Tag: Missions

Hubble Peers at Pair of Closely Interacting Galaxies

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2 min read Hubble Peers at Pair of Closely Interacting Galaxies This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features Arp 72. ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Galbany, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features Arp 72, a very selective galaxy group that only includes two galaxies interacting due to gravity: NGC 5996 (the large spiral galaxy) and NGC 5994 (its smaller companion, in the lower left of the image). Both galaxies lie approximately 160 million light-years from Earth, and their cores are separated from each…

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NASA Selects Companies to Advance Moon Mobility for Artemis Missions

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An artist’s concept design of NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle. NASA NASA has selected Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab to advance capabilities for a lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) that Artemis astronauts will use to travel around the lunar surface, conducting scientific research during the agency’s Artemis campaign at the Moon and preparing for human missions to Mars. The awards leverage NASA’s expertise in developing and operating rovers to build commercial capabilities that support scientific discovery and long-term human exploration on the Moon. NASA intends to begin using the LTV for…

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NASA Sets Coverage for Astronaut Loral O’Hara, Crewmates Return

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NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara uses a portable glovebag to replace components on a biological printer, the BioFabrication Facility (BFF), that is testing the printing of organ-like tissues in microgravity. NASA Three crew members are scheduled to begin their return to Earth on Friday, April 5, from the International Space Station. NASA will provide live coverage of their departure from the orbital complex and landing. NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus will depart from the station’s Rassvet…

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NASA Astronaut Don Pettit to Conduct Science During Fourth Mission

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NASA astronaut Don Pettit poses for a crew portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. NASA During his fourth mission to the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Don Pettit will serve as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 71/72 crew. After blasting off to space, Pettit will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare crew for future space missions. Pettit will launch on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft in September 2024, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. The trio will spend approximately six…

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Euclid ‘dark universe’ telescope’s vision restored by deicing campaign

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The Euclid “dark universe” probe’s ailing vision has been restored after an experimental deicing campaign successfully evaporated ice from the telescope’s mirrors, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced on Tuesday (March 26).    Ice layers as wide as a single DNA strand had collected on Euclid‘s mirrors, causing a small but progressive decrease in the amount of starlight the telescope was capturing, the agency said last week. So, scientists began “deicing” Euclid for the first time — from a million miles away — by heating one of its six mirrors…

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NASA Sets Coverage for Crew Launch; Trio to Join Expedition 70

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NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus pose for a portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center on Nov. 2, 2023 Credits: GCTC/Andrey Shelepin Three crew members will blast off on Thursday, March 21, to support Expedition 70 aboard the International Space Station. NASA will provide full coverage of launch and crew arrival at the microgravity laboratory. NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, are scheduled to lift off on the Roscosmos…

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Hubble Views a Galaxy Under Pressure

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2 min read Hubble Views a Galaxy Under Pressure This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows dwarf galaxy, LEDA 42160. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows LEDA 42160, a galaxy about 52 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The dwarf galaxy is one of many forcing its way through the comparatively dense gas in the massive Virgo cluster of galaxies. The pressure exerted by this intergalactic gas, known as ram pressure, has dramatic effects on star formation in LEDA 42160. The gas…

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Splashdown! NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 Finishes Mission, Returns to Earth

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Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, left, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa, and Borisov are returning after nearly six-months in space as part of Expedition 70 aboard the International Space Station. NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 completed the agency’s seventh commercial crew…

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Peering Into the Tendrils of NGC 604 with NASA’s Webb

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4 Min Read Peering Into the Tendrils of NGC 604 with NASA’s Webb Star-forming region NGC 604. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI The formation of stars and the chaotic environments they inhabit is one of the most well-studied, but also mystery-shrouded, areas of cosmic investigation. The intricacies of these processes are now being unveiled like never before by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Two new images from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) showcase star-forming region NGC 604, located in the Triangulum galaxy (M33), 2.73 million light-years away…

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Luxembourg Leaders Focus on Lunar Exploration at Visit to NASA Ames

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Using the Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbeds at NASA’s Ames Research Center, a team created this simulated lunar environment to study lighting conditions experienced at the unexplored poles of the Moon.  NASA/Uland Wong The challenges of working on the surface of the Moon are at the center of a facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbeds help scientists and engineers – from NASA and industry alike – study how well science instruments, robots, and people might be able to safely work,…

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