5 Min Read NASA’s Psyche Delivers First Images and Other Data This mosaic was made from “first light” images acquired Dec. 4 by both of the cameras on NASA’s Psyche spacecraft. The star field lies in the constellation Pisces. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU The mission team has celebrated several successes since its launch from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 13. The latest is the operation of the spacecraft’s cameras. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is on a roll. In the eight weeks since it left Earth on Oct. 13, the orbiter has performed one…
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Strange moon of asteroid Dinkinesh is weirder than thought after NASA probe finds ‘contact binary’ (photo)
Asteroid Dinkinesh continues to surprise us. On Nov. 1, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft zoomed past this space rock, marking the first of several asteroid encounters the probe is designed to make. Lucy’s goal is to ultimately explore a set of asteroids near Jupiter, known as the Trojans, which are thought to hold clues about the earliest days of our solar system; these objects may be able to shed light on the origins of life on Earth. But, on the way to those Trojans, Lucy has a couple of stops — including…
Read MoreSmithsonian debuts 1st display of asteroid Bennu sample brought back by OSIRIS-REx
A sizable crowd turned out to see a small rock on Friday (Nov. 3), as the Smithsonian debuted the first display of a piece of the asteroid Bennu from the sample brought back to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. The institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. hosted NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and other space agency and Smithsonian officials at an unveiling ceremony for the well-traveled pebble. The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft safely landed its sample return capsule on Sept. 24 in…
Read MoreNASA’s Lucy probe will fly by asteroid ‘Dinkinesh’ on Nov. 1. Here’s what to expect
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is about to make its very first flyby of an asteroid on Wednesday, Nov. 1. When Lucy flies past the half-mile-wide asteroid, named Dinkinesh, the moment will mark the start of the probe’s 12-lear-long tour of 10 asteroid subjects. Ultimately, the planned legacy of this spacecraft is for it to become the first to investigate the Trojan asteroids — asteroids that follow Jupiter’s orbit around the sun and are believed to be remnants of our solar system’s formation. Lucy has been preparing for its visit to Dinkinesh…
Read MoreSpace rocks and asteroid dust are pricey, but these aren’t the most expensive materials used in science
After a journey of seven years and nearly 4 billion miles, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft landed gently in the Utah desert on the morning of Sept. 24, 2023, with a precious payload. The spacecraft brought back a sample from the asteroid Bennu. Roughly half a pound of material collected from the 85 million-ton asteroid (77.6 billion kg) will help scientists learn about the formation of the solar system, including whether asteroids like Bennu include the chemical ingredients for life. NASA’s mission was budgeted at US$800 million and will end up costing around $1.16 billion for just under 9 ounces of sample (255 g). But is this the…
Read MoreNASA’s Psyche Spacecraft, Optical Comms Demo En Route to Asteroid
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is launched from Launch Complex 39A, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will travel to a metal-rich asteroid by the same name orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter to study it’s composition. The spacecraft also carries the agency’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which will test laser communications beyond the Moon. NASA/Aubrey Gemignani NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is on its voyage to an asteroid of the same name, a metal-rich world…
Read MoreNASA delays launch of Psyche asteroid mission by 1 week, to Oct. 12
We’ll have to wait another week to see NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission take flight. Psyche had been scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Oct. 5. But that’s no longer the plan; the mission team has pushed the liftoff back to Oct. 12. “The change allows the NASA team to complete verifications of the parameters used to control the Psyche spacecraft’s nitrogen cold gas thrusters,” NASA officials wrote in an update on Thursday evening (Sept. 28). “The parameters were…
Read MoreAfter NASA’s epic OSIRIS-REx capsule landing success, spacecraft heads to asteroid Apophis on new mission
The NASA probe that delivered precious samples of the space rock Bennu to Earth is now on an extended voyage to study an infamous near Earth asteroid. OSIRIS-REx completed NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission on Sunday (Sept. 24), when its reentry capsule landed in the western Utah desert. But now the main spacecraft has embarked on a side quest: to scope out and get up close with Apophis, an asteroid previously thought to potentially pose a threat to Earth. The spacecraft used its return to Earth to fling itself…
Read MoreNASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft releases asteroid sample capsule toward Earth in flyby, heads to Apophis
The first asteroid samples ever collected by NASA are closing in on Earth for a historic landing in the Utah desert today (Sept. 24). NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which collected samples of asteroid Bennu in 2020, released a capsule carrying that precious cargo at 6:42 a.m. EDT (1042 GMT) on a course to land on Earth. The spacecraft was 63,000 miles (101,388 kilometers) from Earth, about one-third the distance to the moon, when it released the sample capsule, with OSIRIS-REx itself flying past our planet to a new destination, NASA officials…
Read MoreWatch NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe approach Earth tonight with free telescope livestream
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will pass Earth this weekend, returning a sample gathered from the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu on Sunday (Sept. 24). Fingers crossed that space enthusiasts may be able to watch the first part of this historic sample return mission — the first time NASA has collected material from an asteroid and brought it home — live and for free online. That is if all goes according to plan for Italian astrophysicist and astronomer Gianluca Masi and his Virtual Telescope Project. “I’m very pleased and excited to announce that the Virtual…
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