Tag: Space Exploration

Perseverance Mars rover finds ‘one-of-a-kind treasure’ on Red Planet’s Silver Mountain

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The Perseverance Mars rover has collected a rock sample on Mars unlike any other it has picked up so far. NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently exploring hills and rocky outcrops along the rim of Jezero Crater, where it has been collecting rock samples to reveal the area’s geological history. This week, NASA announced that the robotic explorer picked up a “one-of-a-kind treasure” in the form of a 1.1-inch (2.9-centimeter) rock sample from an area known as “Silver Mountain.” “My 26th sample, known as ‘Silver Mountain,’ has textures unlike anything we’ve…

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Hubble Space Telescope spots a spectacular Bullseye in deep space (image)

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope managed to capture an incredible image of a galaxy that looks an awful lot like a bullseye. “This was a serendipitous discovery,” said Imad Pasha, the lead researcher and a doctoral student at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in a statement. “I was looking at a ground-based imaging survey and when I saw a galaxy with several clear rings, I was immediately drawn to it. I had to stop to investigate it.” In reality, this striking pattern formed 50 million years ago, when a small…

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SpaceX to launch water-hunting moon probe ‘Lunar Trailblazer’ on Feb. 26

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LITTLETON, Colorado — A university-led lunar orbiter designed to pinpoint the location of ice or liquid water trapped in rocks on the moon’s surface is nearly ready for takeoff. The Lunar Trailblazer is slated to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Feb. 26 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will fly as a “rideshare” along with the primary payload — the Athena lunar lander, built by Houston company Intuitive Machines. Here within a Lockheed Martin clean room, where it underwent final grooming ahead of…

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SpaceX launches 2 Maxar Earth-observing satellites toward orbit (video, photos)

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SpaceX launched two Earth-imaging satellites today (Feb. 4), further building out Maxar Technologies’ sharp-eyed WorldView Legion constellation. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the WorldView Legion 5 and 6 satellites lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida today at 6:13 p.m. EST (2313 GMT). The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth about eight minutes after launch as planned, touching down at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door to KSC. The first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket heads back to Earth for a…

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Blue Origin to launch New Shepard moon-gravity mission on Feb. 4 after glitch

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Blue Origin is now targeting Tuesday (Feb. 4) for its first-ever moon-gravity mission. The company first tried to launch the NS-29 mission of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle on Jan. 28, but called off that try due to uncooperative weather and an issue with the rocket’s avionics. But everything appears to be in order now. Blue Origin, which is run by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, plans to fly the uncrewed NS-29 on Tuesday morning. If all goes according to plan, New Shepard — a reusable rocket-capsule combo — will lift…

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Newly-launched Indian satellite left stranded by propulsion problem

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India just launched its first mission of 2025. The Indian Space Research Organisation‘s (ISRO) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on schedule today at 7:53 p.m. EST (0053 GMT and 6:23 a.m. local time on Jan. 29). It was the 100th launch overall from the storied spaceport, which lies on the barrier island Sriharikota, off India’s southeastern coast. The first orbital liftoff from the site occurred in August 1979, according to The Hindu. NVS-02 was expected to take up a position along the geostationary…

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SpaceX launching 21 Starlink satellites from Florida on Feb. 3

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SpaceX is set to launch another batch of Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida’s Space Coast early Monday morning (Feb. 3) A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink spacecraft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Monday during a four-hour window that opens at 3:54 a.m. EST (0854 GMT). SpaceX will livestream the action via its X account, beginning about five minutes before launch. If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about eight…

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Astronaut’s mission ‘back to Earth’ lands on colorful spacesuit patch

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A former NASA astronaut who has made it her mission to promote the healing power of art and the need to protect our planet has inspired a new, limited-edition collectible with its own complementary cause. Nicole Stott, who was the first person to paint with watercolors in space, returned from the International Space Station (ISS) with a greater appreciation for saving our planet. She also had an idea for how to encourage pediatric cancer patients by involving them in a worldwide space art project. Now another creative effort has embraced…

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SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites to orbit from California (video)

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SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from California today (Feb. 1). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 6:02 p.m. EST (2302 GMT). The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff as planned, touching down in the Pacific Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You.” The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on the deck of a drone ship shortly after launching 22 Starlink internet…

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Watch Japan launch navigation satellite on its 1st mission of 2025 on Feb. 2

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「みちびき6号機」（準天頂衛星）／H3ロケット5号機打上げライブ中継 – YouTube Watch On Japan will launch its first mission of the year early Sunday morning (Feb. 2), and you can watch the action live. An H3 rocket is scheduled to launch the Michibiki 6 navigation satellite from Tanegashima Space Center on Sunday during a two-hour window that opens at 3:30 a.m. EST (0830 GMT; 5:30 p.m. local Japan time). You can watch the liftoff live here at Space.com, courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or directly via JAXA. Coverage will begin 40 minutes before the window opens.…

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