NASA’s faraway Juno spacecraft had its eighth close encounter with Jupiter on Tuesday and has since sent back spectacular imagery and a treasure trove of data of Jupiter’s most captivating feature
Read more
The European Space Agency concluded its inquiry into the crash landing of the experimental Schiaparelli Mars Lander last October, citing a lack of understanding and modeling of parachute dynamics experienced at high speed, insufficient failure identification and recovery options in the craft’s software and mismanagement of subcontractors & hardware acceptance as contributing factors for the botched landing sequence.
Read more
NASA’s Juno spacecraft completed the mission’s fifth science pass on Friday, coming within 4,000 Kilometers to Jupiter’s tantalizing cloud tops to gather another set of science data probing the gas giant’s atmosphere, internal structure and magnetic field.
Read more
As Europe’s LISA Pathfinder mission approaches the end of its highly successful technology demonstration mission, scientists found a creative way of repurposing the ultra-stable spacecraft platform as a cosmic dust detector
Read more
NASA’s Juno Spacecraft on Monday completed its fifth close orbital flyby of Jupiter, the fourth fully successful science pass of the mission collecting data on Jupiter’s enigmatic atmosphere and probing the gas giant’s interior.
Read more
Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft in orbit around Venus has suspended operating two of its five scientific cameras after the craft’s electronics units showed considerable degradation in December, just one year after the mission’s arrival at Venus following an extended odyssey through the solar system.
Read more
NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft – orbiting Mars in a highly elliptical orbit to explore how the planet lost most of its atmosphere – had to fire its thrusters this weeks to steer clear of a collision with Mars moon Phobos on March 6.
Read more
SpaceX picked the Moon as an intermediate destination in the company’s ambitious drive towards crewed exploration of Mars and other targets in the solar system.
Read more
Astronomers discovered a treasure trove of seven Earth-sized planets in orbit around a single star some 39 Light Years from Earth, NASA announced on Wednesday.
Read more
NASA’s faraway Juno spacecraft will remain in a highly elongated orbit around Jupiter for the remainder of its mission as engineers opted against performing a burn of the craft’s rocket engine that is considered too risky after a series of valves within the propulsion system had shown a suspect signature.
Read more
ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter completed a series of engine burns to shift its orbit around Mars toward a higher inclination in preparation for a lengthy altitude reduction campaign that will take the rest of the year and spiral the spacecraft down into its science orbit from where the orbiter can obtain a detailed inventory of the Martian atmosphere.
Read more
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, having already surpassed its planned operational life & exceeded all expectations, completed a critical orbital adjustment this week to avoid lengthy solar eclipses in February that could have threatened the survival of the spacecraft.
Read more
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Spacecraft aced its first Deep Space Maneuver on December 28, 2016 and is now lined up for a planned September 2017 flyby of Earth
Read more
NASA released a spectacular image on Monday showing the Earth and Moon from a unique perspective – the orbit of Mars. The photo – assembled from two separate exposures of Earth and Moon
Read more
NASA announced on Wednesday the selection of the Lucy and Psyche missions as the agency’s the agency next Discovery missions placing full focus on the study of asteroids as windows into the earliest eras of our Solar System. The two missions are aiming for launch in 2021 and 2023 with Lucy homing in on Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids while Psyche will visit a giant metallic asteroid.
Read more
NASA’s Juno spacecraft brushed past Jupiter on Sunday, marking the mission’s first operational science pass with seven of the craft’s instruments active as the probe zipped past the Gas Giant at a speed over 200,000 Kilometers per hour.
Read more
The European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter successfully completed a pair of science checkout orbits around Mars and delivered a first glimpse of the scientific results to be expected from the orbiter’s instrument suite once reaching a low orbit around the planet in late 2017.
Read more