spacecraft – Science World

This image of Ceres approximates how the dwarf planet's colors would appear to the eye. This view of Ceres, produced by the German Aerospace Center in Berlin, combines images taken during Dawn's first science orbit in 2015. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA)

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Ends 11-Year Mission

November 3, 2018

NASA has concluded that the 11-year mission of the Dawn Spacecraft and its exploration of Vesta and Ceres, two of the largest objects in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, has come to an end. According to the space agency, the spacecraft missed scheduled communications sessions with NASA’s Deep Space Network not only on […]

Artist's impression of Mars Express. The background is based on an actual image of the Red Planet taken by the spacecraft's high resolution stereo camera. (ESA/ATG medialab/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

ESA Mars Orbiter Gets A Software Upgrade

April 13, 2018

If you own any kind of computing device, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer, you know sooner or later that you’re going to have to update or install new software to keep it functioning. The same thing can also be said about spacecraft that have been in service for a while. The […]

Drawing of the Tiangong-1 (Craigboy/Wikimedia Commons)

Chinese Space Station Expected To Fall to Earth Within Days

March 28, 2018

Aerospace experts say they expect the Chinese space station, Tiangong-1, or “Celestial Palace 1” in English, to drop out of orbit and fall to Earth sometime between March 30th and April 2nd. Considering its orbital path and expected reentry trajectory, the experts say the space station could fall anywhere in the world between nearly 43° north […]

Artist’s concept of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the sun. In order to unlock the mysteries of the corona, but also to protect a society that is increasingly dependent on technology from the threats of space weather, we will send Parker Solar Probe to touch the sun. (NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)

NASA Wants to Send Your Name to the Sun

March 19, 2018

How would you like to have your name sent to the Sun? NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) are preparing the Parker Solar Probe for an amazing journey to our star. The Parker Solar probe, scheduled for launch this summer between July 31st and August 19th, will be sent to within six […]

Artist rendition of Voyager in space (Image: NASA/JPL)

Voyager 1; Humans Peak; Distant Black Hole

December 8, 2017

JPL Fires Up Voyager 1 Thrusters after 37 Year Rest Imagine you’ve discovered a rare gem of a car that’s been tucked away in a barn for the last 37 years. The barn’s owner says it’s yours if you can drive it away. But if you’ve ever tried to start a motor vehicle and keep it […]

This is a NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of Galaxy NGC 6753 was released on September 18th. This galaxy is said to be one of only two known spiral galaxies that were both massive enough and close enough to permit detailed observations of their galactic coronas, which can only be detected by their X-ray emissions. (NASA/ESA/Hubble)

September 2017 Science Images

September 29, 2017

With this view, Cassini captured one of its last looks at Saturn and its main rings from a distance. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

Goodbye Cassini; Shape-Shifting Bacteria; New Horizons Wakes Up

September 15, 2017

NASA Cassini Mission to Saturn Comes to Fiery End English Poet Geoffrey Chaucer once said, “all good things must come to an end”. And so it goes with NASA’s Cassini mission, which provided a close-up look of Saturn, its moons and famous rings over the last 13 years, came to a blazing end on September […]

This sketch illustrates a family tree of exoplanets. Planets are born out of swirling disks of gas and dust called protoplanetary disks. (NASA/Kepler/Caltech (T. Pyle))

Kepler Discovers More Exoplanets / Scientists Classify Types of Planets

June 22, 2017

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler mission recently released what it calls the most comprehensive and detailed catalog of candidate exoplanets. Exoplanets or extrasolar planets are planetary bodies that exist outside of our solar system. The new and final Kepler catalog from data gathered from the spacecraft’s initial patch of sky view within the Cygnus constellation includes 219 […]

NASA plans to send a spacecraft to within 6.5 million kilometers of the sun's surface next summer. Here’s an artistic rendering of the Parker Solar Probe heading toward the Sun. On May 31, the spacecraft was named to honor astrophysics Eugene Parker who discovered the solar wind in 1958. (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory).

May 2017 – Science Images

June 1, 2017

Delta 2nd Stage Stainless Steel Cylindrical Propellant Tank; landed in Georgetown, TX (Photo: NASA Orbital Debris Program Office)

Space Junk Jeopardizes Earth’s Space Environment

April 24, 2017

Scientists estimate that there are some 750,000 pieces of space junk circling Earth, millions more if you count fragments smaller than 1 centimeter. Think about it: Mankind has sent thousands of rockets into space since the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957. While a number of space vehicles are still in active […]

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