will run through the next 30 days, is looking to raise $3.4 million to fund the maiden voyage set for takeoff in late 2016.

Pornhub is giving its loyal fans the opportunity to be a part of this historic undertaking by providing a way for them to have their own say in how the entire film is put together via campaign contributions. Each donation will in turn be rewarded on a tiered prize level basis depending on the amount of each offering, with the higher tiers reflecting a greater amount of contributor control over production. The campaign's proceeds will go directly towards securing key components, such as the cost of shuttle seating for the crew and performers, as well as state-of-the-art video equipment to broadcast the iconic moment. Conversely, Pornhub will absorb all of the pre- and post-production costs, as well as expenses for promoting, releasing and celebrating the launch of the film.

"This will be a grand experiment in learning how intercourse works after penetrating the Earth's atmosphere," said Corey Price, vice president, Pornhub.

Additional information on the campaign, including the full list of prizes, can be found on the Indiegogo landing page.

Space-based instrument to monitor air pollutants hits milestone

The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument, developed by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is headed toward its Critical Design Review this month following an earlier milestone that included Preliminary Design Review (PDR). Ball is now well into the fabrication of the instrument following the successful PDR and a confirmation review.

TEMPO, an air quality sensor that will provide hourly monitoring of pollution across North America, is the first NASA Earth Venture Instrument mission with a ultraviolet-visible air quality spectrometer to be placed in geostationary orbit.

Ball Aerospace is building the TEMPO instrument under a firm-fixed price contract with NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia. Ball has a long history of providing cost-effective solutions for Earth observation and remote-sensing missions with fixed-price contracts.

The TEMPO instrument is designed to make accurate observations of atmospheric pollution with high spatial and temporal resolution over North America, from Mexico City to the Canadian oil sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. TEMPO will observe Earth's atmosphere in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths to determine concentrations of many key atmospheric pollutants, such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde. TEMPO will share a ride on a yet unidentified commercial satellite as a hosted payload.

In addition to TEMPO, Ball Aerospace is jointly developing a similar geostationary ultraviolet visible spectrometer, the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer, with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, South Korea.

Four US Army UH-60A helicopters up for sale

The U.S. Army Contracting Command-Redstone on behalf of The Utility Helicopters Project Management Office, Black Hawk Exchange and Sales Team (BEST) Program, announced Tuesday that four Army Black Hawk helicopters are up for sale through negotiation at fixed prices.

The aircraft are medium lift utility Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters, tail numbers 80-23492, 81-23552, 81-23568, 82-23697, located at the BEST Aircraft Consolidation Facility in Huntsville, Ala.