NASA Launches ‘Nebula’ Compute Cloud

NASA is ramping up a cloud computing initiative that could be used in support of its space missions and to give Earth-bound observers greater participation in the space program.

An early version of NASA’s computing cloud, called Nebula, is already up and running.

Until now, NASA hasn’t said much about its plans for cloud computing. Chris Kemp, CIO of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., mentioned Nebula for the first time this week at the Federal IT on a Budget Forum in Washington, D.C. In an interview, Kemp said the Nebula cloud is operating and that it’s being used to host a Web site that goes by the same name, Nebula.nasa.gov.