A one-second glitch led to a 3.7-Kilometer free fall for the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli lander that crashed on Mars back on October 19 when attempting an experimental parachute-and-rocket-assisted landing on the red planet to pave the way for the ExoMars 2020 mission that aims to dispatch a rover to the Martian surface.
Read more
A navigation software miscommunication appears to have played a central role in last week’s Schiaparelli crash landing on the surface of Mars, initial analysis of data recorded during the lander’s descent reveals.
Read more
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been recovered from an unplanned Safe Mode and is entering preparations for a December 11 flyby of Jupiter while teams continue studying a pair of technical issues on the spacecraft while it continues orbiting the Gas Giant in a highly elongated orbit.
Read more
A 500-million Kilometer journey came to a dramatic end this week when the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli lander crashed into the surface of Mars at over 300 Kilometers per hour after suffering an as yet unknown failure in the final stages of its descent.
Read more
NASA’s Juno spacecraft – currently in a highly elongated orbit around Gas Giant Jupiter – unexpectedly entered safe mode on Wednesday preventing its scientific instruments from capturing data when the spacecraft made its second close orbital brush past the planet
Read more
ESA’s ExoMars 2016 mission reached a dramatic culmination on Wednesday when the Trace Gas Orbiter successfully inserted itself into orbit around Mars while the Schiaparelli lander attempted a daring landing maneuver to become Europe’s first craft to achieve the feat of landing on Mars.
Read more
ESA’s Schiaparelli Mars Lander and Trace Gas Orbiter parted ways on Sunday after traveling nearly 500 million Kilometers together on their mission to Mars.
Read more
Instead of spiraling down into a two-week science orbit around Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft will have to remain in a highly elliptical orbit for at least one more lap around the gaseous world due to a suspect signature seen in the preparatory steps for the critical main engine burn originally planned for next week.
Read more
The ExoMars 2016 spacecraft is on the final approach to its arrival at Mars after conducting a final adjustment to its flight path to set the stage for Sunday’s planned separation of the Schiaparelli lander from the Trace Gas Orbiter ahead of the big day on Wednesday.
Read more
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Spacecraft, already sixteen million Kilometers from Earth, so far has passed all core systems checks as it settles in for a long mission to link up with and return a sample from Asteroid Bennu.
Read more
ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft found its final resting place on the surface of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Friday, capping an eight-billion-Kilometer, twelve-and-a-half-year journey to study the origins of the Solar System and life on Earth.
Read more
More than 700 million Kilometers from Earth, in the dark regions of our Solar System, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft placed itself on a collision course with comet 67P to put the exclamation mark behind a remarkable mission of discovery, beginning to unlock the secrets from a distant past.
Read more
Ferrying crews to and from Mars in the next decade to lay the foundation for a self-sustaining civilization off Planet Earth – this ambitious goal was outlined by SpaceX CEO and visionary Elon Musk on Tuesday
Read more
Presentation slides from Elon Musk’s talk at the International Astronautical Congress on September 27, 2016 detailing SpaceX’s plans for establishing a cargo and crew architecture for future exploration and settlement on Mars.
Read more
NASA presented promising evidence on Monday that future exploration missions to Jupiter Moon Europa will not have to drill through a Kilometers-thick ice sheet to reach what is considered the Holy Grail of planetary science – liquid water on a foreign world.
Read more
SpaceX completed the first test firing of its Raptor “Interplanetary Transport Engine” that will power the company’s Interplanetary Transport System.
Read more
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Explorer took the first leap in a long journey through the solar system on Thursday, lifting off from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas V rocket on a long-awaited mission to touch an asteroid to answer the long standing question on the origins life.
Read more