Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 22, 2025
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover demonstrated a new multitasking capability when capturing this view: It snapped the 15 images that make up the mosaic while simultaneously communicating with an orbiter. The images were taken by the right navigation camera on Curiosity's mast July 26, 2025, the 4,611th sol, or day, of the mission. The rover's tracks cross through a region filled with boxwork formation

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 22, 2025

On Sept. 11, 2022, engineers at a flight control center in Turin, Italy, sent a radio signal into deep space. Its destination was NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft flying toward an asteroid more than 5 million miles away. The message prompted the spacecraft to execute a series of pre-programmed commands that caused a small, shoebox-sized satellite contributed by t

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 22, 2025
In a milestone for interplanetary communications, Lonestar Data Holdings confirmed the successful test of the Solar System Internet's Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) aboard its lunar data center mission launched on Intuitive Machines' Athena lander in February. The demonstration validated the use of DTN technology, engineered to maintain robust communications in high-latency space environment

London, UK (SPX) Aug 22, 2025
A new Durham University study challenges the idea that Jupiter's unusual dilute core was formed by a giant collision, overturning a leading explanation of the planet's interior structure. Jupiter's core does not have a sharp boundary but gradually merges into its hydrogen-rich layers. This dilute core was first revealed by NASA's Juno spacecraft, sparking debate about how it formed. Earlie

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 22, 2025
At 4:12 a.m. EDT on Aug. 7, mission controllers at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory confirmed that New Horizons had safely entered hibernation mode. The spacecraft, operating more than 5.7 billion miles (9.2 billion kilometers) from Earth in the Kuiper Belt, acted on commands uploaded July 23. The confirmation signal required 8 hours and 31 minutes to reach Earth, traveling at light spee

Riverside CA (SPX) Aug 22, 2025

More than 5,000 planets have been discovered beyond our solar system, allowing scientists to explore planetary evolution and consider the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Now, a UC Riverside study published in Physical Review D suggests that these "exoplanets" could also serve as tools to investigate dark matter. The researchers examined how dark matter, which makes up 85% of the un

London, UK (SPX) Aug 22, 2025
Space-based solar power could significantly reshape Europe's energy system by 2050, according to new research in the journal Joule. The study estimates the technology could reduce Europe's reliance on Earth-based wind and solar generation by up to 80% while lowering overall grid costs by 7% to 15%. Researchers modeled the European energy system in 2050 using two NASA-developed designs for

Washington (AFP) Aug 24, 2025
Elon Musk's SpaceX is gearing up for the next test of its Starship megarocket on Sunday, after a string of recent failures that has prompted some observers to question its viability. The world's most powerful launch vehicle is set to lift off from the company's Starbase in southern Texas at 6:30 pm local time (2330 GMT) for its tenth flight. The mission aims to put the upper stage t

Stratospheric ballooning company Urban Sky has won a contract from the U.S. Air Force to support development of technologies that enable small balloons to complement, or replace, satellites.