spaceplus

NASA’s InSight Lander Accomplishes Science Goals on Mars as Power Levels Diminish NASA’s InSight Mars lander is gradually losing power and is anticipated to end science operations later this summer. By December, InSight’s team expects the lander to have become inoperative, concluding a mission that has thus far detected more than 1,300 marsquakes – most recently, a magnitude 5 that occurred on May 4 – and located quake-prone regions of the Red Planet. NASA’s InSight lander touched down in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars in November of 2018. During its time on the Red Planet, InSight has achieved all its primary science goals and continues to hunt for quakes on Mars. The mission is the first to reveal the interior structure of Mars, using marsquakes to study the layers inside the planet. InSight’s seismometer was the first to detect a quake on another planet. InSight also measured weather at Elysium Planitia for four years with a unique set of meteorological sensors. Credit: NASA

Set to lift off on May 19, 2022, Starliner will launch on NASA's Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) headed for the International Space Station. OFT-2 will test end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner spacecraft and Atlas V rocket from launch to docking to a return to Earth in the desert of the western United States. Starliner is expected to arrive at the space station for docking about 24 hours after launch with about 500 pounds of NASA cargo and crew supplies. After a successful docking, Starliner will spend five to 10 days aboard the orbiting laboratory before returning to Earth. The spacecraft will return with nearly 600 pounds of cargo, including reusable Nitrogen Oxygen Recharge System (NORS) tanks that provide breathable air to station crew members. Following a successful completion of OFT-2, NASA and Boeing will determine a launch window for NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, Starliner’s first flight with astronauts aboard. This is the second uncrewed flight test of the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Credit: NASA

SpaceX on Wednesday, May 18 at 6:59 am ET. Launched a Falcon 9 Rocket with 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Arabsat-6A, STP-2, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2, and one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth and landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: SpaceX

A total, lunar eclipse occurred late evening of May 15, Early Morning May 16, 2022 The total phase of this Blood Moon total lunar eclipse was visible across North and South America, plus parts of Europe and Africa. Regions seeing, at least, some parts of the eclipse: South/West Europe, South/West Asia, Africa, Much of North America, South America, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Antarctica. Video Credit: Griffith Observatory

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

On Saturday, May 14 at 4:40 p.m. ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. First stage landed on Drone Ship “Just Read The Instructions” in the Atlantic Ocean, Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX is Launched Friday, May 13 a Falcon 9 with 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, DART, and two Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth and landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: SpaceX

The Webb Telescope is closer to starting its mission of science, an historic look at the center of our galaxy, and the Crew-3 astronauts reflect on their mission … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA! Credit: NASA

Launched from Pad A at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula, the “There And Back Again” mission was Rocket Lab’s 26th Electron launch. The “There And Back Again” mission deployed 34 satellites to a sun synchronous orbit for a variety of customers including Alba Orbital, Astrix Astronautics, Aurora Propulsion Technologies, E-Space, Spaceflight Inc., and Unseenlabs, and brought the total number of satellites launched by Electron to 146. “There And Back Again” was also a recovery mission where, for the first time, Rocket Lab caught Electron’s first stage as it returned from space under parachutes using a helicopter. The successful catch brings Electron one step closer to being the first reusable orbital small sat launcher. Credit: Eocket Lab

On Friday, April 22nd, SpinLaunch conducted Flight Test 8 where the engineering team tested their first optical camera payload in their Suborbital Accelerator. Check out this exclusive onboard footage that shows the perspective of the 3-meter flight test vehicle being launched into the atmosphere at more than a thousand miles per hour. Flying with the digital camera system onboard marks an important step towards integrating complex payloads into SpinLaunch flight test vehicles. Comprised of the key components needed for the Orbital Launch System, the Suborbital Accelerator is a critical steppingstone in SpinLaunch's path to orbit and providing customers with low-cost, sustainable access to space. Credit: Spinlaunch

The fifth & final astronaut servicing mission to Hubble launched OTD in 2009! This mission brought Hubble to the apex of its scientific capabilities. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

In episode two of NASA’s Johnson Down to Earth Conversations, astronaut Sunita Williams and environmental studies student Adrien Prouty explore what it's like to conduct a spacewalk on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

The Crew-3 astronauts return from the space station, the spacecraft for another commercial crew mission is on the move, and discussing NASA’s budget … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA! Credit: NASA

SpaceX on Friday, May 6 at 5:42 a.m. ET, or 9:42 UTC, Launched a Falcon 9 Rocket with a load of 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched previously launched Crew Demo-2, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, Transporter-3, and six Starlink missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will returned to Earth and landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: SpaceX

