Articles

Jason Davis

Launch is currently set for 19 February, and Beresheet will spend two months traveling to the Moon ahead of touchdown in April.

Jason Davis

Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft will try to collect a sample from asteroid Ryugu during the week of 18 February, mission officials said during a press briefing last week.

Emily Lakdawalla

New Horizons is back in action after going quiet for a period of solar conjunction following the 1 January flyby of 2014 MU69 (informally nicknamed

Jason Davis

Everything is going well 9 days after China's Chang'e-4 mission made a historic landing on the far side of the Moon, the country's space program said today.

Emily Lakdawalla

Engineers have leveled the seismometer and made progress on adjusting the position of the tether so that it doesn't interfere for the experiment. Most significantly for the mission, they have balanced the Very Broad Band sensors -- 3 of SEIS’ 6 seismic sensors -- and confirmed that they are generating good data.

David Rothery

In Apollo images — and to our own eyes, from Earth — the Moon is grey. What's going on?

A.J.S. Rayl

It’s now been more than six and a half months that the longest-lived robot on another planet has been incommunicado.

Jason Davis

The rover is named Yutu-2, China's space agency announced.

Emily Lakdawalla

The latest images downlinked from New Horizons show MU69 to be a textbook example of a contact binary. How do contact binaries form? Updated with images released on 3 January.

Jason Davis

It’s a space feat no nation has accomplished until now.

Emily Lakdawalla

New Horizons has

Emily Lakdawalla

Today at 19:43 UTC, OSIRIS-REx entered orbit at asteroid Bennu. In so doing, it accomplished both the tightest orbit (at an altitude under 2 kilometers) and the orbit of the smallest object ever. UPDATE: Early science results from OSIRIS-REx discussed at New Horizons MU69 flyby event.

Emily Lakdawalla

Unaffected by the shutdown of the U.S. government, New Horizons is still on course for its New Year’s encounter with 2014 MU69 (nicknamed “Ultima Thule”). This post collects the latest images from New Horizons' approach to the tiny Kuiper belt object and will be updated regularly.

Ted Stryk

Ted Stryk shows us a new color, near-global view of Europa made from Galileo spacecraft data captured in 1996.

Emily Lakdawalla

It’s been a busy first three weeks on the InSight mission, and they’ve already achieved a major milestone: placing the seismometer on the ground. They've also gathered a self-portrait and 360-degree panorama.

Marc Rayman

After more than 11 years in deep space, after unveiling the two largest uncharted worlds in the inner solar system, after overcoming myriad daunting obstacles, Dawn's interplanetary adventure has come to an end.

Emily Lakdawalla

New Horizons is rapidly approaching its New Year’s encounter with the most distant world ever visited, 2014 MU69. Closest approach will be at a distance of 3,500 kilometers at about 05:33 on 1 January UTC.

Casey Dreier

Casey Dreier assesses the significance of the Apollo program on its 50th anniversary.

Vicky Hamilton

Vicky Hamilton explores how OSIRIS-REx used its Earth flyby to test instruments on the way to asteroid Bennu.

Michael L. Wong

Michael L. Wong asks how our understanding of the origin of life on Earth informs our search for it elsewhere.