Scott Gold

Jenni Rivera crash puts scrutiny on record of plane owner

Dead whale makes stink near Streisand’s Malibu home

GRAIL mission delivers a hi-fi map of the moon

A pair of NASA orbiters has given scientists their highest-fidelity look at the moon, a leap that could help explain the evolution of the solar system's rocky planets, including Earth. Scientists announced the first results Wednesday from the $496-...

Tags: Space Programs, Science and Technology, Cape Canaveral, Astronomy, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

JPL's Curiosity mission comes down to this: the Martian surface

Three weeks from tonight, an amiable, whip-smart engineer named Ray Baker will be staring into his computer screen at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, hopeful and helpless — or, as he puts it, "sweating blood." The night will have been 10 years and...

Tags: Science and Technology, Ray Baker, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, Los Angeles Times

Mars dust storm, minor wobble give Curiosity scientists pause

A dust storm on Mars and a minor wobble in the spacecraft's trajectory have given scientists something to think about, but leaders of NASA'sCuriosity mission said Thursday that they are on track for a Sunday landing — the delivery of the largest and...

Tags: Science, Science and Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, Los Angeles Times

NASA rover Curiosity readies itself for Sunday night landing

Curiosity has begun a series of steps to ready itself to land on Mars, engineers said Saturday afternoon. The NASA rover, which has been cruising toward Mars for eight months, starting a sequence of automated steps about 3 p.m. PDT in anticipation of its...

Tags: Science and Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, Los Angeles Times

NASA rover Curiosity on course for Sunday night landing on Mars

With Curiosity still on a near-perfect course for a Sunday night landing on Mars, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge said Sunday morning that they had passed up a final opportunity to correct the spacecraft’s...

Tags: Science and Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, Super Bowl, Los Angeles Times

Curiosity flight team sticks to traditions

For a group of people who claim that their job requires them to be the opposite of superstitious, there were a lot of traditions flying around Sunday among the engineers who were attempting to deposit the Curiosity rover on Mars. For years, mission...

Tags: Science and Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, Super Bowl, Los Angeles Times

Mars exploration to go on even if mission fails, space officials say

Two top space officials pledged Sunday afternoon to continue the exploration of Mars in years to come – regardless of whether NASA’s Curiosity rover survives its dramatic landing later tonight. “We are committed to a Mars exploration...

Tags: Space Programs, Science and Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, Los Angeles Times

One Curiosity photo of Mars piques a lot of curiosity

Did Curiosity capture the galactic equivalent of the Zapruder film when it landed on Mars? Seconds after the NASA robot's landing Sunday night, Curiosity managed to squeeze off a handful of fuzzy, black-and-white photographs. One, taken with a device...

Tags: NASA, Los Angeles Times

Program offers rays of hope in an area on the edge

Words failed Roslyn Haywood-Broadnax, and that doesn't happen often. Her eyes softened and she pointed to the ceiling -- or, rather, through it, toward the heavens. Her three oldest are grown and gone, one a mental health counselor, one a hospital...

Tags: Layoffs and Downsizing, Parent Organizations, Crime, Law and Justice, Gang Activity, Antonio Villaraigosa