Items tagged with spacecraft
The largest volcanic eruption detected yet on Io, Jupiter's innermost moon, was observed in late 2022. The eruption was detected by Jeff Morgenthaler of the Planetary Science Institute utilizing the PSI's Io Input/Output observatory (IoIO).
Jupiter's moon Io is no stranger to volcanic eruptions. The first volcanic...
Read more...
A team of researchers led by the University of Arizona believe Saturn's moon Enceladus is a prime candidate for potentially harboring alien life. The team thinks that a future mission to Enceladus could provide answers without even landing on the icy surface.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft concluded its historic 13-year...
Read more...
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover caught the first-ever audio of a Martian dust devil while its weather sensors and left navigation were in operation. The dust devil passed directly over the rover on September 27, 2021.
Capturing a Martian dust devil is no easy feat. In order to do so, rovers like Perseverance and...
Read more...
NASA's Orion spacecraft is on the last leg of its inaugural flight, as it prepares to make re-entry into Earth's atmosphere later today. The spacecraft is set to splashdown off the Baja Coast near Guadalupe Island at approximately 11:39 a.m. CST (12:39 p.m. EST) on Sunday, December 11, 2022.
The Artemis I mission...
Read more...
NASA's Perseverance rover recently began exploring an area on Mars with the potential of finding organics and biosignatures. The rover is currently in Yori Pass, an area said to be rich in sandstone.
There has been no shortage of exciting events this year in terms of exploring all that lies beyond our home planet...
Read more...
NASA convened a team of experts to devise a plan to protect its extremely valuable Webb telescope from powerful micrometeoroid impacts. The team was assembled following an impact in May, which exceeded any prelaunch models.
NASA reported in June of this year that the Webb telescope had been struck by multiple...
Read more...
NASA's Artemis I is scheduled to launch in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and you can watch live in 8K and VR for the first time ever. After several delays, Artemis I currently has a two-hour window for launch that opens at 1:04 a.m. EST on November 16, 2022.
The countdown for the launch of Artemis I from...
Read more...
A series of sonic booms were heard across Central Florida on Saturday, as an autonomous spaceplane returned to Earth. The Boeing X-37B had spent over 900 days in space on a U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force mission.
Residents in Central Florida took to social media in the early morning hours of November 12, 2022, with reports of sonic
Read more...
NASA's Mars InSight lander captured the sound from a large meteoroid impact back in December of 2021. The spacecraft recorded the first audio of a meteoroid impacting another planet back in September, 2021.
On December 24, 2021, the Mars InSight lander felt the ground beneath it shake. InSight's team later...
Read more...
NASA tweeted a photo of the Sun smiling, which left some reminiscing of the iconic Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from the movie Ghostbusters. However, in this image the giant marshmallow looks to be getting ready to be placed on a giant s'mores cookie.
The Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) was the first mission to be...
Read more...
In order to test for possible micrometeorites impacting a spacecraft, NASA is utilizing a 2-stage light gas gun to simulate potential hazards for future space missions. The test fires a bullet with a speed that is equal to 25 times the velocity of a 44 magnum, or like flying from New York to San Francisco in five...
Read more...
A dust storm 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) in size, has been wreaking a bit of havoc on NASA's InSight Mars lander. The storm was first spotted on September 21, 2022, by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). While the enormous storm did not have an immediate impact on the Mars lander, on October 3 the team noticed...
Read more...
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully met its fate, as it crashed into asteroid Dimorphos. The spacecraft was also able to capture some amazing images just before impact as well.
In the closing hours of September 26, 2022, the world's first planetary defense technology demonstration met its...
Read more...
Blue Origin experienced a booster failure during a launch of its New Shepard capsule yesterday and became engulfed in flames. The rocket failure occurred about one minute post launch and prompted the space company to perform an emergency abort midflight.
Jeff Bezos' company launched mission NS-23 at approximately...
Read more...
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has captured its first images of its deep space target. The journeyed spacecraft is on a mission to crash into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos, in order to collect data on a spacecraft being used to deflect an asteroid for planetary defense.
While...
Read more...
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has made it to its 10th anniversary of being on the Red Planet. Despite showing its age with some wear and tear, the spacecraft is about to enter into a new phase of its mission as it prepares to climb a mountain.
It may seem hard to believe that Curiosity has been on Mars for ten years...
Read more...
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft came upon an unsettling circumstance when it attempted to retrieve a sample from asteroid Bennu back in 2020. After analyzing data gathered by its instruments, the team was astonished to ascertain that the spacecraft would have sunk into Bennu had it not fired its thrusters to back away...
Read more...
NASA lost communication with its CAPSTONE CubeSat after successfully launching on June 28, 2022. The microwave oven-sized CubeSat weighing a mere 55 pounds is a pathfinder for Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of the Artemis program.
Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and...
Read more...
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft captured an image of a creepy crater that resembles an eyeball staring out from the Red Planet's surface. The "veins" that run through the 30 km-wide crater are likely channels that carried liquid water on Mars some 3.5-4 billion years ago.
The Mars Express...
Read more...
NASA's Voyager 1 has engineers baffled as they attempt to solve an issue with the spacecraft. While it continues to send data and operate normally, there is a problem with its attitude articulation and control system (AACS).
Voyager 1 launched in 1977 and has since been traversing through space. Currently the...
Read more...
If you have been dreaming of traveling to another star system, researchers say you may need to use a sail. Penn Engineering and UCLA researchers show that light sails could provide interstellar voyages in the future.
When someone thinks about traveling to another galaxy, images of Star Trek's USS Enterprise jumping...
Read more...
As Russia’s space agency struggles to remain relevant, its newest heavy lift rocket will make an uncontrolled reentry into Earth’s atmosphere sometime before 6:30 p.m. EST today. The upper stage of the newest Angara A5 rocket, dubbed IPN/Persei, has been stranded in a low parking orbit since it failed to reignite on...
Read more...
