NASA released an independent review report Tuesday indicating the agency is now ready to undertake its Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign to bring pristine samples from Mars to Earth for scientific study. The agency established the MSR Independent Review Board (IRB) to evaluate its early concepts for a groundbreaking, international partnership with ESA (European Space... Continue Reading →

As it journeys into some of the darkest and coldest spots in the solar system, NASA’s new water-hunting Moon rover, VIPER, will need some very robust headlights to light the way. Using a special lab at NASA's Ames Research Center designed to mimic lunar terrain as it would appear in different areas at the Moon’s poles,... Continue Reading →

Although no trick-or-treaters come knocking at the International Space Station’s (ISS) front hatch, crew members aboard the orbiting facility still like to get in the Halloween spirit. Whether individually or as an entire crew, they will dress up in sometimes spooky, sometimes scary, but always creative costumes, often designed from materials available aboard the ISS.... Continue Reading →

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins works on research hardware inside the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Kibo laboratory module.Credits: NASA Radish seeds being prepared for planting in seed carriers at Kennedy Space Center in September 2020. The carriers flew aboard Northrop Grumman’s 14th commercial resupply services mission to the space station, where astronauts planted them in... Continue Reading →

This series of images from the WISPR instrument on board Parker Solar Probe shows a small sungrazing comet, SOHO-4063, as it approached the Sun on Sept. 13-14, 2020. This is the first observation of a sungrazing comet by Parker Solar Probe’s instruments.Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Lab/Parker Solar Probe/Guillermo Stenborg When scientists downlinked data from... Continue Reading →

Greenland appears in this image created using data from the ITS_LIVE project, hosted at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The coloring around the coast of the arctic island shows the speed of outlet glaciers flowing into the ocean.Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS Details about the physical transformation of over 200 of the island’s coastal glaciers are documented in a... Continue Reading →

This illustration of the Mars 2020 spacecraft in interplanetary space was generated using imagery from NASA's Eyes on the Solar System. The image is from the mission's midway point between Earth and Mars.Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Sometimes half measures can be a good thing – especially on a journey this long. The agency's latest rover only has... Continue Reading →

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency)have finalized an agreement to collaborate on the Artemis Gateway. This agreement is an important element in a broad effort by the United States to engage international partners in sustainable lunar exploration and to demonstrate technologies necessary for a future human mission to Mars. The agreement, signed Tuesday, marks NASA’s first formal... Continue Reading →

By James Tutten, via WFTV 9 Eyewitness News The first operational Commercial Crew mission to the International Space Station is set to launch next month. SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission will send four astronauts to the orbiting laboratory for a six-month science mission at 7:49 p.m. on Nov. 14. Crew-1 spacecraft commander, Mike Hopkins, announced last month... Continue Reading →

This illustration shows NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft stowing the sample it collected from asteroid Bennu on Oct. 20, 2020. The spacecraft will use its Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm to place the TAGSAM collector head into the Sample Return Capsule (SRC).Credits: NASA/University of Arizona, Tucson NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is ready to perform an early stow on Tuesday, Oct.... Continue Reading →