Tag: Missions

NASA Invites Media to Mars Sample Return Update

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NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT, Monday, April 15, to discuss the agency’s response to a Mars Sample Return Independent Review Board report from September 2023, including next steps for the program. The teleconference will livestream at: https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv Mars Sample Return has been a major long-term goal of international planetary exploration for the past two decades. NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting compelling science samples that will help scientists understand the geological history of Mars, the evolution of its climate, and prepare for future human explorers. The…

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Hubble Spots a Galaxy Hidden in a Dark Cloud

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2 min read Hubble Spots a Galaxy Hidden in a Dark Cloud This Hubble image features the spiral galaxy IC 4633. ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Acknowledgement: L. Shatz The subject of this image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the spiral galaxy IC 4633, located 100 million light-years away from us in the constellation Apus. IC 4633 is a galaxy rich in star-forming activity and also hosts an active galactic nucleus at its core. From our point of view, the galaxy is tilted mostly…

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NASA, Japan Advance Space Cooperation, Sign Agreement for Lunar Rover

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NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, and Japan’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Masahito Moriyama, hold signed copies of an historic agreement between the United States and Japan to advance sustainable human exploration of the Moon, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, at the NASA Headquarters Mary W. Jackson Building in Washington. Under the agreement, Japan will design, develop, and operate a pressurized rover for crewed and uncrewed exploration on the Moon. NASA will provide the launch and delivery of the rover to the Moon as well as two Japanese…

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NASA Astronaut Loral O’Hara, Crewmates Return from Space Station

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Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara gives a thumbs up inside the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft after she, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya, landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Saturday, April 6, 2024. O’Hara is returning to Earth after logging 204 days in space as a member of Expeditions 69-70 aboard the International Space Station and Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya return after having spent the last 14 days in space. NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara returned to Earth after a six-month…

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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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