Articles

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.

Casey Dreier

The Planetary Society's Space Policy and Advocacy team publishes quarterly reports on their activities, actions, priorities, and goals in service of their efforts to promote space science and exploration in Washington, D.C.

Emily Lakdawalla

Chandrayaan-2, expected to launch in October, will now be launching no earlier than 3 January 2019, with its lander and rover touching down in February.

Emily Lakdawalla

This week Hayabusa2 completed its closest approach yet to asteroid Ryugu. In a successful gravity measurement experiment on August 6, the spacecraft dipped to within 1 kilometer of the asteroid.

Jason Davis

This weekend, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft leaves Earth on a mission to touch the Sun.

Casey Dreier

A new report assesses how NASA’s Planetary Science Division has implemented (or not) the top recommendations of the scientific community for the exploration of the solar system.

Jason Davis

LightSail 2's ride to space won't happen until at least November 30, as SpaceX works through a list of other payloads in line to fly first.

Darian Dixon

Mastcam-Z will help the Mars 2020 rover explore the surface of Mars. Dozens of amazing scientists and engineers from across the globe contribute to the development of Mastcam-Z. This year, the team photo was taken with our very own Mastcam-Z testbed unit.

Emily Lakdawalla

For the second time, JAXA navigators have zoomed their cameras and other instruments in on asteroid Ryugu. The August 1 operation was quicker than the previous one, requiring only 26 hours for the descent, science, and ascent.