Articles

Emily Lakdawalla

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has finally spotted the InSight lander, its parachute, and its heat shield resting on the Martian surface. The images confirm the location of InSight's landing site, a little to the north and west of the center of the landing ellipse. The lander is located at 4.499897° N, 135.616000° E.

Luyuan Xu

Following a 4.6-day cruise, on 12 December at 8:45 Beijing time (16:45 UTC), the spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit, preparing for a landing in early January.

Emily Lakdawalla

Just after a failed drill attempt at Inverness, Curiosity suffered a serious computer problem. The mission has now recovered by switching computers, and has successfully drilled at Highfield. One last drill site in

Emily Lakdawalla

Voyager 2 is now outside the reach of the solar wind, traveling in the interstellar medium. Unlike Voyager 1, Voyager 2 has a working plasma spectrometer so will be doing exciting new science. It is expected to last another 5 to 10 years, though not with all instruments operating.

Jason Davis

OSIRIS-REx team members held a press briefing today at the 2018 American Geophysical Union meeting, and announced that the mission has already found water on asteroid Bennu.

Jason Davis

After a 2-billion-kilometer journey that began in September 2016, NASA's OSIRS-REx spacecraft has arrived at Bennu.

A.J.S. Rayl

The longest-lived Martian explorer remained silent in November, presumably still sleeping at her site halfway down Perseverance Valley, along the western rim of Endeavour Crater.

Casey Dreier

In the brief period of public and political goodwill generated by NASA's latest success at the Red Planet, now is the time to secure a commitment for the next steps at Mars: sample return.

Emily Lakdawalla

There was jubilation when InSight landed, but I'm just as happy to be writing about a distinct InSight event: The flow of raw images sent from Mars, straight to the Web, has begun.

Emily Lakdawalla

InSight touched down on Mars today, bringing NASA's total of successful Mars landers to 8 and total number of active NASA Mars missions to 6.

Casey Dreier

If you're expecting to gather with extended family on Thanksgiving, avoid the politics. Here are some conversation starters to use at the dinner table that everyone can engage in.

Andrew Jones

NASA's Mars 2020 rover isn't the only spacecraft heading to Mars in two years.

Emily Lakdawalla

NASA announced this morning the selection of Jezero crater for the landing site of the Mars 2020 mission. Jezero is a 45-kilometer-wide crater that once held a lake, and now holds a spectacular ancient river delta.

Casey Dreier

John Culberson, an 8-term Texas Republican and staunch supporter the search for life on Europa, lost his re-election bid last week. His support for Europa was attacked by opponents and could send a chilling political message about the consequences of supporting space science and exploration.

Jason Davis

The spacecraft will spend the end of 2018 a safe distance from Ryugu, as the Sun's position makes communications with Earth spotty.

Emily Lakdawalla

If all goes well, anxious space fans on Earth will learn of a successful InSight landing on Mars on Monday, 26 November 2018, at 19:53 UTC. Here's a preview of all the landing day events.

Judy Schmidt

Judy Schmidt shares the technique she used to make a beautiful new animation of Jupiter.

Jason Davis

SpaceIL, a privately funded Israeli non-profit, will attempt to land a small spacecraft on the Moon in early 2019.

A.J.S. Rayl

October came and went without a beep from Opportunity, silence that was still no surprise for some, but a little discouraging for other members of the rover team.

Jason Davis

NASA's Kepler space telescope helped us find our place in the cosmos.