Europa could harbor complex life, and we’ll have to take care to avoid any cross-contamination. (credit: Ted Stryk/NASA) The Beresheet crash landed on Earth’s Moon in 2019. Part of the ill-fated Israeli lunar lander’s payload was a bunch of tardigrades, or “water bears.” These organisms are under a millimeter long and can survive extreme cold […]
The space station is being threatened by an unexpected cloud of debris. (credit: NASA) The seven astronauts and cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station sheltered inside their respective spacecraft, a Crew Dragon and Soyuz, on Monday morning as the orbiting laboratory passed through an unexpected debris field. This was not a pre-planned collision avoidance maneuver […]
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 B1067.2 and Crew Dragon spacecraft at LC-39A in advance of the Crew-3 mission: slated for liftoff no earlier than 9:03 pm EST on November 10th, 2021. [credit: Trevor Mahlmann ] NASA and SpaceX had originally hoped to fly the next bunch of astronauts to the International Space Station in late October, but […]
Enlarge / The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis I mission is lifted above the Space Launch System rocket in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center. (credit: NASA) Senior NASA officials on Tuesday provided an updated timeline for returning humans to the Moon under the agency’s Artemis Program, and they discussed costs and other […]
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter acquired this image using its navigation camera during its thin-atmosphere flight this week. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Nearly seven months have passed since NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter made its first groundbreaking flight on Mars. Since that initial tentative hovering above the surface of Mars, Ingenuity has flown a progression of longer, more significant, and scientifically […]
Enlarge / The launch of the Crew-3 mission spacecraft, shown here, has been on hold since before Halloween. (credit: NASA) NASA and SpaceX plan to return one Crew Dragon spacecraft from orbit on Monday evening and launch another only about two days later, upon Wednesday night. The particular agency’s crew flight plans have been in […]
Enlarge / The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is scheduled for launch later this decade and will observe planets and galaxies. (credit: GSFC/SVS) On Thursday, the National Academies of Science released the latest Decadal Survey that the astronomy industry uses to help guide funding decisions over the years between the current survey’s release and […]
Enlarge / Jeff Bezos had hoped to build a lunar lander for NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA). (credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images) For Blue Origin, the honeymoon is over. This summer, the company filed a lawsuit against NASA (NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION) , claiming that the agency ignored its own requirements when it awarded […]
Enlarge / Hubble Space Telescope above Earth, photographed during STS-125, Servicing Mission 4, May 2009. (credit: NASA) On Monday, NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope’s science instruments were in an extended shutdown after problems appeared in late October. The issues arose as failed internal communications caused the science instruments to switch into safe mode […]
Enlarge / This view of Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere from NASA’s Juno spacecraft includes several of the planet’s southern jet streams. (credit: NASA) Nasa’s Juno mission , the solar-powered robotic explorer of Jupiter, has completed its five-year prime mission to reveal the inner workings of the Solar System’s biggest planet. Since 2016, the spacecraft has flown […]