Artemis II Update-8, Day 3 : Crew prepares for first correction burn, readies lunar flyby tasks

Posted on April 4, 2026 by Sridhar P

NASA’s Artemis II crew began Flight Day 3 on April 4 after departing Earth’s orbit earlier in the mission, preparing for their first trajectory correction burn as Orion heads toward the Moon. The four astronauts, currently nearly 100,000 miles from Earth, are also training for lunar observations scheduled during a flyby on April 6. The day’s schedule includes spacecraft operations, medical drills, and communication system tests as the mission advances deeper into space.

The four astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission woke to music drifting through the Orion capsule, nearly 100,000 miles from Earth. Hours earlier, they had been asleep inside a spacecraft racing toward the Moon, farther from home than any crew in more than half a century.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen are now settling into the cadence of deep-space flight. Their journey marks the first time humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit since NASA’s Apollo program ended in 1972.

Mission controllers at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston signaled the start of the day at 1 p.m. EDT, playing “…In a Daydream,” by the Freddy Jones Band. By then, Orion was roughly 99,900 miles from Earth, closing in on the Moon, which lay about 161,750 miles ahead.

A view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman from one of the Orion spacecraft’s four main windows after completing the translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026.
NASA

Trajectory correction burn Artemis II timing and purpose

The crew’s primary task later Friday is preparing for the first outbound trajectory correction burn, scheduled for 6:49 p.m. The maneuver will last about eight seconds and slightly adjust Orion’s speed by 0.7 feet per second.

That small change carries weight in deep space navigation. Engineers design these burns to fine-tune the spacecraft’s path after major propulsion events, such as the translunar injection burn completed on April 2. Using Orion’s onboard thrusters, the adjustment ensures the capsule remains precisely aligned for upcoming lunar operations.

Inside the spacecraft, the preparation involves verifying propulsion systems, monitoring navigation data, and coordinating closely with mission control. Even minor deviations can compound over hundreds of thousands of miles, making these early corrections essential.

The Artemis II crew is experiencing this process in real time, managing both the technical and human demands of deep-space travel. It is the kind of operational rhythm that defined earlier lunar missions but has not been practiced by a human crew in decades.

Lunar flyby science targets and far side observations

While engineers refine Orion’s trajectory, scientists are focusing on what the crew will see once they reach the Moon.

Teams on the ground are selecting geological targets that will be visible during a six-hour observation window on April 6, when Orion loops around the lunar surface. The alignment of the Sun, Moon, and spacecraft is expected to illuminate about 20 percent of the Moon’s far side, a region never visible from Earth.

Among the features expected to come into view are the Orientale basin, a massive impact structure, along with Pierazzo crater and Ohm crater. Some of these formations have rarely been seen directly by human eyes without optical aid.

Inside Orion, the astronauts are rehearsing for that moment. The cabin, roughly the size of two minivans, requires careful choreography in microgravity. Equipment must be secured, camera positions planned, and movement coordinated to avoid disrupting observations.

The crew will use handheld cameras equipped with 80-400 millimeter and 14-24 millimeter lenses. These tools are expected to capture high-resolution imagery of the lunar surface, contributing to scientific analysis and public engagement with the mission.

A view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from one of the Orion spacecraft’s window after completing the translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026. The image features two auroras (top right and bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun.

Orion spacecraft health tests and deep space communications

Beyond navigation and science, Flight Day 3 also includes routine but critical health and safety exercises.

The astronauts are scheduled to conduct demonstrations of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and choking response procedures. These drills aim to evaluate how emergency medical protocols function in microgravity, where movement and physical coordination differ significantly from Earth.

Physical fitness remains another priority. Each crew member continues daily exercise using Orion’s flywheel device, designed to maintain cardiovascular health during extended missions.

Later in the day, Christina Koch will test Orion’s emergency communication systems using NASA Deep Space Network, a worldwide array of antennas that supports spacecraft far beyond Earth orbit. The test will assess how effectively Orion can transmit data as it moves deeper into space.

The spacecraft’s optical communications system has already demonstrated its ability to send high-definition video and mission data back to Earth through U.S.-based ground stations. That information is relayed directly to mission control in Houston, allowing engineers to monitor the spacecraft’s performance in near real time.

As Artemis II advances toward its lunar flyby, the crew’s day-to-day work blends precision engineering with human adaptability. Each scheduled task, from an eight-second burn to a medical drill, contributes to a mission that is reestablishing a path last traveled more than five decades ago.

For the astronauts aboard Orion, the distance from Earth continues to grow. So does the scope of what lies ahead.

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TOI-5205 b Exoplanet Around Red Dwarf Reveals Unusual Atmosphere: JWST Study

Posted on April 3, 2026 by Sridhar P

Astronomers studying the exoplanet TOI-5205 b have found unexpected atmospheric properties that challenge existing models of planet formation. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers observed the Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a small red dwarf star and detected unusually low heavy-element content. The findings, published this week, suggest new mechanisms may shape how giant planets form around smaller stars.

A giant planet circles a small, dim star, and astronomers are still working out how it got there.

The exoplanet TOI-5205 b, roughly the size of Jupiter, orbits a red dwarf star that is far smaller than the Sun. Systems like this are often described as unusual because standard models of planet formation struggle to explain how such a large planet could emerge from a relatively small disk of material.

Now, new observations using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have added another layer to the puzzle. Researchers report that the planet’s atmosphere contains fewer heavy elements than expected, even when compared to its own host star.

The findings were published in The Astronomical Journal and led by scientists at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, with contributions from Carnegie Institution for Science and other international partners.

