Missions Archives

July 16, 2019July 16, 2019 by Evan Gough

Hayabusa 2 is the First Spacecraft to Sample the Inside of an Asteroid

Hayabusa 2 has collected a sub-surface sample from asteroid Ryugu. Image: JAXA

Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is now the first spacecraft to retrieve a subsurface sample from an asteroid. On July 11th, the spacecraft touched down for a second time on asteroid 162173 Ryugu. This time, the probe retrieved a sample from a crater it excavated with its impactor.

July 11, 2019July 11, 2019 by Matt Williams

Two NASA Heads Demoted, Possibly as Part of a Shake-Up to Get Back to the Moon.

An artist's illustration of lunar lander that can carry humans to the surface of the Moon. Image Credit: NASA

On March 26th, 2019, during the fifth meeting of the reestablished National Space Council, Vice President Mike Pence challenged NASA to land astronauts on the Moon within the next five years. This represented an order to expedite Space Policy Directive-1 signed by President Trump on December 11th, 2017, which directed NASA to take all the necessary steps to send astronauts back to the Moon.

This announcement suggested that some shake-up might be taking place within the agency to make things happen. However, it appears that this now involves the demotion of two longtime NASA heads who have dedicated much of their lives to the advancement of human space exploration. Whether or not this decision came from the White House is unclear, but it is in keeping with the direction recently issued by VP Pence.

July 11, 2019July 11, 2019 by Evan Gough

NASA has Figured Out How to Extend the Lives of the Voyagers Even Longer

This artist's concept depicts one of NASA's Voyager spacecraft, including its high-gain antenna. Voyager 2 is out of communications until October. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Voyagers 1 and 2 have the distinction of being in space for 42 years and still operating. And even though they’re 18 billion km (11 billion miles) from the Sun, they’re still valuable scientifically. But they’re running out of energy, and if NASA wants them to continue on much longer, they have some decisions to make.

July 3, 2019July 3, 2019 by Evan Gough

NASA’s Still Trying to Get InSight’s Mole Working Again. Progress is Slow.

The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package deployed on the Martian surface. Image Credit: NASA/DLR

The InSight lander has been on Mars for 213 Sols on its mission to understand the interior of the red planet. It’s armed with a seismometer, a temperature and wind sensor, and other instruments. But it’s primary instrument, arguably, is the Mole, or the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3.) And the Mole has been stuck for a while now.

June 29, 2019June 29, 2019 by Evan Gough

Meet the Comet Interceptor. It’ll Wait Patiently In Space for a Comet, Then Pounce On It

An artist’s overview of the mission concept for the Comet Interceptor spacecraft, which will fly from the vicinity of Earth to rendezvous with a long-period comet or interstellar object inbound from the outer solar system. Credit: ESA

The ESA has announced a new mission to explore a comet. The Comet Interceptor mission will have a spacecraft wait in space until a pristine comet approaches the inner Solar System. Then it will make a bee line for it, and do some ground-breaking science.

June 28, 2019June 28, 2019 by Evan Gough

NASA is Going Back to Saturn’s Moon Titan, this Time With a Nuclear Battery-Powered Quadcopter

An illustration of NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft on Titan. Image Credit: NASA

The official announcement has been made. NASA is sending the Dragonfly, its rotary-winged flying robot, to Titan. We’ll have to control our excitement for a while, though. The launch date isn’t until 2026.

June 26, 2019June 26, 2019 by Evan Gough

SpaceIL Scraps its Plans to go Back to the Moon. Instead, it’s Got a New Secret “Significant Objective” for Beresheet 2

Mystery. Secrecy. A Need-To-Know Basis. These are the hallmarks of science. Wait a minute: no they’re not. So what’s with all the mysterious secret objective talk from SpaceIL about Beresheet2?

June 18, 2019June 18, 2019 by Evan Gough

This is the Closest OSIRIS-REx has Gotten to Bennu. Just 680 Meters Above the Asteroid

This image of asteroid Bennu was taken at an altitude of only 690 m (0.4 miles) from the asteroid's surface. It was captured by NavCam 1, one of three cameras in the spacecraft's TAGCAMS (the Touch-and-Go Camera System) suite. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been at asteroid Bennu since Dec. 3rd, 2018. On that day, it went from travelling to the asteroid to travelling around it. Since then it’s been surveying and mapping Bennu.

June 12, 2019June 12, 2019 by Evan Gough

Apollo 10’s “Snoopy” Lunar Lander May Have Been Found in Space

The Apollo 10 lunar module abou to dock with the command module. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 11 was the first mission to land people on the lunar surface. But Apollo relied on a lot of predecessor missions to lay the groundwork for the successful mission to the Moon. One of them was Apollo 10, the fourth crewed mission in the Apollo program.

Apollo 10 was an almost complete mission that including everything that Apollo 11 had, except for an actual landing on the Moon. It was a dress rehearsal, and was the second Apollo mission to orbit the Moon. It even had an Apollo Lunar Module that was flown to within 15 km of the lunar surface. But that module never landed, and eventually, after it rendezvoused with the command module and the crew disembarked, it was sent into orbit around the Sun.

And up until now, nobody knew where it was.

June 7, 2019June 7, 2019 by Evan Gough

You Can Use a Live Webcam to Watch NASA Build the Mars 2020 Rover

NASA's Mars 2020 rover under construction at JPL. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech

NASA’s next mission to the surface of Mars is called the 2020 rover (in case you didn’t know already.) It’s planned launch date is July 17th, 2020, and it should land at Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18th 2021. The rover is still under construction at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.