Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 30, 2024
NASA has awarded a $116.9 million contract to Intuitive Machines of Houston to deliver a new set of science experiments and technology demonstrations to the lunar South Pole in 2027 as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. The mission will involve transporting six NASA payloads to a region of the Moon characterized by extremely cold nighttime temperatures, rug

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 30, 2024
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is making significant progress on the NEO Surveyor, a next-generation infrared space telescope designed to detect asteroids and comets that could potentially threaten Earth. This mission marks the agency's first space telescope dedicated to planetary defense. Scheduled for launch in late 2027, NEO Surveyor will be stationed a million miles away at the

Hanover, NH (SPX) Aug 30, 2024
Katherine Lutz, a PhD student at the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies and National Science Foundation Fellow, began her journey in planetary science by examining satellite images of Mars' polar ice caps. These images revealed spiraling patterns across the ice caps, which are composed of alternating layers of ice and dusty deposits and range between 400 to 1,000 meters deep. These

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 30, 2024
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration has achieved the sharpest images ever captured from Earth, detecting light from the centers of distant galaxies at a frequency of around 345 GHz. This milestone represents the highest resolution obtained in ground-based astronomy. These new observations, combined with previous images of supermassive black holes at the lower frequency of 230 G

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Aug 30, 2024
Lunar igneous activities, including both intrusive and extrusive magmatism, offer crucial insights into the Moon's interior and its thermal history. These activities are distributed asymmetrically between the Moon's nearside and farside, reflecting the global lunar dichotomy. Previous lunar samples returned by Apollo, Luna, and Chang'e-5 missions all originated from the nearside, leaving a gap i

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 30, 2024
NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System has successfully completed the deployment of its sail-hoisting boom system, marking a key milestone for the mission. The confirmation of this achievement came at 1:33 p.m. EDT (10:33 a.m. PDT) on Thursday, Aug. 29, after mission operators received telemetry data from the spacecraft. Four onboard cameras captured a sweeping view of the reflective sail a

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 30, 2024
NASA and Boeing teams have completed a comprehensive Delta-Flight Test Readiness Review, giving the green light for the uncrewed CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to undock from the International Space Station. The undocking is scheduled for no earlier than 6:04 p.m. EDT on Friday, Sept. 6, depending on weather and operational readiness. Once Starliner undocks, it will take approximately six ho

ESA's Prospect package, including drill and a miniaturised laboratory, will fly to the Moon’s South Polar region in search of volatiles, including water ice, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

Discover where space begins: the guide to ESA’s establishments

Washington (AFP) Aug 29, 2024
Blue Origin flew its latest group of six thrill-seekers to the edge of space and back again Thursday, including the youngest-ever woman to complete the feat. Mission NS-26 marked the eighth human spaceflight for the company, founded by Jeff Bezos, as it presses ahead in the emerging suborbital tourism market. Karsen Kitchen, a 21-year-old senior at the University of North Carolina at Cha