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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
NASA and NOAA Hit Again by Across-the-Board Budget Cuts
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed appropriations bills that will provide $8.1 billion disaster aid for this year's
NASA Changes Approach to Send Astronauts Back to Orbit
NASA had planned to release next Monday an RFP (Request for Proposals) in its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. However, due to a funding shortfall, the agency will instead continue to use Space Act Agreements to contract for the development.
Expedition 30, SpaceX and Stratolaunch
An update on upcoming missions to the International Space Station (ISS).
MalloMars Rover: Search for S'more Data
Abigail Fraeman took third place in the Washington Post's 2011 Style Invitational edible-art contest with her entry,
What do we know about planetary rings? Quite a lot, actually!
A summary of a new article by Matt Tiscareno about planetary ring systems that reviews the known ring systems of the four giant planets and the prospects for ring systems yet to be discovered.
Video: Comet Lovejoy entered SOHO's LASCO C3 field of view this morning!
An animation of comet Lovejoy entering the field of view of one of SOHO's Sun-monitoring cameras.
Anahita's first eclipse
Emily wakes up her 5-year-old daughter to experience her first lunar eclipse.
Pretty picture: Mimas scuttles behind Dione
Images from the Cassini spacecraft's flyby of Dione.
Phobos-Grunt: all but over, a letter from IKI
A letter sent by Lev Zelenyi, director of the Russian Space Research Institute (IKI) to participants in the Phobos-Soil project about the mission's failure.
Mariner 9 approaching Mars: a movie!
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Mariner 9's November 13, 1971 arrival at Mars, Daniel Macháček has produced a morphed animation of the images that Mars' first orbiter took while approaching the planet.
Notes on Dawn at Vesta from the 2011 American Geophysical Union meeting
A report on the press briefing and talks from the Fall 2011 American Geophyisical Union meeting about the data on Vesta collected so far by Dawn.
Mars Exploration Rovers Special Update: Opportunity Finds Best Evidence Yet for Liquid Water in Gypsum at Homestake
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has discovered gypsum and its
Good news, everyone: We're getting as good at space weather forecasts as we are at Earth weather forecasts
Emily reports from the Fall 2011 American Geophyisical Union meeting about advancements in space weather prediction.
Sungrazing with Lovejoy's Comet
Observations of the newly sighted Kreutz sungrazer comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) from the ground and from SOHO (a joint NASA/ESA satellite) and STEREO (NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory).
From the 2011 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU): Voyager 1 at the edge of the solar system
A report on a press briefing about Voyager 1 at the Fall 2011 American Geophyisical Union meeting. The spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space, which scientists are calling the stagnation region.
Curiosity, from a 1935 perspective
With a new rover, Curiosity, on its way to Mars, Jason Davis takes a look at what we knew - or thought we knew - about the planet back in 1935.
Reviews of space-themed books for kids ages 7 and up
OK, this is my last pile of book reviews for this year: a collection of good books for kids older than mine.
ESA is ending ground station support for Phobos-Grunt
After modifying two antennas and attempting to send commands to Phobos-Grunt for weeks without success, ESA has made the decision to stop tracking support.
First-ever high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar image of Enceladus
On the November 6, 2011 flyby of Enceladus -- the third such flyby in just a few weeks -- the Cassini mission elected to take a SAR swath instead of using the optical instruments for once. So here it is: the first-ever SAR swath on Enceladus. In fact, the only other places we've ever done SAR imaging are Earth, the Moon, Venus, Iapetus, and Titan.
One-astronaut game of baseball in the International Space Station
A fun video of Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa playing baseball aboard the ISS.



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