Blue Ghost Makes “Picture Perfect” Moon Landing
Firefly Aerospace scored their first successful Moon landing early Sunday morning. As their Blue Ghost lander touched down on the
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Science
Intuitive Machines Aims High for Second Moon Landing
Intuitive Machines has embarked on its second Moon landing attempt for NASA’s CLPS initiative with the launch of IM-2.
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On Chasing Shadows: A New Exploration of Uranus
At the December 2024 annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU24), NASA provided updates on the status of NASA’s upcoming Uranus Flagship mission and the precursor projects that will enable it.
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Astranis Aims to Breathe New Life into GEO
On December 29, 2024, a new breed of geostationary satellites took flight – powered into space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. From One to Many, the first Astranis Block 2 mission, is the first operational deployment of the California based company’s MicroGEO fleet, with ultimate goal of providing connectivity across the globe.
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NASA Set to Update Moon to Mars Architecture with ACR24
NASA is developing the latest version of its overarching vision for space exploration: the Moon to Mars Architecture. Amid an environment of questions about the Artemis Program, the agency’s year-long Strategic Analysis Cycle is drawing to a close this November with the 2024 Architecture Concept Review, called ACR24.
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Hera Beats the Weather – Sets Sights on Dual Asteroid
The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft has lifted off on a unique mission to the binary asteroid pair Didymos and Dimorphos. The probe will seek new insights into planetary defense techniques that could protect the Earth from asteroid impacts in the future, following up on NASA’s DART mission which intentionally struck Dimorphos in September of 2022.
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New Glenn Comes Together, but Plans Change
On Friday, September 6th 2024, NASA announced an official delay of the EscaPADE mission’s launch to March of 2025. The agency specified that the decision came at potential risk to spacecraft health in the event that the twin Mars orbiters had to be unfueled following a launch delay. Regardless, work continues towards the first launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn.
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BepiColombo Completes Mercury Flyby on New Trajectory
The joint European/Japanese BepiColombo mission completed its fourth encounter with Mercury on Wednesday, September 4th 2024. The flyby was the latest of many gravity assists the mission needs to decelerate itself into Mercury orbit, and took the spacecraft closer to the planet’s surface than ever before.
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NASA Identifies Lunar Cargo and Mobility Gaps
The development of NASA’s Moon to Mars Architecture is a continuous process, one which is always seeking to strengthen our approach to sending humans to Mars and beyond. In June, NASA released a pair of white papers that give a glimpse into this year’s analysis: Lunar Surface Cargo and Lunar Mobility Drivers and Needs.
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Moon to Mars Part II: Evolving to Mars
Artemis’ stated goal to “prepare for human missions to Mars” is an ambitious undertaking, with visible consequences on its organization. With Artemis entering flight across its various programs, and hardware which will eventually support its primary missions in flow, we have entered a unique era for spaceflight.
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Moon to Mars Part I: Forging the Path
At its core, the Artemis Program represents a new way of thinking in space exploration. NASA’s Moon to Mars objectives incorporate the Artemis Program as part of the roadmap to the Red Planet.
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Op-Ed: VIPER’s Sidelining is a Scientific Disaster
VIPER, NASA’s 500 million dollar Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is one of the latest victims of turbulent times – with NASA announcing that they would be canceling the mission effective August 1, 2024
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NASA, SpaceX Share Updates on ISS Deorbit Vehicle
In a teleconference on July 17th, NASA and SpaceX provided additional information about the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), the spacecraft which will be tasked with pushing the International Space Station out of orbit at the end of its lifetime.
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A Graceful Exit, Part 2: What Comes After ISS?
The end of the International Space Station will mark a tectonic shift in human spaceflight. The ISS program united the efforts of fifteen nations, including a landmark union between the United States and Russia, and citizens from eight other countries have since visited the orbiting laboratory. Now, approaching retirement, we begin to ask the question of what comes next?
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A Graceful Exit, Part 1: How to Responsibly Retire ISS
Responsibly disposing of the ISS will be a monumental undertaking all its own. As we prepare to lay to rest one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments, what will it take to give the ISS a graceful exit?
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Asteroid Day 2024: A Plethora of New Insights
For Asteroid Day 2024, we’ll be briefly covering updates to various small body missions, and exploring how these vital ambassadors from Earth teach us so much about our origins.
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US and India Advance Cooperation on Space and Technology
In a White House press release on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, the governments of both the United States and India laid out a strategic roadmap for future collaboration in space – a goal that has long captivated the imaginations of scientists and diplomats alike.
