Tag: JPL
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SpaceX launches Falcon 9 carrying private Japanese moon lander
SpaceX has used its Falcon 9 rocket to send a privately funded mission toward the surface of the moon. After a series of delays, HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) at 2:38 AM EST (07:38 UTC) on Dec. 11. An initial launch…
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Curiosity marks 10 years on Mars as discoveries continue
After successfully landing on Mars on August 6, 2012 (UTC), Curiosity continues to unlock the secrets of the Red Planet as the vehicle explores Gale Crater. Since landing, the rover has traveled over 17.5 miles (28.1 km) and made multiple scientific discoveries. Curiosity is now in the process of exploring and traversing Mount Sharp, the…
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Lucy continues to stabilize its solar array before its October flyby
With the first half of 2022 coming to a close, NASA teams are continuing work to resolve the Lucy spacecraft’s solar array issue following its October 2021 launch. Lucy is a first-of-a-kind mission to visit several asteroids in Jupiter’s L4 and L5 Lagrange points. Currently, Lucy is coasting before its first flyby of Earth in…
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InSight teams push for more science in lander’s final months, Curiosity continues trek around Gale Crater
In May 2022, members of NASA’s InSight Mars lander team announced that power levels on the lander were diminishing and that they expected the lander to become inoperative by December 2022. However, InSight’s teams want to push the lander to do as much as possible in its final months and have chosen to operate the…
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Psyche to begin environmental testing ahead of August 2022 launch
As 2022 begins, the ASU (Arizona State University)-led team for the NASA Psyche spacecraft is preparing to conduct thermal vacuum testing in preparation for launch. Psyche is a first-of-a-kind mission set to orbit an M-Type asteroid, scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy booster this August. Following a three-and-a-half-year transit through the inner solar…
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After a year filled with new missions and discoveries, Mars and its robots look ahead to 2022
After the successful launch of three new Mars missions in the summer of 2020, Mars exploration was looking to have a groundbreaking year in 2021. Astonishingly, all three missions — NASA’s Mars 2020, China’s Tianwen-1, and the United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter — successfully arrived at Mars in February, and have already sent back amazing…
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NASA and CNES to begin SWOT testing as its launch date approaches
With less than one year to launch, France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and NASA are completing the final spacecraft assembly of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) spacecraft. SWOT is a joint NASA and CNES mission with contributions by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA). The SWOT…
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NASA cites Falcon flight heritage to select SpaceX to launch Europa Clipper
On Friday, July 23, NASA announced that SpaceX was the winner of a commercial procurement to launch the Europa Clipper mission, which will closely study the icy Galilean moon of Jupiter in search of signs of life and/or ongoing geological activity. The mission is due to launch no earlier than October 2024. SpaceX’s heavy-lift Falcon…
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NASA Ingenuity completes autonomous flight on Mars
For the first time ever, non-rocket powered flight has been achieved on a body other than Earth. NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, part of the Mars 2020 mission, completed its first flight on Monday 19 April. The vehicle lifted off at 12:34 AM PDT (07:34 UTC) and flew for 39.1 seconds. Flight controllers at the Jet Propulsion…
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NASA preparing to fly Ingenuity Mars drone, enabling future airborne missions
As NASA’s newest Mars rover, Perseverance, continues its own checkouts and tests, work is starting for a new phase of the mission – the Ingenuity helicopter. This first-of-its-kind piece of hardware will demonstrate (non-rocket) powered flight on a world other than Earth for the first time. Data from these flights – expected to begin in…