India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander arrives in lunar orbit

India will make its second moon landing attempt in 18 days’ time after its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit Saturday.
Astra lays off, reassigns employees as it refocuses on satellite propulsion

Astra Space announced Aug. 4 it has laid off a quarter of its workforce and reassigned others from launch vehicle to satellite propulsion development as its cash reserves dwindle.
First test images from Euclid space telescope unveiled
The Euclid space telescope, launched July 1 on a mission to shed more light on elusive dark matter and dark energy, has reached its destination orbit and on Monday its European operators revealed its first test images.
The star-filled snapshots were taken during the space telescope's commissioning—a phase during which its powerful instruments are finely calibrated—and therefore not representative of its full potential.
But the European Space Agency (ESA) says the tests already show it will be capable of fulfilling its massive mission.
"After more than 11 years of designing and developing Euclid, it's exhilarating and enormously emotional to see these first images," Euclid project manager Giuseppe Racca in a statement.
Indian lunar landing mission enters Moon's orbit
India's latest space mission entered the Moon's orbit on Saturday ahead of the country's second attempted lunar landing, as its cut-price space programme seeks to reach new heights.
The world's most populous nation has a comparatively low-budget aerospace programme that is rapidly closing in on the milestones set by global space powers.
Only Russia, the United States and China have prev NASA and Axiom Space join forces for fourth private mission in 2024
In a renewed commitment to the growth of private space ventures, NASA has announced another joint mission with Axiom Space. This mission, which will be the fourth private astronaut initiative, is slated for a tentative launch in August 2024 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Phil McAlister, Director of Commercial Space at NASA Headquarters, emphasized the significance of the join NASA announces crew for 2024 ISS rotation mission
NASA Friday announced four crew members that will fly on NASA's SpaceX Crew-8 mission for a long-term stay on the International Space Station.
The crew includes NASA astronauts Commander Matthew Dominick, Pilot Michael Barrat, and Mission Specialist Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Mission Specialist Alexander Grebenkin.
They will all join Expedition 70 and 71 crew m Unraveling river pathways on Earth and Mars
In a groundbreaking analysis, scientists from Tulane University have delved deep into the winding paths of rivers on both Earth and Mars. This study, recently published in Nature Geosciences, aims to understand how climate change influences the shifting paths of these meandering rivers.
Dr. Chenliang Wu, a postdoctoral researcher with Tulane University's School of Science and Engineering, Curiosity faces its toughest climb yet on Mars
On Aug. 5, NASA's Curiosity rover will notch its 11th year on Mars by doing what it does best: studying the Red Planet's surface. The intrepid bot recently investigated a location nicknamed "Jau" that is pockmarked with dozens of impact craters. Scientists have rarely gotten a close-up view of so many Martian craters in one place. The largest is estimated to be at least as long as a basketball c Can we see Mars' Breath in the Winter Cold: Sols 3907-3908
Earth planning date: Wednesday, August 2, 2023: We don't have a lot of power to play with today, so we have to be careful about how much time we give the different activities. As Arm Rover Planner, I got to sequence the contact science activities today.
We start this two-sol plan with a nap to save up power. After waking up in the afternoon, we do a short block of imaging. Mastcam is takin Daily records of atmospheric temperature with Perseverance
Atmospheric temperature is a meteorological variable of daily concern to humans. Temperature also has a major impact on Perseverance mission operations (e.g. temperature sensors are distributed throughout the rover to monitor its thermal performance). In addition, temperature data are key to the mission's scientific investigations of the atmosphere. The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA 