Items tagged with spacecraft
NASA has solved a mystery with its Voyager 1 probe that had engineers baffled for a time. Now, for the first time in five months, NASA can check the health and status of the most distant human-made object in existence.
The issue arose last November, when three of Voyager 1’s onboard computers, called the flight...
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NASA scientists have taken data gathered by the Juno spacecraft of Jupiter’s moon Io and created interesting animations, highlighting two of the Jovian moon’s most striking features. The incredible animations create three-dimensional renderings of one of Io’s mountains, and a lake of cooling lava.
Juno’s principal...
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Engineers who worked on NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter gathered one last time in a control room, marking the final time they would work together on Ingenuity operations. While the mission ended on January 25, 2024, the Mars helicopter will continue to serve as a testbed for collecting data that may benefit future...
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As NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover arrives at Gediz Vallis channel, scientists are intrigued with the possibility of finding clues about the history of water on the Red Planet. Gediz Vallis channel may have been home to an ancient and winding river, with potential evidence that would confirm how the channel was...
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The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that its Smart Lunar Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) had successfully reawakened following a chilling second lunar night, which equates to two weeks back here on Earth. SLIM was even capable of transmitting images of the surrounding lunar landscape...
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Who has dining on a Michelin-starr rated meal 20 miles above the Earth’s surface in a space balloon on their bucket list? Well, for those that do, luxury space travel company SpaceVIP is offering tickets to do just that, aboard Space Perspective’s space balloon, with dinner prepared by Michelin-starred chef, Rasmus...
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SpaceX’s third flight test of Starship is deemed a huge success by the company, even though the spacecraft was lost during reentry. The intent was never to recover Starship, but the hopes were it would survive reentry and then be destroyed as it slammed into the Indian Ocean.
Starship launched from SpaceX’s...
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NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which aims to confirm there is a vast ocean beneath the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, will carry on a legacy of the space agency’s spacecraft carrying inspirational messages from Earth, to celestial bodies throughout the Milky Way. The Europa spacecraft will join the likes of...
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NASA confirmed a near miss between its own TIMED satellite and Russia’s defunct Cosmos 2221 satellite. If the two had collided, it could have generated considerable debris at about 373 miles (600km) above Earth’s surface.
The Department of Defense was closely monitoring the situation between the two satellites...
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A new study has found that NASA’s DART mission that slammed a spacecraft into an asteroid may not have had the impact once thought. The impact simulation study suggested that DART did not leave an impact crater; rather, it reshaped the entire body of the asteroid.
In September 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft crashed...
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Intuitive Machines, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, is readying to attempt the first successful lunar landing of a spacecraft by the US since Apollo 17 in 1972. An attempt by Astrobotics to land on the moon last month was thwarted following an anomaly shortly after launch, which...
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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed engineers are still working to resolve a data issue on Voyager 1. Back in December, NASA reported it was working to resolve an issue that is preventing the spacecraft’s flight data system (FDS) from properly communicating with one of the probe’s subsystems, called the...
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NASA’s iconic space shuttle Endeavour has been hoisted into launch configuration to be displayed at the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. A mammoth 450-foot crane and metal sling were used to maneuver the spacecraft into its launch position as part of a process that took six-months to complete.
The last...
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NASA’s historic Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has flown its final mission on the Red Planet after a communications dropout led to at least one damaged rotor blade. The iconic helicopter was originally designed as a technology demonstration to provide up to five experimental test flights over a 30-day period. It lasted for...
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Astrobotic’s failed attempt to land its Peregrine lander carrying scientific payloads on the lunar surface is about to come to a dramatic close as the spacecraft storms toward Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft, built as part of a contract with NASA, is expected to burn up completely as it makes its fiery descent back...
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A NASA curation team was finally able to remove two stubborn fasteners that have been keeping the space agency from being able to retrieve the remainder of a sample collected from asteroid Bennu. The curation team had to pause the disassembly of the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head from...
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As NASA continues to prepare to put humans back on the surface of the Moon—for the first time since 1972—the space agency says its needs a bit more time before moving forward with launching its Artemis II and Artemis III missions. The Artemis campaigns will be the first to land a woman and a person of color on the...
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The first lunar landing mission to launch from the United States since 1972 has successfully lifted off carrying an assortment of payloads, including cremated human remains and dog hair. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One contains 265 capsules with human remains, including the creator and several members of the...
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NASA’s Juno spacecraft made the closest flyby of Jupiter’s moon lo of any spacecraft in over 20 years, while taking incredible new images of the volcanic moon. The orbiter came within nearly 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the surface of what NASA refers to as the “most volcanic world in our solar system.”
During...
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The US Space Force, in partnership with SpaceX, just launched the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A two nights ago. The top-secret flight is the seventh flight for the X-37B program and its first launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy...
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Sierra Space has delivered its Dream Chaser spaceplane, Tenacity, to NASA for some hardcore training. The uncrewed spaceplane is scheduled to launch a demonstration mission in 2024 to the orbital complex of NASA’s commercial resupply services.
The Dream Chaser, built by Sierra Space in Louisville, Colorado...
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The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM for short) recently sent back incredible imagery of the moon’s surface. The SLIM spacecraft successfully reached lunar orbit on Christmas Day, ahead of its historic attempt to land on the moon.
In a tweet sent by JAXA...
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