Some days NASA is merely busy, others are, well, eventful.
Earlier today, an alarm went off indicating an ammonia leak in the US section of the ISS leading to its evacuation as astronauts took refuge in the Russian segments of the station while NASA worked to figure out if the alarm was real, and, if so, the source of the leak. Some 11 hours later, the US section was re-opened after ground controllers determined that the alarm was false.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/...
And -- today NASA celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Huygens probes touchdown on Titan to give us the first close-up views of a planet eerily similar to earth, but at temperatures cold enough to support lakes of liquid ethane, methane, and propane on its surface. Hitching a ride to Saturn on the Cassini probe, the little probe performed flawlessly.
http://www.nasa.gov/...
And, OK, it's not actually NASA, but there is speculation that a news conference scheduled for tomorrow afternoon in London by the UK Space agency will announce that the Beagle-2 lander has been located by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HIRISE camera.
The Beagle hitched a ride to Mars on the ESA's Mars Express in much the same way the Huygens rode along with Cassini, but it's story didn't end so well. Unfortunate, as the mission contained innovative instrumentation including mechanical "moles" meant to bore down into the Martian soil and, unlike any of the NASA rovers to date, look for signs of life.
http://www.beagle2.com/
Fri Jan 16, 2015 at 8:37 AM PT: Confirmed! The MRO has located Beagle 2. Not only that, but the craft seems to have survived its landing well enough to deploy some or all of its solar panels.
http://www.nasa.gov/...