Tag: Missions

NASA won’t decide on Mars Sample Return plan until mid-2026

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NASA is considering two ways to get its precious Mars samples back to Earth, but the agency won’t pick a winner for another 18 months or so. Analysis of those samples, which are being collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover, could reveal a wealth of data about Mars and its history — including, perhaps, whether the Red Planet has ever hosted life. NASA is therefore eager to get the Mars material — about 30 cigar-sized, sealed tubes containing rock cores and sediment — home, and then on to laboratories around the…

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JAXA’s First Wooden Satellite Deploys from Space Station

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Internal view of LignoSat’s structure shows the relationship among wooden panels, aluminum frames, and stainless-steel shafts. Credit: Kyoto University In December 2024, five CubeSats deployed into Earth’s orbit from the International Space Station. Among them was LignoSat, a wooden satellite from JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) that investigates the use of wood in space. Findings could offer a more sustainable alternative to conventional satellites. A previous experiment aboard station exposed three species of wood to the space environment to help researchers determine the best option for LignoSat. The final design…

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NASA Names Adam Schlesinger as Commercial Lunar Payload Services Project Manager

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Official portrait of Adam Schlesinger. NASA/Bill Stafford NASA has selected Adam Schlesinger as manager for CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services). Schlesinger previously served as the Gateway Program habitation and logistics outpost project lead engineer at Johnson Space Center. “I am honored and tremendously excited to take on this new role as NASA continues to enable a growing lunar economy while leveraging the entrepreneurial innovation of the commercial space industry,” Schlesinger said. Schlesinger brings more than 20 years’ experience to NASA human space flight programs. Prior to supporting Gateway, Mr. Schlesinger managed…

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US Space Force broke its launch record in 2024 with 93 liftoffs

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An impressive 93 United States Space Force launches lifted off from Florida’s coast in 2024, setting a new Space Force record for the second year in a row. Space Launch Delta 45 (SLD 45), headquartered at Patrick Space Force Base in Florida, is a unit of the United States Space Force responsible for managing space launch operations on the East Coast, including launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Last year, SLD 45 — the world’s busiest spaceport in 2024 — saw a record-breaking 93…

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NASA will announce update to Mars sample return plans on Jan. 7. Here’s how to listen in

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The year 2025 isn’t even a week old and NASA is already gearing up for its first big announcement, this one about the agency’s ambitious, yet beleaguered, Mars sample return mission. On Tuesday (Jan. 7), NASA’s top brass will hold an audio-only press conference to update the public on its Mars sample return program. The media briefing will begin at 1:00 p.m. EST (1800 GMT), and you’ll be able to listen in online via NASA’s website. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Nicky Fox, the agency’s associate administrator for science missions,…

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Ireland’s lost Apollo 11 moon rock traced from basement to fire in documents

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New details about the small pieces of the moon gifted by the United States to Ireland in 1970 have now been unearthed. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Apollo 11 lunar samples, themselves. The four moon pebbles, which were embedded in a single lucite ball and mounted to a wooden podium together with a small flag of Ireland that was flown on NASA’s first lunar landing, was one of 135 such goodwill presentations that the U.S. made to foreign countries following the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Additional…

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NASA’s Orion crew capsule had heat shield issues during Artemis 1 − an aerospace expert weighs in (op-ed)

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Marcos Fernandexz Tous is a professor of aerospace technology at the University of North Dakota. Off the coast of Baja California in December 2022, sun sparkled over the rippling sea as waves sloshed around the USS Portland dock ship. Navy officials on the deck scrutinized the sky in search of a sign. The glow appeared suddenly. A tiny spot at first, it gradually grew to a round circle falling at…

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Piece of Apollo 11 spacecraft ‘lands’ in moon meteorite-lined wedding ring

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For better or for worse, a small part of the Apollo 11 spacecraft will now be Jon Mesick’s to have and to hold for all the days of his life. The strip of golden thermal polyimide tape, which made the trip to the moon with the first astronauts to land there in 1969, is now the centerpiece of Mesick’s custom wedding band made by the Honest Hands Rings Company of Morrison, Colorado. The ring, which also incorporates lunar meteorite, is the focus of a newly posted online video that highlights…

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NASA delays Artemis missions again. What could this mean for the moon, Mars and space leadership?

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NASA’s first two crewed Artemis moon missions have been pushed back to 2026 and 2027, respectively, and the move could have big ramifications for the agency’s Artemis program and competition with China for leadership in space. Artemis 2, which will send a crew of three Americans and a Canadian astronaut around the moon, was due to launch in September 2025. The mission has now been moved back to April 2026, NASA announced on Dec. 5. Artemis 3 — which is set to put humans on the surface of our nearest…

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Station Science Top News: Dec. 20, 2024

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A method for evaluating thermophysical properties of metal alloys Simulation of the solidification of metal alloys, a key step in certain industrial processes, requires reliable data on their thermophysical properties such as surface tension and viscosity. Researchers propose comparing predictive models with experimental outcomes as a method to assess these data. Scientists use data on surface tension and viscosity of titanium-based alloys in industrial processes such as casting and crystal growth. Non-Equilibrium Solidification, Modelling for Microstructure Engineering of Industrial Alloys, an ESA (European Space Agency) investigation, examined the microstructure and…

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