Tag: Discovery Program
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NASA, ULA launch historic Lucy mission
NASA and ULA (United Launch Alliance) launched NASA’s next asteroid exploration mission — Lucy — from Florida early Saturday morning, kickstarting the spacecraft’s 12-year journey through the solar system. Liftoff of Atlas V and Lucy occurred at 5:34 AM EDT (09:34 UTC) on Saturday, October 16, from SLC-41 (Space Launch Complex 41) at Cape Canaveral…
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NASA gives up on salvaging InSight Mars lander’s ‘mole’
Artist’s concept of the InSight spacecraft on Mars, with the mole of its HP3 instrument illustrated at lower right. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA managers tried for the last time earlier this month to coax the InSight lander’s long-stuck subsurface heat probe into the Martian soil, but after seeing no more progress, ground teams decided to end…
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NASA mission extension enables first flybys of Jupiter’s moons in 20 years
Artist’s concept of the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In a pair of mission extensions, NASA has cleared the way for more seismic observations on Mars with the robotic InSight lander and approved plans for the Juno spacecraft to alter its orbit and perform close flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, Ganymede, and the…
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NASA taps SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch mission to metal asteroid
File photo of a Falcon Heavy launch in April 2019. Credit: SpaceX NASA has selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch a robotic mission in July 2022 to explore Psyche, a metal-rich asteroid located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The Psyche probe is NASA’s first mission assigned to fly on SpaceX’s heavy-lift launcher.…
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NASA to assess proposals for probes to Venus, moons of Jupiter and Neptune
Artist’s concept of the solar system. Credit: NASA NASA announced Thursday it will fund four concept studies for potential robotic missions to Venus, Jupiter’s moon Io and Neptune’s moon Triton ahead of a decision next year to approve up to two of the projects for launch in the mid-to-late 2020s. The space agency chose the…
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SpaceX files protest of NASA’s Lucy launch contract awarded to ULA
File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket inside the company’s hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett SpaceX has filed a protest challenging a nearly $150 million NASA contract awarded to United Launch Alliance last month to send a robotic asteroid probe into space. The protest submitted to the Government…
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ULA wins contract to launch NASA’s Lucy mission to visit unexplored asteroids
File photo of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5-401 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral. Credit: United Launch Alliance NASA has selected United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket to dispatch the Lucy spacecraft on a mission from Cape Canaveral in October 2021 to fly by seven unexplored asteroids, including six objects locked in orbits leading…
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ULA wins contract to launch NASA’s Lucy mission to visit unexplored asteroids
File photo of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5-401 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral. Credit: United Launch Alliance NASA has selected United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket to dispatch the Lucy spacecraft on a mission from Cape Canaveral in October 2021 to fly by seven unexplored asteroids, including six objects locked in orbits leading…
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Live coverage: InSight probe lands on Mars
Live coverage of the InSight spacecraft’s landing on Mars after a journey from Earth lasting more than six months, kicking off a science mission to probe the red planet’s hidden interior. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. [tabby title=”Mission Commentary on NASA TV”] [tabby title=”Live Mission Audio Only”] [tabbyending]
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NASA’s InSight mission lands on Mars to study planet’s hidden interior
InSight project manager Tom Hoffman motions to an image captured by the spacecraft minutes after landing on Mars. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA’s InSight spacecraft plunged into the rarefied atmosphere of Mars at a speed of more than 12,000 mph Monday and braked to a gentle touchdown, setting the stage for a two-year surface mission to…