JWST transit data reveals unexpected atmospheric composition

TOI-5205 b orbits its host star closely enough that it regularly passes in front of it, an event known as a transit. During these transits, the planet blocks about six percent of the star’s light, allowing astronomers to analyze its atmosphere.

Using spectrographs aboard JWST, researchers split the starlight filtering through the planet’s atmosphere into different wavelengths. This technique reveals the chemical composition of the gases surrounding the planet.

The results showed the presence of methane and hydrogen sulfide, both commonly found in gas giant atmospheres. But what stood out was the relative lack of heavier elements, often referred to as metallicity in astronomy.

The planet’s atmosphere appears less enriched in heavy elements than Jupiter, and even less than its own host star. That runs counter to expectations. In most known systems, giant planets tend to have atmospheres richer in heavy elements than their stars.

“Forbidden” planet raises questions about how worlds form

TOI-5205 b belongs to a class sometimes called giant exoplanets around M dwarf stars, or GEMS. These systems are rare because smaller stars are thought to have less material available in their protoplanetary disks, making it harder to form large planets.

The existence of TOI-5205 b already challenged that assumption when it was confirmed in 2023 using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The new atmospheric findings deepen the mystery.

Researchers expected that if such a planet formed, it would show clear signs of heavy-element enrichment. Instead, the data suggests the opposite.

To interpret the results, scientists used models of planetary interiors developed at the University of Zurich. These models indicate that while the planet as a whole may be rich in heavier elements, those materials could be concentrated deep inside.

That separation between interior and atmosphere points to a process where heavy elements migrate inward during formation, leaving the outer layers relatively depleted.

An artist’s conception of the gas giant planet TOI-5205 b orbiting a small, cool red dwarf star.
Credit-Katherine Cain, Carnegie Science.

New clues about early planetary evolution

The findings suggest that TOI-5205 b may have experienced a more complex formation process than previously thought. One possibility is that the planet formed quickly, capturing large amounts of hydrogen and helium before heavier elements could mix evenly throughout its structure.

Another possibility involves limited mixing between the planet’s interior and its atmosphere, preventing heavier elements from rising to observable levels.

The study also points to a carbon-rich, oxygen-poor atmosphere, which could influence how clouds form and how heat moves through the planet’s outer layers.

Astronomers plan to expand their observations through a broader program focused on similar systems. By studying more giant planets around small stars, researchers hope to determine whether TOI-5205 b is an outlier or part of a larger pattern.

For now, the planet stands as a case that does not fit neatly into existing models. A massive world orbiting a modest star, with an atmosphere that defies expectations.

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Artemis II Update-6, Day 2 : Crew, houston poll ‘Go’ for Translunar injection burn, crew prepares for Moon flight

Posted on April 3, 2026 by Sridhar P

NASA approved the translunar injection burn for Artemis II on April 2, clearing the Orion spacecraft to leave Earth orbit at 7:49 p.m. EDT. The burn will send astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen toward the Moon for the first time since 1972. The decision follows a mission management review confirming spacecraft readiness and system performance.

The call came from Houston after a day of checks and calculations. The answer was simple. Go.

With that, NASA cleared Artemis II to attempt the maneuver that will send its crew beyond Earth orbit. If executed as planned, the burn will place humans on a path toward the Moon for the first time in more than five decades.

The mission marks a major step for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to deep space operations.

Translunar injection burn timing and Orion engine performance

The translunar injection burn is scheduled to begin at 7:49 p.m. Eastern Time. Orion’s main engine will fire for five minutes and 49 seconds, providing the acceleration needed to break free from Earth’s orbit.

The engine, located on the spacecraft’s service module, produces up to 6,000 pounds of thrust. NASA compares that output to accelerating a car from zero to 60 miles per hour in about 2.7 seconds.

The burn must be executed with precise timing and orientation. Even minor deviations can alter the spacecraft’s path over the hundreds of thousands of miles between Earth and the Moon.

Flight controllers will track engine performance, guidance systems, and navigation data in real time to ensure Orion remains aligned with its intended trajectory.

NASA flight directors Rick Henfling (right) and Judd Frieling (left) sit on console in Mission Control’s White Flight Control room during NASA’s Artemis II mission launch on Wednesday, April 1, 2026.
ROBERT MARKOWITZ NASA-JSC

Crew activities and first full day operations in space

Earlier in the day, the Artemis II crew began their first full schedule of in-space operations. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch were joined by Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.

Mission control woke the crew at 2:35 p.m. Eastern Time with the song “Green Light” by John Legend and Andre 3000, continuing a long-standing NASA tradition of musical wake-up calls.

The astronauts moved into preparations for the burn, reviewing procedures and monitoring spacecraft systems. They also conducted their first exercise session using Orion’s flywheel-based device, designed to help maintain muscle and bone health in microgravity.

Exercise equipment is a standard feature for crewed missions, particularly those that extend beyond low Earth orbit. Maintaining physical conditioning becomes critical as mission duration increases.

The hours leading up to the burn are structured around system checks, communication with ground teams, and final readiness confirmations.

The Artemis II mission is designed as a test flight. Yet the stakes of this maneuver are clear. Once the engine fires, the crew will begin a journey that carries them away from Earth and toward the Moon, retracing a path last taken during the Apollo era.

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Artemis II Update-4: Crew completes proximity test, perigee raise burn up next

Posted on April 3, 2026 by Sridhar P

NASA’s Artemis II crew completed a proximity operations test on April 2, maneuvering the Orion spacecraft near a detached rocket stage in Earth orbit. The demonstration, lasting about 70 minutes, tested manual control systems and gathered data critical for future lunar missions. The crew now prepares for a perigee raise burn, while engineers continue troubleshooting a minor onboard toilet system issue.

The astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission spent part of April 2 guiding their spacecraft through a tightly choreographed exercise hundreds of miles above Earth.

Inside Orion, the capsule named Integrity, the crew manually steered within close range of a discarded rocket stage, testing how precisely humans can control the spacecraft in space. The task lasted just over an hour. It marked one of the first hands-on demonstrations of Orion’s maneuverability under crew control.

The exercise is part of a broader effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to validate systems before sending astronauts farther into deep space, including eventual missions to the Moon under the Artemis program.

The proximity operations demonstration centered on Orion’s ability to approach and move away from another object in orbit. For this test, the crew used the detached interim cryogenic propulsion stage, or ICPS, as a reference target.

The ICPS, a temporary upper stage used during launch, had already separated from the spacecraft. It remained nearby long enough for the astronauts to conduct controlled approach and retreat maneuvers.

During the roughly 70-minute session, the crew adjusted Orion’s position repeatedly, testing navigation, thruster response, and onboard guidance systems. These maneuvers simulate conditions required for future missions that may involve docking or operating near other spacecraft.

At the end of the exercise, Orion executed an automated departure burn, increasing its distance from the ICPS. The stage is scheduled to perform a disposal burn, sending it into Earth’s atmosphere over a remote Pacific region, according to NASA mission updates.

The demonstration provides engineers with real-time data on how Orion performs under manual control, a capability considered essential for complex operations during lunar missions.

Alongside the crewed mission, four small satellites known as CubeSats launched as secondary payloads aboard the Space Launch System (SLS).

CubeSats are compact, shoebox-sized spacecraft designed for targeted scientific experiments. They will deploy after the Orion stage adapter separates from the main spacecraft.

Each satellite carries a distinct research objective:

ATENEA, developed by Argentina’s national space agency, focuses on radiation shielding and communication systems in high Earth orbit.
Space Weather CubeSat-1, built by the Saudi Space Agency, will measure solar radiation, X-rays, and magnetic field activity.
TACHELES, from the German Aerospace Center, is testing electrical systems for future lunar logistics vehicles.
K-Rad Cube, developed by the Korea AeroSpace Administration, will study radiation effects across the Van Allen belts, regions of charged particles surrounding Earth.

The CubeSat deployments expand the mission’s scientific output, offering data on space weather and radiation environments that astronauts may encounter during longer missions.

Trajectory for Artemis II, NASA’s first flight with crew aboard SLS, Orion to pave the way for long-term return to the Moon, missions to Mars

Perigee raise burn planned as engineers monitor onboard issue

Attention now shifts to the next key maneuver, the perigee raise burn, scheduled after the crew’s rest period.

Perigee refers to the lowest point in a spacecraft’s orbit around Earth. Raising it adjusts the shape of the orbit and prepares Orion for later phases of the mission, including potential translunar trajectories.

The maneuver follows an earlier apogee raise burn, which increased the spacecraft’s highest orbital point. Together, these burns define Orion’s initial orbital path and test propulsion performance under operational conditions.

Before the next burn, the crew completed routine spacecraft checks. During a systems review, they reported a blinking fault light in the onboard toilet system.

NASA ground teams are analyzing the data and working with the crew to diagnose the issue. No broader system impacts have been reported in official updates.

After a scheduled four-hour rest period, the astronauts are set to wake at 7 a.m. Eastern Time on April 2 to prepare for the maneuver. The timeline includes post-burn activities followed by another sleep cycle later in the morning.

The sequence of tests, adjustments, and troubleshooting reflects the mission’s dual purpose: demonstrating Orion’s readiness for deep space while gathering operational data from a live crewed environment.

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Artemis II Update-3: Apogee Raise burn complete, Crew prepares critical Proximity Test

Artemis II Update-2 : Perigee Raise Burn Completed with brief Communications Loss, NASA Probes

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Sridhar P

NASA confirmed the Artemis II crew completed a perigee raise maneuver on April 2, refining Orion’s orbit around Earth. A brief communications loss occurred shortly after the burn but was quickly resolved with no reported impact on crew safety. The agency will hold a press conference from Kennedy Space Center as the mission prepares for its next orbital milestone.

A routine engine burn sharpened Artemis II’s orbit. Minutes later, mission control lost contact. Then the signal came back.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the Orion spacecraft successfully completed its perigee raise maneuver, one of the key early steps in shaping its path around Earth. The burn used the interim cryogenic propulsion stage’s RL10 engine to lift the spacecraft’s lowest orbital point, refining its trajectory for later mission phases.

The maneuver followed earlier orbital adjustments and forms part of a sequence designed to prepare Orion for operations beyond low Earth orbit. NASA officials said the burn occurred as planned, with precise timing required to achieve the desired orbital change.

Artemis II perigee raise burn and orbital adjustments

The perigee raise maneuver increases the spacecraft’s minimum altitude during its orbit. Along with a separate apogee raise burn, which affects the highest orbital point, these adjustments create a stable and elongated orbit suitable for further testing.

NASA said these burns are critical in preparing Orion for a planned high Earth orbit phase lasting about 23.5 hours. During that period, astronauts and ground teams will conduct system checkouts before committing to the next stage of the mission.

The work is coordinated through mission control at Johnson Space Center, where engineers track propulsion performance, navigation data, and onboard systems in real time.

A view over the shoulders of NASA astronauts Victor Glover (left) and Reid Wiseman (right), pilot and commander, respectively, inside the Orion spacecraft as they participate in a proximity operations demonstration. This demonstration tests the spacecraft’s ability to manually maneuver relative to another spacecraft, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, after separation, using its onboard navigation sensors and reaction control thrusters. NASA

Brief communication dropout under review

Shortly after completing the burn, ground teams experienced a temporary loss of communications with the spacecraft. NASA said controllers were unable to receive data from Orion or the crew for a brief period.

The interruption resolved quickly. Astronauts reported that they continued to hear communications from the ground throughout the event, indicating that onboard systems remained functional.

NASA said engineers are reviewing telemetry to determine the cause of the dropout. The agency has not indicated any impact on mission safety or trajectory.

Such communication gaps, while uncommon, are treated as high-priority review items during test missions. Artemis II, as a crewed test flight, is designed to expose and evaluate system behavior under real operating conditions.

NASA press conference and mission leadership

NASA will hold a post-launch press conference at 8 p.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center to provide further updates.

Scheduled participants include NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, Lori Glaze, who serves as acting associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, and Norm Knight, director of the Flight Operations Directorate.

The briefing is expected to address the completed maneuver, the communication anomaly, and upcoming mission steps.

Public attention remains fixed on the mission’s progress. “Even a small signal loss gets people nervous, but that’s why they test,” wrote Reddit user SpaceTrackLive in a post that drew more than 900 upvotes, reflecting cautious optimism among spaceflight observers.

Next milestone: apogee raise burn and system checks

The next major step for Artemis II is the apogee raise maneuver. This burn will increase the highest point of Orion’s orbit, complementing the earlier perigee adjustment.

Together, these orbital changes define the spacecraft’s path before it transitions into high Earth orbit operations. NASA said this phase will allow for extended system verification and crew activity in preparation for the mission’s later trajectory toward the Moon.

Engineers view these incremental milestones as essential. Each burn, test, and anomaly review contributes to a broader goal: confirming that Orion can safely carry astronauts through deep space and back.

For now, Artemis II continues to move step by step. One maneuver completed, one anomaly under review, and another burn on the horizon.

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Artemis II Update-1: Orion Completes Proximity Operations, Perigee Burn Next

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Sridhar P

Astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission completed a key proximity operations test on April 2 while orbiting Earth. The maneuver involved controlled movements around a detached rocket stage to evaluate spacecraft handling. With CubeSat deployments ahead and a minor onboard system issue under review, the crew is now preparing for a perigee raise burn to refine Orion’s orbit.

A shoebox-sized satellite deployment and a blinking fault light now share space in NASA’s latest Moon mission update.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration confirmed that astronauts aboard Artemis II have completed one of the mission’s earliest and most technical tests. The crew piloted the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, through a series of close-range maneuvers around a detached rocket stage, simulating scenarios required for future docking and deep-space operations.

The 70-minute exercise marked the mission’s proximity operations demonstration. Using the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, or ICPS, as a reference point, astronauts conducted controlled approach and retreat sequences to assess manual navigation capabilities in orbit.

At the end of the test, Orion executed an automated departure burn to safely distance itself from the stage. NASA said the ICPS will later perform a disposal burn, re-entering Earth’s atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.

Orion proximity operations test and orbital maneuver plan

The proximity operations test is central to Artemis II’s role as a proving mission. Unlike future lunar landings, this flight focuses on validating systems and crew performance under real spaceflight conditions.

NASA officials said the demonstration provided critical data on how Orion behaves during manual piloting near another object. These conditions are expected to be essential for future missions involving docking, assembly, or logistics operations in lunar orbit.

The crew now turns to the next phase of orbital adjustments. After completing an earlier apogee raise maneuver, mission controllers are preparing for a perigee raise burn. This engine firing will increase the lowest point of Orion’s orbit around Earth, refining its trajectory for eventual translunar injection.

The sequence of burns shapes the spacecraft’s path before it departs Earth’s gravitational influence. These adjustments are necessary to ensure precision as the mission transitions toward its planned lunar flyby.

CubeSat deployments expand international science efforts

Alongside the crewed mission, Artemis II is carrying four CubeSats, compact satellites designed for scientific research and technology demonstrations.

These payloads, housed within the Space Launch System adapter, will deploy after separation from Orion. Each satellite represents an international collaboration and targets a different aspect of space science.

Argentina’s ATENEA CubeSat will study radiation shielding and communication systems. The Saudi Space Agency’s Space Weather CubeSat-1 will measure solar radiation and magnetic fields. Germany’s TACHELES mission will test components for future lunar logistics systems. South Korea’s K-Rad Cube will analyze radiation exposure and its biological effects across the Van Allen belts.

NASA describes CubeSats as small but versatile tools that can extend mission science at relatively low cost. Their deployment during Artemis II adds a layer of experimentation beyond the primary crewed objectives.

Toilet system issue under review during mission operations

Amid the technical milestones, engineers are also tracking a minor onboard issue.

During routine spacecraft configuration checks, the crew reported a blinking fault light in Orion’s toilet system. Mission control teams at Johnson Space Center are analyzing telemetry and working with astronauts to troubleshoot the problem.

NASA has not indicated that the issue poses a risk to crew safety or mission objectives. Such anomalies are not uncommon during test flights, where systems are evaluated under operational conditions for the first time.

The crew’s schedule includes carefully timed rest periods between mission activities. After a four-hour sleep cycle, astronauts are set to wake at 7 a.m. EDT to prepare for the upcoming burn, before returning to rest later in the day.

Public reaction to the update has reflected both enthusiasm and curiosity about the mission’s technical details. “It’s fascinating to see them actually test manual flying like this,” wrote Reddit user OrbitalWatcher, in a post that drew more than 1,200 upvotes, noting that such maneuvers are rarely visible to the public.

