Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 28, 2021
Ingenuity has come a long way from its original airfield, "Wright Brothers Field," which is 0.64 miles (1.04 kilometers) to the northeast of our current location. We got here during Flight 9, an endeavor that had our helicopter breaking several of our own records as we relocated to the far side of the "Seitah" geologic unit. Covering 2,051 feet (625 meters), Flight 9 was executed so that Ingenui

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 28, 2021
Two asteroids (203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia) have been discovered with a redder spectrum than any other object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The discovery was led by HASEGAWA Sunao, Associate Senior Researcher at ISAS JAXA, with an international team of researchers from MIT, the University of Hawai'i, Seoul National University, Kyoto University and the Laboratoire d'Astrophysiqu

Reno NV (SPX) Jul 28, 2021
Recent developments related to Space are simply astonishing. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, went to space just a few days ago on July 20, 2021 on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. Blue Origin is a space tourism company founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000. In addition to the brother of Jeff Bezos (Mark Bezos), the two other passengers in the trip were Wally Funk (82), who became the oldest person to go

Washington DC (SPX) Jul 27, 2021
For the first time, astronomers have uncovered evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. This water vapor forms when ice from the moon's surface sublimates - that is, turns from solid to gas. Scientists used new and archival datasets from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to make the discovery, published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Previous research has offere

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Jul 27, 2021
Fifty years ago, Apollo 15 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, sending Commander David R. Scott, Command Module Pilot Alfred M. Worden, and Lunar Module Pilot James B. Irwin on the first of three Apollo "J" missions. These missions gave astronauts the opportunity to explore the Moon for longer periods using upgraded and more plentiful scientific instruments than ever before. Apollo 15 wa

by Francis Reddy for GSFC News
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 27, 2021 On Aug. 26, 2020, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a pulse of high-energy radiation that had been racing toward Earth for nearly half the present age of the universe. Lasting only about a second, it turned out to be one for the record books - the shortest gamma-ray burst (GRB) caused by the death of a massive star ever seen. GRBs are the most

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Jul 27, 2021
The unpiloted Russian Progress 77 cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station while attached to the Pirs docking compartment at 6:55 a.m. EDT. The spacecraft will reenter Earth's atmosphere and harmlessly burn up over the south Pacific. The mission launched and docked to the space station in February delivering more than a ton of cargo to the Expedition 65 crew. De

Toronto, Canada (SPX) Jul 27, 2021
MDA Ltd. has been awarded a $35.3 million contract from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for the design of the Gateway External Robotics Interfaces (GERI), a key component of Canadarm3 which will be installed on the international Lunar Gateway. MDA has completed Phase A, the system definition phase of this GERI project. This new contract award covers the preliminary and detailed design of t

Fino Mornasco, Italy (SPX) Jul 27, 2021
D-Orbit, the space logistics and transportation company, announced that it has successfully completed the deployment phase of its WILD RIDE mission. As part of this phase, D-Orbit's ION Satellite Carrier (ION), the company's proprietary space transportation vehicle, successfully deployed all six satellites hosted onboard and will now proceed with the in-orbit demonstration of 12 hosted payloads.

Beijing (XNA) Jul 27, 2021
Three Chinese astronauts have been living and working in China's space station core module Tianhe for more than a month. They are scheduled to stay in space for three months. The astronauts have been exercising, maintaining healthy diets and undergoing regular check-ups to reduce the effects of living in a microgravity environment. Scientists have found that microgravity weakens both