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A commercial resupply mission heads to the space station, a key piece of hardware for a future Moon mission is on the move, and another spacecraft gets ready to spread its wings in deep space … a few of the stories to tell you about

When it comes to space, humans and robots go way back. We rely heavily on our mechanical friends to perform tasks that are too dangerous, difficult, or out of reach for us humans. We’re even working on a new generation of robots that will help us explore in advanced and novel ways. Learn more about the CADRE—Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration—project and how this new network of mini rovers could enable future self-guided robotic exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond. https://go.nasa.gov/3k5EuZx Producers: Scott Bednar, Jessica Wilde Editor: James Lucas

On May 16, 2023, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew past Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, and then the gas giant soon after. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Slightly larger than Earth’s moon, Io is a world in constant torment. Not only is the biggest planet in the solar system forever pulling at it gravitationally, but so are its Galilean siblings – Europa and the biggest moon in the solar system, Ganymede. The result is that Io is continuously stretched and squeezed, actions linked to the creation of the lava seen erupting from its many volcanoes. This rendering provides a “starship captain” point of view of the flyby, using images from JunoCam. For both targets, Io and Jupiter, raw JunoCam images were reprojected into views similar to the perspective of a consumer camera. The Io flyby and the Jupiter approach movie were rendered separately and composed into a synchronous split-screen video. Launched on Aug. 5, 2011, Juno embarked on a 5-year journey to Jupiter. Its mission: to probe beneath the planet's dense clouds and answer questions about the origin and evolution of Jupiter, our solar system, and giant planets in general across the cosmos. Juno arrived at the gas giant on July 4, 2016, after a 1.7-billion-mile journey, and settled into a 53-day polar orbit stretching from just above Jupiter’s cloud tops to the outer reaches of the Jovian magnetosphere. Now in its extended mission, NASA’s most distant planetary orbiter continues doing flybys of Jupiter and its moons.

What do Metallica and NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon have in common? Both love “Fuel” and fire. See footage of the Artemis I launch scored by Metallica’s “Fuel.” Learn more about how NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft will send four astronauts on a lunar flyby around the Moon for NASA’s Artemis II mission: https://nasa.gov/sls Credit: NASA/Brandon Hancock and Sam Lott

Ride along with NASA’s Orion capsule on the Artemis I mission around the Moon and back. At 1:47 a.m. EST (6:47 UTC) on Nov. 16, 2022, NASA’s Orion spacecraft launched atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from historic Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on a path to the Moon, officially beginning the Artemis I mission. Over the course of 25.5 days, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles (129 kilometers) of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles (435,000 kilometers) from our home planet. NASA’s Orion spacecraft successfully completed a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 9:40 a.m. PST (12:40 p.m. EST) as the final major milestone of the Artemis I mission. Artemis I was the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems – the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and the supporting ground systems – and the first in a series of increasingly complex missions at the Moon. Over the course of the flight test, flight controllers tested Orion’s capabilities in the harsh environment of deep space to prepare for flying astronauts on Artemis II. Through Artemis missions, NASA will establish a long-term lunar presence for scientific discovery and prepare for human missions to Mars.