Tag: NASA
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Solar Orbiter discovers plasma jets that could fuel the production of solar wind
Recently, the joint European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft discovered an array of tiny jets of material being ejected from the Sun’s outer atmosphere. Ejecting plasma at 100 kilometers per second, the jets last for just 20 to 100 seconds, and could be the source of solar wind. Solar wind is made up of…
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SpaceX Crew-6 returns to Earth after six-month ISS Stay
After more than six months in space, four people splashed down in the waters near Florida. The SpaceX Crew-6 mission, which launched on March 2 and docked with the International Space Station (ISS) the following day, undocked on Sept. 3 at 7:05 EDT (11:05 UTC). Recovery vessels retrieved the crew and their capsule, Crew Dragon…
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Lockheed Martin, NASA lining up next Orion spacecraft for Artemis III and IV
Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin has the spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis III and IV lunar landing missions in production alongside the Artemis II vehicle that is going into final assembly at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Simultaneous assembly and test of three Orions is becoming the norm, as the Orion program works towards…
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OSIRIS-REx teams conduct final rehearsals before sample capsule return in September
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, launched in September 2016, is now less than a month away from bringing back samples from asteroid Bennu. NASA conducted a press conference on Aug. 30 to preview the Sept. 24 landing at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. To prepare for the landing, NASA conducted an end-to-end capsule retrieval exercise on…
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NASA officials sound alarm over future of the Deep Space Network
NASA officials sounded an alarm Tuesday about the agency’s Deep Space Network, a collection of antennas in California, Spain, and Australia used to maintain contact with missions scattered across the Solar System. Everything from NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon to the Voyager probes in interstellar space rely on the Deep Space Network (DSN) to…
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Space junk is on the rise, and no one is in charge of cleaning it up
There’s a lot of trash on the Moon right now—including nearly 100 bags of human waste—and with countries around the globe traveling to the Moon, there’s going to be a lot more, both on the lunar surface and in Earth’s orbit. In August 2023, Russia’s Luna-25 probe crashed into the Moon’s surface, while India’s Chandrayaan-3…
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Four people from four different nations ride SpaceX rocket into orbit
SpaceX launched a Dragon spacecraft into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast early Saturday, carrying a multinational crew from the United States, Denmark, Japan, and Russia on a flight to the International Space Station. The four crew members strapped into their seats inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft overnight and then waited for a Falcon 9…
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Final ICPS arrives in Florida for Artemis III SLS launch
United Launch Alliance (ULA) delivered the last-ever Space Launch System (SLS) Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) from its Decatur, Alabama, factory to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in early August for eventual use on the Artemis III lunar landing mission. ICPS-3 was also the last Delta hardware to depart Decatur and will support NASA’s…
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Valves are a regular concern at SpaceX, just like every other space company
SpaceX is launching a mission about once every four days, and most of those flights are going to space to deploy Internet satellites for the company’s own Starlink broadband network. But this week is different. Aside from two more missions carrying Starlink satellites, SpaceX is preparing to send a four-person crew to the International Space…
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Crew-7 mission to the Space Station given green light for launch by NASA, partners
A SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon Endurance capsule stand ready on pad 39A for the Crew 7 mission. Image: NASA. NASA, SpaceX and its international partners met at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday and gave the go ahead for the launch of the seventh operational Crew Dragon mission to the space station. The three…