Articles

Emily Lakdawalla

Emily Lakdawalla introduces an at-a-glance spacecraft locator to The Planetary Report.

Mattias Malmer

Mattias Malmer made it a little easier to figure out what Philae really saw in 2014.

Kate Howells

On 7 September, down the street from the NAFTA meetings in Washington D.C., the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a meeting of many thought leaders from both countries to discuss a point of uncertainty in the Canada-United States relationship: collaboration in space.

Emily Lakdawalla

Hayabusa2 didn’t quite make it down to its intended 60-meter distance from asteroid Ryugu yesterday. There is nothing wrong with the spacecraft; it’s healthy and returning to its home position. The team will adjust parameters and give it another try in the future.

Jason Davis

This Saturday, the final Delta II rocket will launch NASA's ICESat-2 spacecraft into orbit.

A.J.S. Rayl

The dust raising power of the storms that wrapped Mars in a cloud in June and July diminished in August. Meanwhile, on Earth, the Opportunity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reviewed recovery plans, conducted additional simulations, and began wrapping the month with newfound reasons to believe Opportunity can emerge from her hibernation.

Emily Lakdawalla

Heedless of the (now-dissipating) dust storm, Curiosity has achieved its first successful drill into rocks that form the Vera Rubin ridge, and is hopefully on the way to a second. It took three attempts for Curiosity to find a soft enough spot, with Voyageurs and Ailsa Craig being too tough, but Stoer proved obligingly soft on sol 2136.

Jason Davis

NASA is planning for a 30-day mission to lunar orbit in 2024.

Marc Rayman

Like its human colleagues, Dawn started out on Earth, but now its permanent residence in the solar system, Ceres, is far, far away. Let's bring this cosmic landscape into perspective.

Marc Rayman

A fantastic story of adventure, exploration and discovery is reaching its denouement. In the final phase of its long and productive deep-space mission, Dawn is operating flawlessly in orbit around dwarf planet Ceres.

Emily Lakdawalla

Both OSIRIS-REx and New Horizons achieved first light on their still-distant targets this week. Between now and the end of 2018, Bennu and 2014 MU69 will turn from points of light into places.

Jason Davis

The names were collected by the Society in 2013, and are stored on target markers that will be dropped on the asteroid.

Emily Lakdawalla

Two months after arrival, the team has reported some preliminary facts about Ryugu. They also announced the selection of candidate landing sites for the spacecraft sample collection, for the German-built MASCOT hopper, and for the MINERVA-II microrovers

Sandhya Ramesh

The announcement came as a surprise to many people within ISRO, the country's space agency.

Casey Dreier

Have questions about Space Force? We have answers.

Jason Davis

It was a signal from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, not Opportunity, that showed up on a Deep Space Network dashboard last week.

Casey Dreier

Though progress is being made on Mars Sample Return, a new report from the National Academies recommends NASA have a long-term plan for robotic Mars exploration, and work to ensure communications infrastructure is maintained at the Red Planet. These recommendations largely align with those made by The Planetary Society in a report released in 2017.

Andrew Jones

The Chang'e-4 spacecraft will launch on December 7 toward a farside landing, making use of a relay satellite to stay in touch with Earth.

Jason Davis

Let's check in on NASA's Juno spacecraft, which completed its 14th close flyby of Jupiter last month.

Adeene Denton

A lack of new missions keeps scientists guessing on what shaped the planet’s surface.