Tag: Missions

NASA Updates Coverage for Crew Flight Test Launch, Docking to Station

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A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is pictured from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will launch aboard Starliner for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA will provide live coverage of launch activities for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, which will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to and from the International Space Station. Launch of the ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket and…

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NASA Invites Media to Discuss Hubble Operations Update

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An STS-125 crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis captured this image of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on May 19, 2009. Credit: NASA NASA will hold a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, June 4, to provide an update on operations for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. NASA anticipates Hubble will continue making discoveries, working with other observatories such as the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope, throughout this decade and into the next. Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website at: https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv/ Participants in the teleconference include:…

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NASA’s Hubble Temporarily Pauses Science

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1 min read NASA’s Hubble Temporarily Pauses Science This image of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was taken on May 19, 2009 after deployment during Servicing Mission 4. NASA NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope entered safe mode May 24 due to an ongoing gyroscope (gyro) issue, suspending science operations. Hubble’s instruments are stable, and the telescope is in good health. The telescope automatically entered safe mode when one of its three gyroscopes gave faulty telemetry readings. Hubble’s gyros measure the telescope’s slew rates and are part of the system that determines and…

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NASA’s Europa Clipper Unpacks in Florida

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Technicians inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida prepare to rotate the agency’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, to a vertical position on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, as part of prelaunch processing. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett Crews rotated to vertical then lifted NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft from its protective shipping container after it arrived at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 28. The spacecraft, which will collect data to help scientists determine if…

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Hubble Views the Lights of a Galactic Bar

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2 min read Hubble Views the Lights of a Galactic Bar This Hubble Space Telescope image reveals details in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4731. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the broad and sweeping spiral galaxy NGC 4731. It lies in the constellation Virgo and is located 43 million light-years from Earth. This highly detailed image uses data collected from six different filters. The abundance of color illustrates the galaxy’s billowing clouds of gas, dark dust bands, bright pink star-forming…

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NASA Updates Coverage for Boeing’s Starliner Launch, Docking

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Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner crew ship approaches the International Space Station on the company’s Orbital Flight Test-2 mission before automatically docking to the Harmony module’s forward port. NASA will provide live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, which will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to and from the International Space Station. Launch of the ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket and Boeing Starliner spacecraft is targeted for 12:25 p.m. EDT Saturday, June 1, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral…

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NASA to Provide Coverage of Progress 88 Launch, Space Station Docking

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The Progress 85 cargo craft is seen shortly after undocking from International Space Station on Feb. 12 as it was orbiting 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean. NASA will provide live launch and docking coverage of a Roscosmos cargo spacecraft carrying about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 71 crew aboard the International Space Station. The unpiloted Progress 88 spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 5:43 a.m. EDT (2:43 p.m. Baikonur time) Thursday, May 30, on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Live…

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Hubble Captures a Bright Spiral in the Queen’s Hair

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2 min read Hubble Captures a Bright Spiral in the Queen’s Hair This Hubble Space Telescope image showcases the bright spiral galaxy NGC 4689. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, J. Lee, and the PHANGS-HST Team This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the jewel-bright spiral galaxy NGC 4689, which lies 54 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. This constellation has the distinction of being the only one of the 88 constellations officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as one named after the historical figure, Queen…

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Asteroid-bound Psyche spacecraft fires up ion thrusters, starts cruising through space

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NASA’s mission to the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche has fired up its ion engines and is now cruising across the solar system under the power of solar-electric propulsion. The launch of the spacecraft, which is also called Psyche, on October 13, 2023 gave it enough of an initial boost to take it across more than 190 million miles (300 million kilometers) of space, which is beyond the orbit of Mars.  Now, however, its onboard ion engines have taken over the job of acceleration. They work by converting sunlight into electricity…

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NASA, Mission Partners to Discuss Starliner Crew Flight Test Progress

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A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen as it is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky As NASA, Boeing, and ULA (United Launch Alliance) continue to evaluate a path toward launching the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, they will host a joint media teleconference at 11 a.m. EDT Friday, May 24. The agency is working toward a launch at 12:25 p.m., Saturday, June 1, for the first crewed flight…

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