The countdown has started for the first human-rated launch to the Moon in over half a century. ESA’s European Service Module will be powering the Orion spacecraft to our natural satellite and back.

Beijing (XNA) Aug 28, 2022
The energy particle detector deployed on Wentian, the first lab module of China's space station, will help the Shenzhou-14 crew members carry out extravehicular activities (EVAs), according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The Wentian module has been operating stably in orbit for nearly a month, and the Shenzhou-14 crew have been training and preparing for their first EVAs during t

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 26, 2022
Could one of the biggest puzzles in astrophysics be solved by reworking Albert Einstein's theory of gravity? A new study co-authored by NASA scientists says not yet. The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, and scientists don't know why. This phenomenon seems to contradict everything researchers understand about gravity's effect on the cosmos: It's as if you threw an apple in the

Washington DC (SPX) Aug 28, 2022
An experiment prepared by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) will launch as part of NASA's scheduled Artemis I mission to orbit the moon Aug. 29. The NRL experiment will use samples of fungi to investigate effects of the deep space radiation environment outside of Earth's protective magnetosphere. "We're interested in factors that affect eukaryotic survival in space," said Jennifer Y

Providence RI (SPX) Aug 28, 2022
In July, as the world marveled at the first images of the Cosmic Cliffs and previously invisible areas of star birth revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope, Allen Dufort felt excited that he'd soon make his own contributions to space exploration. As a software engineer intern for Brown University Professor of Physics Gregory Tucker, Dufort has spent Summer 2022 writing computer code fo

San Antonio TX (SPX) Aug 28, 2022
More than 60 engineers and scientists are gathering at Southwest Research Institute Aug. 23-24 to kick off the launch vehicle collaboration for NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission. PUNCH, which will study the inception of the solar wind, has secured its ride into Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, sharing a ride into space with NASA's Spectro-Photomete

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 28, 2022
Coming in to work on the three-sol plan for the weekend, we were met with another set of stunning Images of the landscape around us. But for the Rover Planners the thing that really stood out is just how close we are to the very large rock (which you can see in the above image). Fortunately, Curiosity is safe and sound and ready for another set of exciting activities on Mars. The first sol

Washington DC (SPX) Aug 28, 2022
Using some of the world's most powerful telescopes, the DART investigation team last month completed a six-night observation campaign to confirm earlier calculations of the orbit of Dimorphos-DART's asteroid target-around its larger parent asteroid, Didymos, confirming where the asteroid is expected to be located at the time of impact. DART, which is the world's first attempt to change the speed

Berkeley CA (SPX) Aug 28, 2022
In its first year exploring Jezero Crater on Mars, the Perseverance rover collected rock samples that scientists anticipate will provide a long-awaited timeline for the planet's geologic and water history. They'll just have to wait a decade to find out the answer, until the samples can be scooped up from the surface and returned to Earth for dating in 2033. The scientists are neverth

Kent WA (SPX) Aug 28, 2022
On August 31, New Shepard's 23rd mission, a dedicated payloads flight, will fly 36 payloads from academia, research institutions, and students across the globe. The launch window opens at 8:30 AM CDT / 13:30 UTC from Launch Site One in West Texas. This mission brings the total number of commercial payloads flown on the vehicle to more than 150. Two of the payloa