The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor the United States can award, created to recognize “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” In a ceremony yesterday, President Obama announced that he will be posthumously awarding the Medal to Sally Ride, the third woman, and first American woman, in space.

Ouch. This started out fun and then got really sad. (Nerd Approved)

The last few months have seen several asteroids unexpectedly buzz our planet, a fact that has caused a bit of concern for Congress. After all, while the chances of a catastrophic asteroid impact are tiny, if one does manage to hit us the effect could be pretty bad. Like, end of humanity bad. So it makes sense that Congress would want someone monitoring near-Earth asteroids just in case one should come barreling towards us.

Hmmm. Who does Congress have to turn to when they need someone to watch the skies?

NASA.

Whose budget has Congress drastically cut in recent years?

NASA.

You see where this is going.

Here’s a whole collection of different video recordings of the meteorite that streaked over the Ural Mountains in Russia early this morning (so, in the middle of last night for those of us in American timezones), breaking up in the atmosphere, leaving an impressive contrail, and causing a sonic boom that caused a wide radius of broken windows and damaged buildings. There have been no reported deaths so far, but many folks have sought medical attention for broken glass related injuries.

A meteorite strike as flashy and dramatic as this one would be news on any day, but this isn’t even 2012 DA14, the asteroid scienctists and astronomers were expecting to buzz very close to the Earth’s atmosphere this afternoon. Naturally, this is leading a lot of folks to wonder if the two might be connected.

Meet Asteroid DA14. Well, I should say, you will be meeting Asteroid DA14 in about a week, when it becomes the closest non-man-made object of its size to be near the Earth in a very long time.

Sigh. And it probably won’t even give Earth a call afterward.

Usually, watching a NASA rocket launch from your home is something reserved for Floridians, but tonight, that’s an honor offered to a huge swath of the Northeastern American coast (if those pesky clouds stay out of the way). So if you find yourself gazing towards the Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia (as you often do of an evening, longingly, and with hope fluttering in your heart), and you see some scattered red contrails, know that we are not being invaded by aliens.

It’s just NASA running space tests on our upper atmosphere! In fact, if you live anywhere within the yellow circle below, you’ve got a chance at seeing it:

When it comes to writing about female astronauts, our coverage here at The Mary Sue tends to be somewhat Sunita Williams-centric. (She’s awesome, OK?) But here’s another lady astronaut you should know: Dr. Ellen Ochoa, who this month becomes the second female and first Hispanic director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

She was also the first Latina in space, if you need more impressing.

Oh, and she’s also a classical flutist. That instrument was the bane of my existence in the fourth grade, so anyone who can play it without passing out gets my respect, even without also being an awesome astronaut.

NASA awarded a $17.8 million contract on January 16th to Las Vegas based Bigelow Aerospace to manufacture and test an inflatable International Space Station (ISS) module. This isn’t the first bouncy party gig for the unfortunately named Bigelow Aerospace as they have already produced experimental inflatable stations Genesis I and Genesis II launched in 2006 and 2007, which we hope have nothing to do with Rob Schneider or possible space-borne gigolo services).

An officially licensed prop created by Valyrian Steel, this warhammer replica is 44″ long, weighs 10 pounds, and comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by George R.R. Martin. The word warhammer is not, as Nerd Approved points out, a euphemism, so take your Dr. Horrible jokes elsewhere. (Actually, no, feel free to leave that joke in the comments.)

No, Dean from The Iron Giant. Not because, ART, because SCIENCE. NASA recently tested out a system of transmitting data by laser beam to their satellite currently orbiting the Moon, an experiment that gathered vital information on the interference of Earth’s atmosphere and its effect on the fidelity of such communications. But they couldn’t just send any old thing to the moon, no. They sent the Mona Lisa. Explanatory video below: