Calling All Artists: Send Your Artwork to Asteroid Bennu on NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission
By Paul Scott Anderson, on February 24th, 2016
Artist's conception of OSIRIS-REx preparing to take a sample from the surface of Bennu. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/Chris Meaney
This coming September, a new NASA spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, will be heading toward an asteroid to collect samples which will later be brought back to Earth. This is the first time for such a sample return […]
NASA Developing New 'Chemical Laptop' to Search for Evidence of Alien Life
By Paul Scott Anderson, on November 23rd, 2015
The "Chemical Laptop" being designed by NASA to help search for evidence of alien life elsewhere in the Solar System. Photo Credit: NASA
One of NASA's primary objectives, and the one which most excites the general public, is the search for evidence of life elsewhere, whether in our own Solar System or on […]
OSIRIS-REx Taking Shape, Engineers Explain Innovative Asteroid Sample Return Mechanism
By Emily Carney, on September 7th, 2015
Artist concept of OSIRIS-REx in the environs of Asteroid Bennu, sometime after 2018. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
While avid space watchers may thrill to missions such as Stardust (which returned a sample from a comet), Dawn (which visited an asteroid and dwarf planet), and Rosetta (which placed a lander upon a comet's […]
Spacecraft Assembly Begins for NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission
By Mike Killian, on March 31st, 2015
Artist concept of OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to return samples from an asteroid to Earth. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard
The first United States mission in history to launch a robotic spacecraft to an asteroid, retrieve samples, and return those samples back to Earth for study just passed a big milestone in its development […]
Dust in the (Interstellar) Wind: Seven Particles of Possible Interstellar Origin Identified in Samples Returned by NASA's Stardust Spacecraft
By Leonidas Papadopoulos, on August 17th, 2014
A team of researchers has identified seven dust particles that were returned to Earth in 2006 by NASA's Stardust spacecraft, which might have originated in the interstellar medium. This false-color image shows a diffraction pattern created by one of these particles, named Orion. Image Credit: Zack Gainsforth
Following a preliminary analysis of the […]
T-100 Days to 'Sleeping Beauty' Rosetta's Wake-Up Call
By Ben Evans, on October 14th, 2013
Rosetta and its Philae landing craft will arrive at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. Less than 100 days now remain before the craft are due to be revived from their 2.5-year deep-space hibernation. Image Credit: ESA
According to the Brothers Grimm, Sleeping Beauty was condemned to sleep for 100 years, but for the European […]
Skylab's Long-Haired Messenger: The Visitation of Comet Kohoutek
By Ben Evans, on August 10th, 2013
Skylab and its Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM)—seen here with its "windmill" of solar arrays—was a critical asset in observing Comet Kohoutek in the winter of 1973-74. Photo Credit: NASA
Forty years ago, nine men occupied America's first space station, high above the Earth. Much of the history of Skylab is clouded by its […]
United Launch Alliance's Delta II Tapped to Launch ICESat-2 by NASA
By Jason Rhian, on February 25th, 2013
NASA has selected the United Launch Alliance Delta II to send its ICESat-2 spacecraft into polar orbit. Photo Credit: Alan Walters / awaltersphoto.com
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — The Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, located in Florida, has selected United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Delta II rocket to launch the agency's Ice, […]