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Archive

Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.


  • Nov. 16, 2007 | 12:05 PST | 20:05 UTC
    Son of Rosetta
    On the heels of the news last week that the Rosetta spacecraft was spotted by sky surveys and briefly named among the minor planets as 2007 VN84 came another close approach by a newly discovered near-Earth object, designated 2007 VF189, which had an... More»
  • Nov. 15, 2007 | 10:55 PST | 18:55 UTC
    Carnival of Space #29
    Go visit Riding with Robots for this week's carnival of space! And I'll take this opportunity to point out a few new items on this website. Planetary Radio this week featured reports on the upcoming Russian Phobos sample return mision. Lou... More»
  • Nov. 15, 2007 | 10:05 PST | 18:05 UTC
    No descent images or sounds from Phoenix
    A couple of days ago Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) issued a news notice that explains some of the horse-trading that went on behind the scenes to rescue MARDI, the descent imaging camera that they are building for the Mars Science Laboratory... More»
  • Nov. 14, 2007 | 12:47 PST | 20:47 UTC
    Dawn Journal: Halfway through checkout
    Here's another Dawn Journal entry, contributed by Marc Rayman. Marc is the Project System Engineer for the Dawn mission. Thanks Marc! by Dr. Marc D. Rayman Dear Dawnocentrics, Now more than halfway through its 80-day initial checkout phase, the... More»
  • Nov. 14, 2007 | 09:33 PST | 17:33 UTC
    Rosetta's Earth flyby successful; and they got pictures too!
    At 20:57 UTC yesterday, Rosetta passed within 6,000 kilometers of Earth, picking up a gravity assist for a change in speed and direction, routing it onward to -- Earth. It'll be coming back for its last visit in two years; in the meantime, though,... More»
  • Nov. 13, 2007 | 11:08 PST | 19:08 UTC
    Rosetta is closing in on Earth
    We're less than an hour away from Rosetta's Earth flyby; closest approach will happen south of South America at 20:57 UTC. The Rosetta flyby blog has some neat photos of screens of data being transmitted real-time from the spacecraft. Images don't... More»
  • Nov. 13, 2007 | 09:43 PST | 17:43 UTC
    Earthrise and Earthset from Kaguya
    Kaguya has delivered on its promise to send high-definition movies from the Moon, and it was worth the wait. This morning JAXA and the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) released several still images and a movie showing an Earthrise and an... More»
  • Nov. 12, 2007 | 15:13 PST | 23:13 UTC
    Happy second birthday to Venus Express
    Last week, Venus Express passed the two-year mark in space. That spacecraft only took five months to get to Venus orbit, which is just about as fast as you can make it to another planet, which means they've been taking data for more than a year and... More»
  • Nov. 9, 2007 | 15:48 PST | 23:48 UTC
    Planetary Society statement on MARDI and ChemCam restoration
    We just posted a more official response to last night's welcome news of the restoration of two erstwhile descoped science instruments to the next Mars rover mission, MSL, to be launched in 2009. Here it is:Yesterday, NASA Associate Administrator... More»
  • Nov. 9, 2007 | 15:38 PST | 23:38 UTC
    That's no near-Earth object, it's a spaceship!
    Whenever I am out at night with my husband and I point to the sky and say, "that's Venus" or "look, that's Saturn, see how yellow it is," he likes to burst my bubble by saying "no, it's just a plane." Every great once in a while, I'm sad to say,... More»