Tag: Planetary Science
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Asteroid-bound probe returns Earth-moon family portrait
The MapCam camera on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft took this picture of the Earth and the moon Oct. 2 at a distance of around 3.2 million miles (5.1 million kilometers) from Earth. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona Ten days after a swingby to receive a gravitational boost toward its asteroid target, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft turned one of…
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Scientists celebrate 10th anniversary of Dawn mission’s launch
Artist’s concept of the Dawn spacecraft with imagery of Ceres (left) and Vesta (right) captured during the mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In the ten years since its launch from Cape Canaveral, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has orbited the two largest worlds in the asteroid belt and overcome defective components that threatened to derail the mission on its…
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OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission receives gravitational boost from planet Earth
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) after flyby. Artist’s concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft flying by Earth. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Arizona NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, en route to asteroid Bennu to retrieve samples and return them to scientists, slingshot past Earth on Friday, using gravity to change its trajectory for a…
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Scientists firm up flyby plan for New Horizons’s next destination
Artist’s illustration of the New Horizons spacecraft communicating with Earth. Credit: NASA Now more than two years outbound from its historic encounter with Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is on target for a fleeting flyby less than 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) from 2014 MU69, an icy, city-sized world set to become the most distant object…
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Cassini crashes into Saturn, ending 20-year mission
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Dutifully beaming back data to the very end, NASA’s long-lived Cassini probe slammed into Saturn’s atmosphere at some 77,000 mph Friday, blazing like a shooting star as it was ripped apart and incinerated in the final chapter of an enormously successful mission. Cassini program manager at JPL, Earl…
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Cassini races toward fiery mission-ending plunge into Saturn
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION NASA TV coverage of the end of Cassini’s mission begins at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT) Friday, Sept. 15. Thirteen years after reaching Saturn, NASA’s nuclear-powered Cassini spacecraft raced through its 294th and final orbit Thursday, collecting priceless data while hurtling toward a kamikaze-like plunge into the ringed planet’s…
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NASA releases inside-out view of Saturn’s rings
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Continuing to make discoveries in the final weeks of a historic mission at Saturn, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has recorded a unique time lapse movie looking out toward the planet’s iconic icy rings. Cassini captured imagery to assemble the movie during an Aug. 20 swing through the gap between Saturn and its…
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NASA studies mission to return samples from Mars by end of 2020s
Artist’s concept of a Mars sample return concept, including the Mars Ascent Vehicle. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA is examining options to launch a robotic mission as soon as 2026 to pick up rock specimens from the surface of Mars and bring them back to Earth, moving forward the timeline for a sample return mission as the…
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SpaceX informed NASA of slowdown in its commercial Mars program
Artist’s concept of a Red Dragon spacecraft on the surface of Mars. Credit: SpaceX Confirming rumors and suspicions that SpaceX is adjusting its plans to begin dispatching robotic landers to Mars, NASA officials said the commercial space company has informed the agency that it has put its Red Dragon program on the back burner. Under…
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NASA counts down final month of Cassini’s tour of Saturn
Artist’s concept of the Cassini spacecraft during one the mission’s five dives into the uppermost layers of Saturn’s atmosphere before the mission ends Sept. 15. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Cassini orbiter sailed through the tenuous outermost reaches of Saturn’s atmosphere without trouble Monday, performing the first of five close swings nearer to the planet than any…