Preparing for deeper space operations

Artemis II continues to function as a systems validation mission, bridging the gap between uncrewed tests and future lunar landings.

Each milestone, from proximity operations to orbital burns, contributes to a broader objective. NASA aims to confirm that Orion and its supporting systems can reliably carry astronauts beyond low Earth orbit and back.

The upcoming perigee raise burn represents another step in that process. Once completed, it will help finalize the spacecraft’s orbit before the mission advances toward its lunar trajectory.

For engineers and mission planners, these incremental steps are essential. They provide the data needed to support more complex operations in future Artemis missions, including sustained human presence on the Moon.

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Artemis II Mission Launch: NASA Sends Crew on First Moon Flyby in 50 Years

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Sridhar P

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched four astronauts on April 2 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Artemis II mission. The crew is set for a 10-day test flight around the Moon, marking the first human lunar flyby since the Apollo era. The mission aims to validate spacecraft systems and pave the way for future Moon landings and Mars exploration.

The countdown ended just after dusk in Florida. At 6:35 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, a new chapter in human spaceflight lifted off from Launch Pad 39B.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration sent four astronauts toward the Moon aboard its Artemis II mission, marking the first crewed lunar journey in more than five decades. The launch took place at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center, the same historic ground that supported Apollo-era missions.

Aboard the Orion spacecraft were NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The 10-day mission is designed as a test flight, with no lunar landing planned, but its implications extend far beyond a single journey.

“Today’s launch marks a defining moment for our nation and for all who believe in exploration,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in an official statement. “Artemis II builds on the vision set by President Donald J. Trump, returning humanity to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.”

Artemis II mission objectives and timeline

The mission began with the ignition of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket the agency has developed. About 49 minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s upper stage fired to place Orion into an elliptical orbit around Earth. A second burn is scheduled to push the spacecraft into a high Earth orbit extending roughly 46,000 miles from the planet.

From there, the spacecraft will separate and continue independently. Engineers confirmed that Orion deployed its solar arrays shortly after reaching space, allowing it to draw energy from the Sun.

The crew will spend about a day in high Earth orbit conducting system checks and a manual piloting demonstration. These early operations are designed to test the spacecraft’s handling and ensure its readiness for deeper space travel.

If all systems perform as expected, mission controllers at Johnson Space Center will authorize a translunar injection burn. This maneuver, lasting about six minutes, will send Orion on a trajectory toward the Moon.

NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya described the mission as a proving ground. “Artemis II is a test flight, and the test has just begun,” he said. “Over the next 10 days, the crew will put Orion through its paces so future missions can land on the Moon with confidence.”

Lunar flyby and scientific goals

The spacecraft is scheduled to reach the Moon for a flyby on April 6. During this phase, the astronauts will travel around the lunar far side, an area rarely seen directly by human eyes.

NASA officials said the lighting conditions during the flyby could provide enhanced visibility of surface features such as ridges, crater rims and slopes. The crew is expected to capture images and make observational reports that will inform future missions.

The mission also includes scientific experiments, including human health studies designed to assess how astronauts respond to deep-space conditions. These findings will contribute to planning for longer missions, including eventual journeys to Mars.

Alongside the primary mission, the rocket’s upper stage will deploy four CubeSats developed by international partners. These small satellites will conduct independent research and technology demonstrations, highlighting the global collaboration involved in Artemis.

Return to the Moon after Apollo

Artemis II is the first crewed mission in NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon. The last time astronauts traveled beyond low Earth orbit was during the Apollo program in the early 1970s.

The current mission does not include a landing, but it sets the stage for future Artemis missions that will attempt to place astronauts on the lunar surface. NASA has said the long-term goal is to build infrastructure that supports extended stays on the Moon.

The program also serves as a stepping stone for missions to Mars, with engineers using Artemis to test technologies and operational strategies required for deeper space exploration.

Public reaction to the launch reflected a mix of excitement and historical awareness. One widely shared comment on Reddit captured the moment’s significance. “We’re finally going back to the Moon with people on board,” wrote user AstroFan92 on a thread with more than 3,000 upvotes, calling it “a milestone that feels like history repeating itself in the best way.”

What comes next for Artemis

Following the lunar flyby, Orion will begin its return trajectory to Earth. The mission is expected to conclude with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Recovery teams will retrieve the crew and spacecraft for post-mission analysis.

NASA officials describe Artemis II as a foundation mission. It tests life support systems, validates navigation and communication technologies, and confirms that astronauts can safely travel beyond low Earth orbit using the new spacecraft.

Future Artemis missions will build on these results. Planned objectives include landing astronauts on the Moon, establishing a long-term lunar presence, and eventually preparing for human exploration of Mars.

For now, Artemis II represents a return. Not just to the Moon, but to a scale of ambition that defined an earlier era of spaceflight.

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Space Breakthrough: Astronomers confirm rogue planet candidate as a planet for the first time

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

An international team led by Peking University confirmed the mass of a rogue planet for the first time using a rare alignment of telescopes in May 2024. The object, detected through microlensing, was found to be about the mass of Saturn, confirming it as a true planet. The findings, published in Science in January 2026, relied on combined data from ground observatories and the Gaia spacecraft. Scientists say the discovery could reshape understanding of free-floating planets across the Milky Way.

In the vast dark between stars, planets drift unseen. For years, astronomers suspected they existed in large numbers, but proving what they were has been far more difficult.

That changed with a brief flicker of light in May 2024.

