Ahead of launch as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is encapsulated in the payload fairing, or nose cone, of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket on Nov. 21, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch of Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon in early 2024 to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar…
Read MoreMonth: December 2023
Japan’s SLIM lander beams moon images home before Jan. 19 landing (photos)
After arriving in orbit around the moon on Christmas Day, Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) moon lander has beamed back its first images of the lunar surface. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) revealed the monochrome but highly detailed images of the crater-pocketed moon surface on its X feed, formerly Twitter. The images were created after the spacecraft was successfully inserted into lunar orbit at 2:51 a.m. EST (0951 GMT or 4:51 p.m. Japan time) on Monday (Dec. 25). Related: Japan’s SLIM ‘moon sniper’ lander arrives in lunar orbit for…
Read MorePrivate Peregrine moon lander is stacked on ULA Vulcan rocket ahead of Jan. 8 launch
The Peregrine lunar lander has completed all its launch milestones and has been stacked atop the Vulcan Centaur rocket that will carry it to space. The launch of the first United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is set for Jan. 8, 2024, with Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander expected to attempt a landing on the moon on Feb. 23, 2024. The landing will make history as not only is Peregrine Astrobotic’s first lander mission, but this is also (possibly) set to be the first time…
Read MoreAfter 2 years in space, the James Webb Space Telescope has broken cosmology. Can it be fixed?
Something is awry in our expanding cosmos. Nearly a century ago, the astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered the balloon-like inflation of the universe and the accelerating rush of all galaxies away from each other. Following that expansion backward in time led to our current best understanding of how everything began — the Big Bang. But over the past decade, an alarming hole has been growing in this picture: Depending on where astronomers look, the rate of the universe’s expansion (a value called the Hubble constant) varies significantly. Related: ‘It could be profound’: How astronomer Wendy…
Read MoreNASA’s Juno to Get Close Look at Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io on Dec. 30
This image revealing the north polar region of the Jovian moon Io was taken on October 15 by NASA’s Juno. Three of the mountain peaks visible in the upper part of image, near the day-night dividing line, were observed here for the first time by the spacecraft’s JunoCam. Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Image processing by Ted Stryk The orbiter has performed 56 flybys of Jupiter and documented close encounters with three of the gas giant’s four largest moons. NASA’s Juno spacecraft will on Saturday, Dec. 30, make the closest flyby of…
Read MoreNASA’s Agency Chief Technologist presents their first annual year-in-review for 2023
1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) OTPS shares an annual letter from the Agency Chief Technologist (ACT), updates on various studies in the technology domain within OTPS, overviews of the center chief technologists, and vignettes of various technology projects across the agency. Read the full report, A Year in Review 2023 from NASA’s Agency Chief Technologist. Share Details Last Updated Dec 27, 2023 Editor Bill Keeter Related Terms Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS)
Read MoreOTPS Releases its 2023 Annual Report
1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy, shares highlights from the office in 2023, including key accomplishments and collaborations that support the NASA mission. Read the full report, NASA’s OTPS: A Year in Review 2023 Share Details Last Updated Dec 27, 2023 Editor Bill Keeter Related Terms Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS)
Read MoreGold mine of kilonova explosions forged by neutron stars crashing together
The gold that comprises the ring on your ring, the jewelry, and the uranium used as fuel in nuclear power plants is believed to come from the violent conditions created when two ultradense dead stars called neutron stars collide. This collision between neutron stars also generates ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves, blasts of high-energy radiation called gamma-ray bursts, and a flash of light called a kilonova that can be detected here on Earth. Signatures from just such an event were detected on 17 August 2017. Now, a team of…
Read MoreMold-A-Rama and the space shuttle over Earth: A space age toy story
NASA’s space shuttle reentered orbit this fall after a 15-month retirement — and this time, it was bright blue. Outlasting the real winged spacecraft by more than a decade, the new space shuttle orbiters are identical to the first ones pulled out in 1981, but this time they are launching from Chicago. “‘Mold-A-Rama: Molded for the Future’ an exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI), tells the story of the beloved retro machines, which make plastic figurines right before your eyes. For over 60 years, Mold-A-Rama machines have…
Read MoreInternational Space Station astronauts hang stockings and light a menorah for the holidays (images, video)
The crew of the space station celebrated a multidenominational Christmas this year, hanging stockings for Santa alongside a menorah “lit” with pretty felt flames. The menorah was brought aboard the International Space Station by NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and adorned with a felt flame each night when Hanukkah, the Jewish festival, ran earlier this December. Felt was chosen as a material for the menorah due to understandable restrictions concerning lighting fires on spacecraft and space stations. “My husband and little girls helped make a felt menorah, with lights for each…
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