Tag: NASA
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Ingenuity’s mission ends after 72 flights
NASA announced its Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, had ended its mission after experiencing an anomaly during its 72nd flight on Jan. 18. Images recovered after the flight showed severe damage to at least one of the aircraft’s rotor blades, making further flights impossible. The damage spelled the end for the small helicopter that made history in…
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IXPE investigates microquasar jets, finds unexpected magnetic field structure
Creating some of the most powerful gravitational forces and fields in the universe, black holes are known for their extreme nature, including the ways in which they can devour and destroy whole planets and stars in a matter of seconds. When black holes consume planets, stars, and other cosmic objects, the matter from the collision…
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NASA urged Astrobotic not to send its hamstrung spacecraft toward the Moon
Astrobotic knew its first space mission would be rife with risks. After all, the company’s Peregrine spacecraft would attempt something never done before—landing a commercial spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. The most hazardous part of the mission, actually landing on the Moon, would happen more than a month after Peregrine’s launch. But the…
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Astrobotic’s lunar lander falls into South Pacific after missing out on moon landing
One of the last pictures taken by a camera on the Peregrine lander shows a crescent Earth. (Astrobotic Photo) Ten days after its launch, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander fell back to Earth, ending a trip to the moon’s orbital distance and back that was doomed by a propellant leak. The mission began auspiciously on the…
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Rocket Report: A new estimate of Starship costs; Japan launches spy satellite
Welcome to Edition 6.27 of the Rocket Report! This week, we discuss an intriguing new report looking at Starship. Most fascinating, the report covers SpaceX’s costs to build a Starship and how these costs will come down as the company ramps up its build and launch cadence. At the other end of the spectrum, former…
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NASA SLS Exploration Upper Stage moving into qualification phase of development
As NASA pushes out the schedule for Artemis II and III, development of the first major upgrade to the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is moving into qualification. SLS Stages prime contractor Boeing is activating production areas for the new Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans in…
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NASA SLS Exploration Upper Stage moving into qualification phase of development
As NASA pushes out the schedule for Artemis II and III, development of the first major upgrade to the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is moving into qualification. SLS Stages prime contractor Boeing is activating production areas for the new Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans in…
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Axiom, SpaceX launch third all-private crew mission to space station
For the third time, an all-private crew is heading for the International Space Station. The four-man team lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Thursday, kicking off a 36-hour pursuit of the orbiting research laboratory. Docking is scheduled for Saturday morning. This two-week mission is managed by…
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Axiom and SpaceX are disrupting Europe’s traditional pathway to space
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) has a deal with Axiom Space to get more Europeans in orbit. But does the partnership benefit European taxpayers who fund the agency’s operations? On Wednesday, January 17, the third privately funded mission by US commercial spaceflight company Axiom Space is set to lift off from Kennedy Space Center in…
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Webb discovers potential aurorae on brown dwarf
Silently floating through the universe are cosmic objects that are both too large to be planets and too small to be stars. Called brown dwarfs, these substellar objects are among the most captivating objects in the universe, and their low surface temperatures mean that most of the light they emit is infrared and thus can…