The signal lasted just two days. It came from a distant star whose brightness momentarily intensified as an unseen object passed in front of it. That phenomenon, known as microlensing, has long been one of the few ways to detect rogue planets.

This time, the data went further.

“For the first time, we have a direct measurement of a rogue planet candidate’s mass and not just a rough statistical estimate,” said Dong Subo, an astronomer at Peking University. “We know for sure it’s a planet.”

Microlensing technique confirms rogue planet mass for first time

Rogue planets, unlike Earth or Jupiter, do not orbit a star. They move independently through space, making them nearly impossible to detect with traditional methods that rely on starlight.

Microlensing offers a workaround. When a planet crosses the line of sight between Earth and a distant star, its gravity bends the star’s light, briefly amplifying it. The effect acts like a natural magnifying glass.

Astronomers have used this method for decades, but it comes with limitations. While it reveals that an object exists, it often cannot precisely determine its mass because distance and gravitational strength are intertwined in the signal.

That ambiguity has left many rogue planet candidates in a gray area.

The new study, published in Science, resolved that uncertainty for one object by combining observations from multiple telescopes across Earth and space. The event, catalogued as KMT-2024-BLG-0792 and OGLE-2024-BLG-0516, was first detected by the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network and the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment.

At the same time, the Gaia spacecraft, operated by the European Space Agency, recorded the same event from its position roughly 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

That overlap proved critical.

Gaia parallax measurement unlocks distance and mass data

The key to the breakthrough lay in measuring what astronomers call the microlens parallax effect. This effect works similarly to human depth perception, where viewing an object from two different positions reveals its distance.

In this case, Gaia’s vantage point in space and Earth-based telescopes provided two perspectives of the same event. The microlensing signal appeared about two hours later from Gaia’s position than from Earth.

That time difference allowed researchers to separate the object’s distance from its gravitational influence, enabling a precise mass calculation.

“We are able to use the same principle to extract the distance information of this rogue planet candidate, finding the mass and distance separately,” Dong said.

The result placed the object at roughly one-fifth the mass of Jupiter, comparable to Saturn. That measurement confirmed it as a planet rather than a more massive object such as a brown dwarf.

Implications for rogue planet population in the Milky Way

The finding carries implications beyond a single object. Astronomers have long theorized that the Milky Way Galaxy may host vast numbers of rogue planets, potentially numbering in the billions or more.

“Our discovery offers further evidence that the Galaxy may be teeming with rogue planets that were likely ejected from their original homes,” Dong said.

These planets are thought to form within star systems before being expelled through gravitational interactions, especially during early stages of planetary formation. Passing stars may also disrupt systems, sending planets into interstellar space.

Some theories suggest that a subset of rogue planets could form independently, collapsing directly from gas clouds without ever orbiting a star.

The new measurement strengthens confidence in microlensing surveys that have hinted at such populations for years.

Future space telescopes to expand rogue planet discoveries

The study also highlights the importance of coordinated observations across multiple platforms. The overlap between Gaia, KMTNet, and OGLE marked the only time in Gaia’s operational lifetime that all three observed the same rogue planet candidate.

Future missions are expected to make such measurements more routine.

NASA plans to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will conduct large-scale microlensing surveys capable of detecting hundreds of rogue planets. China is also developing new missions, including the Chinese Space Station Survey Telescope and a proposed Earth 2.0 mission, both of which include microlensing in their scientific goals. [8]

These next-generation observatories will operate above Earth’s atmosphere, improving sensitivity and reducing distortions that affect ground-based observations.

“The new space-based facilities such as Roman, CSST, and Earth 2.0 are going to revolutionize the field of microlensing and the study of free-floating planets,” Dong said.

For now, the confirmed mass of a single rogue planet marks a turning point. It transforms a fleeting signal into a measurable world, offering a clearer view of a population that has long remained in the shadows.

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What are the conditions suitable for life on distant moons

Posted on March 14, 2026 by Arun Kumar N

Liquid water is said to be a necessity to life. Amazingly, however, there could be conducive conditions of life far away in an area that is not near a sun. A group of researchers working on the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS at LMU and the Max Planck Institute of Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) has demonstrated how moons of free-floating planets can retain their water oceans as liquid to as long as 4.3 billion years through dense hydrogen atmospheres and tidal heating – that is to say, roughly as long as Earth has been around and complex life can evolve.

Planetary systems are usually created when the conditions are not steady. In the event of close approach of young planets they have the ability to launch one another out of orbit. This results in free-floating planets (FFPs) that move around the galaxy with no parent star. A previous paper by LMU physicist Dr. Giulia Roccetti had indicated that gas giants that were thrown out in this manner do not always lose their moons in the process.

Oceans remain in their liquid state because of tidal heating

The ejection however does change the orbits of the moons. They are elongated to a high extent in which their distance to the planet is constantly varying. This leads to the tidal forces rhythmically deforming the lunar body, compressing the body interior, and creating heat due to friction. This tidal heating can be adequate to keep oceans of liquid water on the surface – without the power of a star, and in the coolness of interstellar space.

Hydrogen as stable heat trap

It is the atmosphere that dictates whether this heat remains on the surface or not. Carbon dioxide is a good greenhouse gas on earth. Prior research had shown that carbon dioxide would be able to stabilize life-supportable conditions on exomoons of up to 1.6 billion years. In really low temperatures of free-floating systems, however, carbon dioxide would condense, lose the protective effect on the atmosphere and the heat to escape.

