Kashif Zafar

NASA’s Lucy mission is heading to the Jupiter Trojans – two swarms of primitive asteroids trapped in Jupiter’s orbit that may hold clues to the formation of the planets. Lucy launched on October 16, 2021. After a year in orbit around the Sun, it is returning home on its launch anniversary for the first of three Earth gravity assists. On October 16, 2022, Lucy will fly by the Earth like a partner in a swing dance, boosting its speed and elongating its orbit around the Sun. At 7:04 am, Eastern Time, Lucy will make its closest approach at just 219 miles above the planet: lower than the International Space Station. This exceptionally close shave will increase its velocity by four-and-a-half miles per second, setting Lucy on track to gain even more speed when it returns to Earth for its second gravity assist in December 2024.

NASA's next outer solar system mission, Europa Clipper, will gather detailed measurements of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Scientists think the intriguing moon may contain a salty ocean below a miles-thick ice shell, and the Europa Clipper mission - which is scheduled for launch in 2024 - will investigate whether it could have conditions suitable for life. Join us Sept 28th at 1:00 pm PT for a live Q&A from JPL's High Bay 1 clean room and see Europa Clipper up close in the early stages of assembly. We'll discuss what we want to learn from Europa and what kind of instruments we will use to explore it with project staff scientist Cynthia Phillips and project system engineer Jennifer Dooley.

"Best day of my whole life. Ever." Watch the reactions of a group of students, joined by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana, who hopped on a tour bus at Kennedy Space Center for an opportunity of a lifetime to view the Artemis I Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft in the Vehicle Assembly Building's High Bay 3. #Artemis I is scheduled to launch no earlier than Aug. 29 at 8:33 a.m. EDT from the center’s Launch Complex 39B on a flight test around the Moon and back to Earth.

After months aboard the International Space Station, the astronauts of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission are returning home. Traveling back to Earth inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. During their time aboard the orbiting laboratory, these crew members contributed to ongoing and new scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, work that is helping to prepare humans for future space exploration missions and generating innovations and benefits for humanity on Earth.

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is filling sample tubes with rocky material on the Red Planet as the agency works on the next steps to get them safely back to Earth. The Mars Sample Return campaign would bring samples collected by the Perseverance rover to Earth for detailed study. The campaign involves an international interplanetary relay team, including the European Space Agency (ESA). These samples could answer a key question: did life ever exist on Mars? Aaron Yazzie, who works on the Mars Sample Return campaign, explains the work being done at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to ensure the safe return of the sample tubes.