Blog Archive

Planetary Radio is Back on iTunes!

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/06/14 10:38 CDT

With help from Apple, we've once again made Planetary Radio, our weekly podcast and public radio series, available from the most popular spot on the Net to find and subscribe to podcasts.

China readies three taikonauts for station visit

Posted by Jason Davis on 2012/06/13 11:05 CDT | 1 comments

The stage is set for China’s space program to make history this weekend, as it prepares to send three taikonauts to visit Tiangong-1, the country’s first space station.

Successful launch for NuSTAR on a Pegasus XL

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/13 11:50 CDT

NuSTAR, the most sensitive X-ray telescope ever developed, launched successfully at 16:00 UT. This was a fun launch to watch, because the launch vehicle was a Pegasus XL air-launched rocket, dropped like a bomb from open bay doors of an L-1011 airplane.

Steins, a jewel in the asteroid belt

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/13 09:00 CDT | 1 comments

A notice of some new names for features on asteroid 2867 Steins inspired me to dig up the data set from the September 5, 2008 Rosetta flyby and explore it to see what it contained.

Hold the Moon in Your Hands

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/12 04:49 CDT | 5 comments

Sky & Telescope and Replogle Globes teamed up to take advantage of the fabulous new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image mosaic of the Moon to make an equally fabulous new Moon globe.

Curiosity's shrinking landing ellipse

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/11 12:32 CDT | 6 comments

There was good news and bad news in this morning's press briefing about Curiosity rover's upcoming landing on Mars, just eight weeks from now. First, the good news: the landing ellipse has shrunk. The bad news: there's a contamination problem with the drill, and the Odyssey orbiter is in safe mode.