Thus, the scientists of astrophysics, biophysics, and astrochemistry started to research the possibilities of the hydrogen-rich atmospheres being the alternative heat traps. Despite the fact that the molecular hydrogen is mostly transparent to infrared radiation, an important physical phenomenon occurs under high pressures: collision-induced absorption. During this process, hydrogen colliding molecules create temporary complexes, which are able to take up the thermal radiation and store it in the atmosphere. Simultaneously, hydrogen is a stable element even at the lowest temperature.

Parallels to early Earth

The results also provide new insights to the origin of life. The cooperation with the team of Professor Dieter Braun enabled us to understand that the cradle of life does not always need a sun, says David Dahlbudding who is a doctoral researcher at LMU and the lead author of the study. According to the case, there was a distinct relationship between these moons that were far away and the early Earth, which had high levels of hydrogen due to asteroid impact in order to form conditions that supported life.

The tidal force was even capable of providing heat, as well as, chemical development processes. There is deformation periodically, which produces local wet-dry cycles, where water evaporates and condenses. These cycles have been regarded as a significant process of the formation of complex molecules and may make essential steps in the direction to the emergence of life.

Life-friendly moons in interstellar space

The free-floating planets are believed to be common. It has been estimated that these so-called nomadic planets in the Milky Way may be as numerous as the stars. Their moons could also offer long term stable habitats. The new discoveries were therefore able to considerably expand the range of potential habitats in which life might exist – and indicate that life would not only exist but also be able to survive even in the darkest parts of the galaxy.

Watching water droplets merge on the International Space Station

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New NASA DART mission data reveals asteroids throw ‘cosmic snowballs’ at each other

Posted on March 12, 2026 by Bharath Panchajanya

Binary asteroid systems are not uncommon in our cosmic neighborhood with about 15 percent of asteroids around the Earth having small moons around them.

A team of astronomers (headed by the University of Maryland) has since found that these binary asteroid systems are much more dynamic than they thought- involving active exchange of rocks and dust in slow, slow-motion collisions that reform them over millions of years.

Upon the analysis of the images captured by the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft just before deliberately colliding with the asteroid moon Dimorphos in 2022, the team observed bright, fan-shaped streaks across the surface of the moon, which is the first direct evidence of the material naturally traveling between two asteroids. The implications of the findings given by the researchers in The Planetary Science Journal on March 6, 2026, regarding the information about asteroids that may pose a threat to the earth are far reaching.

Initially, we assumed that it must have been a problem with the camera, then we assumed it must have been a problem with our processing of the images, said the lead author of the paper, Jessica Sunshine, a professor with joint appointments in both the Department of Astronomy and Department of Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences of UMD. However, once we cleared it up we found the marks we were observing were quite regular with respect to low velocity collisions, such as tossing cosmic snowballs. We possessed the first direct evidence of material movement within the recent past in a binary asteroid system.

The results of the team were also the first, visual confirmation of the Yarkovsky-O Keefe Radzievskii Paddak (YORP) effect wherein small asteroids rapidly rotate due to the presence of sunlight, causing material to be thrown off their surfaces to form moons. This was probably true of Didymos and its smaller satellite Dimorphos in the case of Sunshine reported the remnants of the so-called cosmic snowballs which had been deposited on the surface of Dimorphos.

How they found these traces?

They took months of investigative efforts to find these traces. The original images captured by the DART spacecraft could not see the fan-shaped streaks yet, UMD astronomy research scientist Tony Farnham and former postdoctoral researcher Juan Rizos developed more intricate methods to eliminate the boulder shadow and lightning effects in the images and exposed the eye-opening streaks that were left behind by the ‘cosmic snowballs’.

We finally saw these rays wrapping round Dimorphos, something no one has ever seen, you see, Farnham said. At the initial stages, it could not be believed because it was gentle and distinct.

To the researchers, the path of the DART mission provided a peculiar challenge. The space ship flew directly into the target with only slight distinctions in lighting and viewpoint that made it hard to differentiate actual features and any potential lighting possibilities. To demonstrate the authenticity of the streaks the team traced them to the source in one of the areas near the edge of Dimorphos- clearly out of phase with where the sun was overhead. Having done this, the team came to the conclusion that the traces left by the so-called cosmic snowballs were not really a light illusion.

Not fainter as we smoothed out the 3D image of the moon the fan-shaped streaks became more distinct, Farnham said. “It made us sure that we were dealing with a reality.

Earlier researchers noted an indirect evidence of the sunlight causing small asteroids to spin faster triggering the expulsion of material off their surfaces. However, the recently perfected models of the asteroid moon Dimorphos created by the UMD team give the first graphic assurance of the process and the precise sites of the shed material of its original asteroid, Didymos. Additional calculations by UMD alumnus Harrison Agrusa (M.S. ’19, Ph.D. ’22, astronomy) also indicated that the material moved Didymos at 30.7 centimeters per second, which is slower than the typical pace of a human walking.

Fan-shaped marks

“That would be why it had the fan-shaped marks,” Sunshine said. “These slow moving effects would not cause a crater as they would cause a deposit instead of being evenly distributed. And they are focused on the equator as theorized on modeling material ripped off the primary.”

The researchers headed by the former UMD postdoctoral associate Esteban Wright conducted a battery of experiments in their laboratories to test their hypotheses at the UMD Institute of Physical Science and Technology. To replicate boulders on Dimorphos, they tossed marbles into a sand filled with painted gravel. The experiment was recorded with high-speed cameras, and it was found that boulders filtered some material and allowed other particles to stream in-between the boulders- forming ray-like patterns similar to those found on Dimorphos.

The results were verified in computer simulations of effects of loose clumps of dust done at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The shape of the fan-shaped rays on the surface of the asteroid was naturally formed by boulders that formed the cosmic snowballs on the surface of the asteroid whether the impactor was a compact rock such as the marble or a loose clump of material.