After 177 days in space, Dragon and Crew-3 astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer returned to Earth and splashed down off the coast of Florida at 12:43 a.m. ET on Friday, May 6. Falcon 9 launched Dragon and the Crew-3 astronauts to the orbiting laboratory on Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 9:03 p.m. ET from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Join the journey as NASA’s Psyche mission team launches in 2022 to explore a unique metallic asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid, likely made largely of nickel-iron metal mixed with rock, could contain metal from the core of a planetesimal (the building block of an early rocky planet) and may offer a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created the terrestrial planets like Earth. Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. JPL, which is managed by Caltech for NASA, is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis. Credit: NASA

SpaceX and NASA on Thursday, May 5 at 1:15 a.m. ET, 5:15 UTC, Dragon and the Crew-3 astronauts autonomously undocked from the International Space Station and returning to Earth. After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison its trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of Florida approximately 23.5 hours later on Friday, May 6 at 12:43 a.m. ET, 4:43 UTC. Aboard the spacecraft are Crew-3 astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer, who flew to the space station on Dragon when Falcon 9 launched the spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 9:03 p.m. ET. Credit: SpaceX NASA

Aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn handed over command of the International Space Station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev during a change of command ceremony May 4. Farewell remarks also took place ahead of Crew-3 undocking and splashdown following their six-month mission aboard the orbital outpost. Marshburn and Artemyev are in the midst of long duration missions living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions Credit: NASA

In honor of Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, learn about the intersection of food and culture in space from NASA astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams, whose father immigrated to the U.S. from India, and International Space Station (ISS) food scientist/system manager Xulei Wu, a first-generation Asian American born in China. Hear their stories about cultural representation in space, the importance of food in Indian and Chinese cultures, and the inclusive standard menu aboard the ISS. Credit: NASA

Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, recently received samples of the lunar surface that have been curated in a freezer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston since Apollo 17 astronauts returned them to Earth in December 1972. This research is part of the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program, or ANGSA, an effort to study the samples returned from the Apollo Program in advance of the upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon’s South Pole. Credit: NASA

Rocket Lab showed how their Custom Sikorsky Helicopter catches the rocket coming back from space Credit: Rocket Lab

At 6:35pm EDT on April 29 (1035hrs on April 30 NZST) The “There And Back Again” mission Electron deployed 34 satellites to a sun synchronous orbit for a variety of customers including Alba Orbital, Astrix Astronautics, Aurora Propulsion Technologies, E-Space, Spaceflight Inc., and Unseenlabs, and bringing the total number of satellites launched by Electron to 146. “There And Back Again” is also a recovery mission where, for the first time, Rocket Lab will attempted a midair capture of Electron’s first stage as it returned from space using parachutes and a helicopter. Credit: Rocket Lab

The James Webb Space Telescope will spend much of its mission looking at exoplanets to characterize their atmospheric composition, measure their size, and even their climates! But how does it work? Join astrobiologist Dr. Giada Arney from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as she breaks down two of Webb’s transit techniques: transit spectroscopy and the phase curve technique. These methods creatively analyze the reflected and absorbed light of an exoplanet’s star to determine a wealth of planetary information. Webb will also use direct imaging along with the above techniques to characterize exoplanets and other stellar objects. Credit: NASA

Over the past few years, a few unopened Apollo-era lunar samples collected during Apollo 17 have been opened by a team of lunar sample processors and curators in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. These types of core samples, studied under the Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program, or ANGSA, allow scientists to learn more about the permanent, geological record of Earth’s closest celestial neighbor – the Moon. This is Apollo 17 soil sample 73002 use advanced technologies including non-destructive 3D imagery. The sample processing team includes Charis Krysher, Andrea Mosie, Juliane Gross, Ryan Zeigler. Retired NASA astronaut, Dr. Harrison Schmitt, along with Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan, helped collect the original samples from the lunar surface and Schmitt lent his expertise to the modern-day analysis. As part of the agency’s Artemis program, NASA is preparing to go back to the Moon, this time to the South Pole, to find more samples for current and future generations to study. Credit: NASA

German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer has almost completed his first stay aboard the International Space Station ISS. Named Cosmic Kiss, the mission began with the third crewed launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon on 11 November 2021 when Matthias flew to the ISS alongside NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, collectively known as Crew-3. Matthias has now spent around six months in orbit, working on over 35 European and many more international science experiments and taking part in operational procedures. He has also become the 12th ESA astronaut to conduct a spacewalk, or Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA). Shortly before the end of his mission, Matthias could also welcome fellow ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard the Space Station, who launched on 28 April as part of Crew-4 and will continue the common journey for Europe in space. Credit: ESA