Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 15, 2022
Due to an issue with the Sol 3410 and 3411 plans, parts of the Sol 3410 plan didn't execute and the planned drive did not occur. But the Sol 3409 contact science activities completed successfully, returning nice MAHLI images of bedrock. Because the rover did not move, the high-gain antenna view of Earth is still occluded, preventing direct communication from Earth and daily uplink. So we w

Laurel MD (SPX) Mar 15, 2022
When the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft discovered abundant molecular oxygen bursting from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) in 2015, it puzzled scientists. They had never seen a comet emit oxygen, let alone in such abundance. But most alarming were the deeper implications: that researchers had to account for so much oxygen, which meant reconsidering everything they thought they

Washington (AFP) March 14, 2022
American comedian and actor Pete Davidson, who has made headlines recently for his new relationship with Kim Kardashian, is going to space as part of a six-member team on Blue Origin's next flight next week, the company said Monday. The Saturday Night Live star will be the only non-paying guest on the voyage aboard the New Shepard rocket, which is set to blast off from the company's Launch S

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 14, 2021
After years of delay, NASA plans to roll its massive new SLS moon rocket out of the historic Vehicle Assembly Building and onto it's launch pad for the first time Thursday. The rollout will be the first time a NASA rocket so large - 322 feet tall - has moved to a launch pad since Apollo 17's Saturn V rocket did so before launching astronauts to the moon in 1972. Space shuttles

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 14, 2021
California-based Astra Space scrubbed the launch of a rocket from Alaska on Monday due to a potential for lightning in the area, company officials said. The attempt was its first return to a launchpad since the company's stock plunged after it suffered a rocket failure during launch of a NASA mission from Florida on Feb. 10. "Astra scrubbing for the day, due to triggered lightnin

Washington (AFP) March 14, 2022
NASA on Monday insisted tensions linked to the war in Ukraine had no impact on International Space Station operations or the planned return of an American astronaut aboard a Russian capsule later this month. Mark Vande Hei is due to fly to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule with cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov on March 30 after 355 days in space

NASA will hold a virtual media briefing at noon EDT Wednesday, March 16, to provide an update on the James Webb Space Telescope’s mirror alignment.