Have you planned your entire 2012 yet?
No? Well, NASA is ahead of the ball, and the space agency already has a full schedule of projects set for 2012. They’ve already been busy, launching two GRAIL satellites (pictured above), which will map the moon’s gravitational field and give hints about its origin, in the early hours of the new year. Still to come: an ISS docking with the Dragon unmanned capsule from SpaceX, the first private company to link up with the space station; three separate launches of probes to study radiation from sources in the universe, both near and far; the much anticipated and risky August landing of the Mars Science Laboratory; and a drawn out budget duel with Congress and the White House to make sure NASA has the funding to continue awesome projects in the future. Click here for more about NASA’s year ahead.
