Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 08, 2025
NASA's Perseverance rover has produced one of its clearest panoramas to date, revealing a striking view of the Martian landscape from a site known as Falbreen. The mosaic, built from 96 images taken on May 26, 2025, during the rover's 1,516th Martian day, features distant hills up to 40 miles (65 kilometers) away, sand ripples, and the distinct boundary between two geologic units. An enhanced-co

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 08, 2025
NASA has chosen Impulse Space to prepare two orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) service studies aimed at identifying more affordable ways to deliver spacecraft to challenging orbital destinations. The work, awarded under NASA's VADR contract through the Launch Services Program, will inform the agency about commercial OTV capabilities for future mission planning. The studies will examine how Im

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 08, 2025
Northrop Grumman has completed its second full-scale static firing of a new solid rocket motor under the Solid Motor Annual Rocket Technology Demonstrator (SMART Demo) program, achieving the milestone in under 12 months of development. The company-funded initiative tests advanced materials, manufacturing methods and propulsion innovations. The latest SMART Demo motor incorporated additive

Washington (AFP) Aug 9, 2025
After nearly five months onboard the International Space Station, an international crew of five astronauts began their descent back down to Earth on a SpaceX capsule Friday. US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are expected to spend more than 17 hours in the capsule before splashing down off California's coast at 1533 GMT on

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 8, 2025
Members of the Crew-10 on Friday night undocked from the International Space Station aboard the Dragon 9 spacecraft. The undocking was scheduled for 6:05 p.m. EDT and it was confirmed at 6:30 p.m. The hatch was closed at 4:20 p.m. Dragon then executed a series of departure burns as the spacecraft moved away from the ISS, which orbits the Earth approximately 250 miles away.

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 7, 2025
SpaceX and NASA delayed the return of Crew-10 astronauts to Earth that was originally scheduled to begin on Thursday afternoon. The Crew-10's Dragon capsule, Endurance, will undock at 6:05 p.m. EDT on Friday for a 17.5-hour journey and is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at 11:33 a.m. Saturday. The crew was initially set to begin its retur

Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Aug 08, 2025
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara, The University of Texas at Austin, Yale University and National Taiwan Normal University have found that a fair number of sun-like stars emerge with their rotational axis tilted with respect to their protoplanetary disks, the clouds of gas and dust from which solar systems are born. "All young stars have these discs, but we've known little about their orien

Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Aug 08, 2025
Touchdown airburstseart - a type of cosmic impact that may be more common than the crater-forming, dinosaur-killing kindeart - remain somewhat less understood. UC Santa Barbara Earth Science Emeritus Professor James Kennett and collaborators continue to make the case that these high-energy events deserve closer attention. "Touchdown events can cause extreme damage through very high tempera

Paris, France (SPX) Aug 08, 2025
Hera has captured its first asteroid images, targeting (1126) Otero and (18805) Kellyday during its cruise through the main asteroid belt. The distant, faint detections tested the spacecraft's Asteroid Framing Camera under conditions similar to its future approach to the Didymos system. Launched on 7 October 2024, Hera used a Mars flyby in March 2025 to set its course for arrival at Didymo

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Aug 08, 2025
China has successfully carried out its first integrated landing and takeoff trial of a crewed lunar lander, marking a milestone in its manned lunar exploration program. The test took place Wednesday at a facility in Huailai county, Hebei province, the China Manned Space Agency confirmed Thursday. The spacecraft, called Lanyueeart - meaning embracing the mooneart - is composed of a landing