Enlarge / An illustration of the Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Thursday’s the big day. NASA’s multibillion-dollar Mars rover will arrive at the red planet and almost immediately begin the process of trying to set down safely on the surface. This is easier said then done. On approach to Mars, the […]
Enlarge / Retiring Sen. Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala. (credit: Scott J. Ferrell | Getty Images) Nearly two years ago then-NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine made a remarkable appearance before a Senate committee to discuss US leadership in space. He was feeling the pressure to keep deadlines—something NASA struggles to do given the scope and complexity of […]
Enlarge / And the day that was comes to a close at NASA’s Stennis Space Center after the SLS rocket fired up for the Green Run test on January 16, 2021. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann) Nearly two years ago, then Vice President Mike Pence delivered the most consequential space policy speech of his tenure in office. […]
At 4:27pm central time, the SLS rocket core stage ignited its four RS-25 engines at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. The test was to last up to eight minutes. [credit: Trevor Mahlmann for Ars ] STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss.—For a few moments, it seemed like the Space Launch System saga might have a happy ending. Beneath […]
Enlarge / A selfie taken by the InSight Lander. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Today, NASA announced that it was giving up on its attempts to place a temperature sensor several meters under the Martian surface. Part of the agency’s InSight lander, the hardware was supposed to be placed deep enough to avoid the influence of Mars’ weather, […]
Enlarge / Intense wildfires were one of the climate impacts linked to the recent string of very hot years. (credit: Bloomberg/Getty Images) Today, NASA and NOAA are announcing that 2020 was one for the record books, tying with 2016 for the warmest year since we’ve been tracking temperatures. NASA rates 2020 as the warmest ever, […]
Enlarge / NASA’s Juno spacecraft soared directly over Jupiter’s south pole when JunoCam acquired this image on February 2, 2017. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/John Landino) NASA has announced that it will extend the missions for two of its interplanetary explorers launching during the last decade—the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter and the InSight lander on the surface of […]
Our mission to make business better is fueled by readers like you. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today. Tonight’s the night: Saturn and Jupiter will appear closer in the night sky than they have in centuries, in an astronomical event called a “conjunction.” The gas giants, the solar system’s two largest planets, will […]
Our mission to make business better is fueled by readers like you. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today. Tonight’s the night: Saturn and Jupiter will appear closer in the night sky than they have in centuries, in an astronomical event called a “conjunction.” The gas giants, the solar system’s two largest planets, will […]
(charge: NASA) Fifty-four decades back, NASA established the Surveyor two , an uncrewed assignment to learn more about the surface of the Moon. Regrettably, the spacecraft went into a fall en route following a collapsed course-correction burnoff, and it slammed to the lunar surface in 2.7 km per minute. However, the rocket booster utilized throughout […]