Tag: NASA
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Russian spacewalkers carve away at Soyuz spaceship to inspect plugged hole
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko uses a cutting tool to open up the Soyuz spacecraft’s external cover, at bottom, while crewmate Sergey Prokopyev looks on. (NASA TV via YouTube) During an extraordinary spacewalk, two Russian cosmonauts used sharp objects today to cut away layers of protective insulation on a Soyuz capsule and take samples of sealant…
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NASA says its Voyager 2 probe has entered interstellar space, six years after Voyager 1
This illustration shows the positions of NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, outside of the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun that extends well past the orbit of Pluto. Sizes and distances are not shown to scale. Click on the image for a larger version. (NASA / JPL-Caltech Illustration) NASA says its…
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That was fast: OSIRIS-REx probe detects water on asteroid Bennu during approach
This mosaic image of the asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 PolyCam images collected on Dec. 2 by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 15 miles. A prominent boulder can be seen at lower right. (NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona Photo) Just one week after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s official arrival at the…
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NASA’s InSight lander captures the first sounds of a ‘windy afternoon’ on Mars
A raw image from NASA’s InSight lander shows the spacecraft’s robotic arm in the foreground, hanging over a solar panel. The terrain of Mars’ Elysium Planitia stretches out in the background. The colors look muted because they haven’t been fully calibrated. (NASA / JPL-Caltech Photo) NASA’s Mars InSight lander is designed primarily to study the…
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NASA’s Mars InSight lander snaps selfies galore, including a name check for its fans
A photo snapped by the camera on the InSight lander’s robotic arm shows instruments on the spacecraft’s deck with Martian terrain in the background. The pointer indicates the location of two chips bearing the microscopic etched names of 2.4 million fans. (NASA / JPL-Caltech Photo) One week after landing on the Martian plain of Elysium…
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SpaceX sends cargo ship to space station, and then Falcon 9 booster spins and swims
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, sending a Dragon cargo ship into orbit. (NASA Photo) SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket sent a robotic Dragon cargo capsule into orbit today from Florida to deliver 5,600 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station, just two days…
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OSIRIS-REx probe reaches asteroid Bennu for close-up survey and sample return
An image taken by the OSIRIS-REx probe last month shows the asteroid Bennu from a distance of about 40 miles. (NASA / Goddard / Univ. of Arizona Photo) NASA’s OSIRIS-REx today made its official rendezvous with a promising and potentially perilous asteroid named Bennu, after two years of closing in on it. “We have arrived,”…
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Rev up the video: It’s time for NASA’s InSight lander to touch down on Mars
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Mars InSight firing its thrusters for landing. (NASA / JPL-Caltech Illustration) Today’s the day for the Mars InSight lander’s touchdown on the Red Planet, and NASA is pulling out all the stops to let us in on the action. This is the first Mars landing to take place since the…
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NASA’s InSight lander touches down on Mars and sends gloriously gritty pictures
At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., InSight project manager Tom Hoffman reacts to the first image from the Mars InSight lander after its touchdown. (NASA Photo / Bill Ingalls) REDMOND, Wash. — NASA’s Mars InSight lander touched down on a heavenly Martian plain Monday, marking the first successful landing on the Red Planet…
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From The Oatmeal to the space station, Mars InSight lander’s fans are all a-Twitter
Today’s smashingly successful touchdown of NASA’s InSight lander on Mars was a cause for celebration on Twitter. There was good-natured snark from SarcasticRover and from Matthew Inman, the Seattle cartoonist behind The Oatmeal (following up on his terrific preview of the landing). And there were heartfelt congratulations from the space community’s celebrities, including SpaceX founder Elon Musk…