Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 02, 2021
The rover rarely drives in a straight line, and our recent drive took the "road less traveled" to investigate a bunch of boulders shed down from a cliff face off to the side of our expected traverse to the south. Why? Beneath the Greenheugh Pediment, the flat-lying, high-standing escarpment to the west, the scientists could see a unique layer with a convoluted texture. In our drive today,

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 02, 2021
The Perseverance rover is equipped with a large suite of cameras-23 to be exact-which collectively enable a wide range of scientific investigations and engineering activities. Since the rover's touchdown in Jezero crater, these cameras have served as our eyes on the ground. In less than a year, the rover has already returned thousands of stunning images of local surface features, which hav

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 02, 2021
Vice President Kamala Harris chaired the first National Space Council meeting of the Biden-Harris Administration Wednesday, Dec. 1 at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington. Prior to the meeting, President Biden expanded the number of participants of the council by executive order, reflecting the Biden-Harris administration's broad priorities and creating the largest, most diverse space counc

Paris (ESA) Dec 02, 2021
Recently completed tests of two propellant tanks set a first technological milestone in the ESA reusability roadmap towards the demonstration of a reusable first stage vehicle called Themis. Through the Themis programme, ESA aims to assess the economic value of reusability for Europe while investing in new technologies for potential use in ESA's future fleet of launch vehicles. The T

Huntsville AL (SPX) Dec 02, 2021
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy visited the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville on Nov. 29 and 30 for tours and briefings on Marshall's role in the Artemis program and other capabilities that enrich many facets of the nation's space exploration endeavors. It was their first visit to Marshall in their current roles. Nelson and Melroy

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Dec 02, 2021
The longest - and perhaps the spiciest - plant experiment in the history of the International Space Station, Plant Habitat-04 (PH-04), concluded recently, 137 days after it began. On Nov. 26, Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei harvested and with other members of the crew sampled some of the 26 chile peppers grown from four plants in the orbiting laboratory's Advanced Plant Habitat (APH

Long Beach CA (SPX) Dec 02, 2021
Rocket Lab USA has revealed its next Electron mission is scheduled to take place during a launch window that opens on December 7, 2021, fewer than three weeks since Rocket Lab's most recent mission on November 18, 2021. These two missions for BlackSky occur 19 days apart and represent Rocket Lab's quickest turnaround in its launch history. The "A Data With Destiny" mission for BlackSky man

Washington DC (UPI) Dec 1, 2021
SpaceX's plan to launch 53 more Starlink spacecraft from Florida has been delayed a day to Thursday, as the company struggles with plans to develop a second generation of the communications satellites. SpaceX gave no immediate reason for the postponement. With the rescheduling, a Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to carry the satellites into orbit at 6:28 p.m. EST from Complex 40 at C

Recently completed tests of two propellant tanks set a first technological milestone in the ESA reusability roadmap towards the demonstration of a reusable first stage vehicle called Themis.