Items tagged with spacecraft
NASA’s Curiosity rover is wrapping up its time in the Mars Gediz Vallis channel, and is making its way to an area of the Martian surface referred as the Boxwork. The Boxwork feature was first viewed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in 2006, and looks like spiderwebs stretching across the Martian...
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The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Solar Orbiter grabbed the highest-resolution full views of the Sun’s visible surface to date. The images were assembled using observations from the spacecraft’s PHI and EUI instruments on March 22, 2023.
The observations used to stitch together the new high-resolution images were...
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Chinese researchers have had their first look at rock samples brought back from the far side of the Moon by its Chang’e-6 mission. The mission was China’s second excursion to the Moon’s far side, after the Chang’e-4 mission in 2019.
The Chang’e-6 spacecraft landed on the Moon’s far side in June of this year, touching...
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SpaceX’s Starship megarocket is prepped and ready for a possible sixth test flight this week. During the fifth test flight, the space company was able to achieve the first-ever booster rocket catch via chopstick arms of the mammoth Mechzilla tower.
The spectacular first catch of SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster rocket...
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It's been a while since Uranus was probed up close, but old data is proving to be quite valuable in solving a few decades old oddities. The last spacecraft that flew by Uranus was NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1986.
NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 are the only spacecraft ever to operate outside the heliosphere, or the protective...
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Earth’s Sun has been heating up as of late, reaching its 11-year solar cycle maximum in October. Because of this, the bright orb in the sky has been emitting some of the strongest solar flares recorded in the last 50 years.
Now, according to NASA, it has spewed out an intense solar flare that took out radio...
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NASA reconnected with its Voyager 1 spacecraft more than 15 billion miles from Earth by flipping the switch on a backup radio not used on the spacecraft since 1981. The space agency reported Voyager 1 recently turned off one of its two radio transmitters, and the team is currently working to figure out what caused...
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NASA is set to livestream the launch of its Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in a search for signs for possible alien life. Europa Clipper will enter orbit around Jupiter around April 2030, and is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever deployed for a planetary mission.
Joining...
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The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera spacecraft is headed toward the same asteroid NASA’s DART mission successfully impacted in 2022. The car-sized probe is part of a mission to better understand the ‘kinetic impact’ technique of asteroid deflection.
Hollywood has brought forth a few ideas of how humanity might...
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The historic Polaris Dawn mission was filled with many memorable moments for its crew, including the first-ever commercial spacewalk. So, it is no surprise that crew members were able to capture some epic moments during their time in space, and tey've just shared them with the rest of the world.
A SpaceX Falcon 9...
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NASA has a SSPICY take on how to enable commercial inspection of defunct, or inoperable, satellites in low Earth orbit. The Small Spacecraft Propulsion and Inspection Capability (SSPICY) mission will be a precursor to capturing and repairing, or removing, the satellites.
With more satellites going up into low Earth...
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NASA’s Perseverance rover spotted a striped rock unlike any seen on the Red Planet before. The unusual textures were spotted from a distance by team members as the rover made its way toward the Jezero Crater rim.
The new find is not the first striped rock spotted by Perseverance on its trek across Mars. It also...
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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft made a successful return to Earth over the weekend, but not without some additional issues being found. While NASA reported astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams would have been safe on the spacecraft, it also reported a thruster had failed during Starliner’s decent.
Issues with...
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An international team of scientists reported the first successful detection of Earth’s ambipolar electric field, first hypothesized more than 60 years ago. According to NASA, the ambipolar electric field is a weak, planet-wide electric field as fundamental as Earth’s gravity and magnetic fields.
Spacecraft flying...
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“Houston. I have a question about Starliner,” is what Butch Wilmore radioed ground control this past Saturday after hearing a “strange noise coming through the speaker.” The report from Wilmore comes just days ahead of the spacecraft’s scheduled departure from the International Space Station (ISS) without any crew...
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New findings by India’s Chandrayaan lunar probe seem to validate an idea called the Lunar Magma Ocean theory concerning how the Moon formed. Scientists have hypothesized that when the Moon formed some 4.5 billion years ago, it started to cool and a lighter mineral called anorthosite rose to the top, forming the Moon’s...
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NASA has postponed Boeing Starliner Crew-9’s return to Earth to give teams time to evaluate the spaceship’s reliability. The delay also allows time for the next SpaceX rotation with the upcoming Soyuz handover, which is scheduled for no earlier than mid-September.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived...
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NASA’s Juno spacecraft has captured a stunning image of Jupiter’s chaotic clouds and cyclonic storms. The image of the gas giant’s northern hemisphere was taken during the spacecraft’s 61st close flyby.
Juno first arrived at Jupiter, known for its violent storms, in 2016, following a 1.7 billion-mile journey from...
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NASA has made the difficult decision to cancel its VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) project amidst numerous launch delays and rising costs. The space agency added the increased costs would have also threatened to bring about the end of other Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS).
VIPER...
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The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing for the mainden launch of its Ariane 6 rocket on July 9, 2024, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Europe’s new 203-foot-tall (62-meter) rocket will be capable of a wide range of missions, and able to carry launch payloads of up to 11.5 tons into geostationary...
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NASA has awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX company with a sizable $843 million contract to develop the deorbit spacecraft that will guide the International Space Station (ISS) in a controlled manner to its demise at the end of its operational life. The deorbit spacecraft is expected to burn up upon reentry into Earth’s...
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NASA Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will not be returning to Earth this week, as NASA reported the team needs more time to review propulsion system data. As of now, the earliest return for the two astronauts is next Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
After years of delays, the Boeing Starliner successfully launched...
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