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GOES-U Heads for Geostationary Orbit
NASA and SpaceX have launched GOES-U, the final Earth observation satellite in the GOES-R series. The spacecraft was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, dodging inclement weather to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at 5:26 PM EDT on July 25th, 2024.
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Meet The Pressurized Rover
In April of this year, the United States and Japan signed a formal agreement to collaborate on the first of a new kind of spacecraft for the Artemis Program: a pressurized rover. Acting like a camper van for astronauts to live in as they roam across the surface of the Moon, the pressurized rover is a dramatic new capability for the Artemis Program.
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Gyro Issues Force Hubble Into Safe Mode
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has suspended science operations for the time being. NASA reported that the space observatory entered safe mode on May 24th.
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NASA Lays Out LEO Sustainability Vision
To address a rapidly changing space operating environment and ensure its preservation for generations to come, NASA released the first part of its integrated Space Sustainability Strategy on Tuesday, April 9th at Space Symposium.
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A Shake Up For Mars Sample Return
On April 15th 2024, NASA hosted a media teleconference giving updates on the current status of the agency’s Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. MSR is a vital step in providing high fidelity environmental data which could dramatically inform the technology and methodology for a planned human mission to the Red Planet.
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NOAA’s Next-Gen Constellation Moves Forward
As NOAA looks to the future of its weather satellite programs in the 2030s and beyond, it is making radical changes to its Low-Earth orbit (LEO) architecture in the face of emerging trends and capabilities.
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ESA’s L4 Mission Set to Focus on Icy Moons
After meeting to discuss ideas and assess technologies, the European Space Agency has begun the process of designing their next “Large Class” mission – one that could explore Saturn’s moons of Enceladus and Titan up close.
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Five Years to Apophis; Can a New Mission be Ready?
Apophis is an asteroid that needs little introduction, but it could soon become one of the most well studied small bodies in the history of spaceflight – should plans come to fruition.
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NASA’s Newest Ocean Mission Takes Flight
After nearly nine years of planning, preparation, and even once being slated for cancellation entirely, NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Earth-observation mission lifted off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on February 8, at 1:33:36 AM.
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As IM-1 Prepares for Launch, Questions Abound for CLPS
Intuitive Machines is targeting February 14th for the launch of IM-1, the first flight of its NOVA-C robotic moon lander as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
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United Arab Emirates to Build Gateway Airlock
NASA and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced Sunday plans for the space centre to provide an airlock for Gateway, humanity’s first space station outside of Low Earth Orbit.
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Orion’s Journey to Artemis II and Beyond
One year ago, NASA’s Orion spacecraft concluded its maiden voyage around the Moon, a journey of 1.4 million miles ending with a gentle splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Now, the first crewed Orion is well underway in construction, with more on the way…
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Three Lunar Landers Target Arrival in January
2024 is shaping up to be a year of triumphant lunar return, with several missions planned to welcome in a new age of international exploration of Earth’s nearest neighbor.
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On Zephyr’s Wings: NASA Restarts Venus Exploration
The Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gasses, Chemistry, and Imaging, or DAVINCI mission, is a groundbreaking new approach to studying Earth’s sister planet, one which truly embodies its namesake’s ideology of revolutionary new ideas.
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ISRO to Perform Lunar Sample Return
In a lecture given on November 17, Shri Nilesh M. Desai, director of India’s Space Application Center, outlined India’s next missions to the Moon – including the ambitious and tantalizing official plan for Chandrayaan-4.
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Anatomy of a Deep Space Transport
The problem of transporting humans to Mars is a daunting one, yet the slate never stays blank for long. However, if we are to succeed in this boldest of adventures, we must first step away from the whiteboard and take a moment to reflect on our motivations and goals.
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You Are Beautiful: Lucy at Dinkinesh
Nearly two years after launch, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft prepares to encounter its first asteroid – one of many to come.
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Uranus Orbiter and Probe: 35 Years in the Making
The solar system contains 8 planets, each possessing incredible uniqueness. Of these, some stand out as being perhaps the least explored. Every planet has had at least one orbiter take incredible amounts of in situ observations for years on end if not decades, except the Ice Giants…
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Triumph in Utah: OSIRIS-REx Returns Home
After 7 years in space, and 3.8 billion miles traveled, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule (SRC) completed a picture perfect touchdown on the muddy sands of the Utah Test and Training Range in Dugway, Utah
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