These marks could be seen on Dimorphos in that film taken by the DART spacecraft immediately before the large collision, evidence that there was an exchange of material between it and Didymos, said Sunshine. The fan line deposit must stretch up to the side of the moon that we did not strike and there is a chance that it was not smashed in by the blow.

These features could be found to be still present on Didymos as the Hera mission of the European Space Agency will possibly arrive in December 2026 and see them. Sunshine and her colleagues give an estimate as to how Hera will also witness new ray patterns formed when boulders are struck by the DART spacecraft, knocking them loose, which gives them a different perspective of the asteroids that have the potential to threaten the earth.

According to Sunshine, these new findings which arise out of this research play a critical part in our knowledge about the near-Earth asteroids and their evolutionary patterns. It has been discovered that they are much more dynamic than we thought before and this will assist us in streamlining our models and our planetary defense efforts.

Edward Stone: 50 Years at NASA ends, but his brainchild Voyager’s Project goes on

NASA: Are you in an area of Lucy then take a photograph, post it to social media

Edward Stone: 50 Years at NASA ends, but his brainchild Voyager’s Project goes on

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Arun Kumar N

Stone’s remarkable tenure on NASA’s longest-operating mission spans decades of historic discoveries and firsts.

Edward Stone has retired as the project scientist for NASA’s Voyager mission a half-century after taking on the role. Stone accepted scientific leadership of the historic mission in 1972, five years before the launch of its two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Under his guidance, the Voyagers explored the four giant planets and became the first human-made objects to reach interstellar space, the region between the stars containing material generated by the death of nearby stars.

Until now, Stone was the only person to have served as project scientist for Voyager, maintaining his position even while serving as director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California from 1991 to 2001. JPL manages the Voyager mission for NASA. Stone retired from JPL in 2001 but continued to serve as the mission’s project scientist.

“It has been an honor and a joy to serve as the Voyager project scientist for 50 years,” Stone said. “The spacecraft have succeeded beyond expectation, and I have cherished the opportunity to work with so many talented and dedicated people on this mission. It has been a remarkable journey, and I’m thankful to everyone around the world who has followed Voyager and joined us on this adventure.”

Edward Stone, second from left, and other members of the Voyager team pose with a model of the spacecraft in 1977, the year the twin probes launched. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Linda Spilker will succeed Stone as Voyager’s project scientist as the twin probes continue to explore interstellar space. Spilker was a member of the Voyager science team during the mission’s flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. She later became project scientist for NASA’s now-retired Cassini mission to Saturn, and rejoined Voyager as deputy project scientist in 2021.

Jamie Rankin, a research scientist at Princeton University and a member of the Voyager science steering group, has been appointed deputy project scientist for the mission. Rankin received her Ph.D. in 2018 from Caltech, where Stone served as her advisor. Her research combines data from Voyager and other missions in NASA’s heliophysics fleet.

The twin Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, on a mission to explore Jupiter and Saturn, ultimately revealing never-before-seen features of those planets and their moons. Voyager 1 continued its journey out of the solar system, while Voyager 2 continued on to Uranus and Neptune – and remains the only spacecraft to have visited the ice giants.

Edward Stone, left, talks to reporters at a news conference to announce findings from Voyager 2’s flyby of Uranus in 1986. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Following this “grand tour” of the outer planets, the Voyager Interstellar Mission began. The goal was to exit the heliosphere – a protective bubble created by the Sun’s magnetic field and outward flow of solar wind (charged particles from the Sun). Voyager 1 crossed the boundary of the heliosphere and entered interstellar space in 2012, followed by Voyager 2 (traveling slower and in a different direction) in 2018. Today, as part of NASA’s longest-running mission, both spacecraft continue to illuminate the interplay between our Sun, and the particles and magnetic fields in interstellar space.

“Ed likes to say that Voyager is a mission of discovery, and it certainly is,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager. “From the flybys of the outer planets in the 1970s and ’80s, to the heliopause crossing and current travels through interstellar space, Voyager never ceases to surprise and amaze us. All those milestones and successes are due to Ed’s exceptional scientific leadership and his keen ability to share his excitement about these discoveries to the world.”

Among the many honors bestowed on him, Stone has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1984. He was awarded the National Medal of Science from President George H.W. Bush in 1991. When Stone was interviewed on the late-night TV show “The Colbert Report” in 2013, NASA arranged for host Stephen Colbert to present him with the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the agency’s highest honor for a nongovernment individual. In 2019, he received the Shaw Prize in Astronomy from the Shaw Foundation in Hong Kong for his work on the Voyager mission.

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NASA’s Swift, Fermi missions detect exceptional cosmic blast

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Arun Kumar N

Astronomers around the world are captivated by an unusually bright and long-lasting pulse of high-energy radiation that swept over Earth Sunday, Oct. 9. The emission came from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) – the most powerful class of explosions in the universe – that ranks among the most luminous events known.

On Sunday morning Eastern time, a wave of X-rays and gamma rays passed through the solar system, triggering detectors aboard NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and Wind spacecraft, as well as others. Telescopes around the world turned to the site to study the aftermath, and new observations continue.

Called GRB 221009A, the explosion provided an unexpectedly exciting start to the 10th Fermi Symposium, a gathering of gamma-ray astronomers now underway in Johannesburg, South Africa. “It’s safe to say this meeting really kicked off with a bang – everyone’s talking about this,” said Judy Racusin, a Fermi deputy project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who is attending the conference.

Swift’s X-Ray Telescope captured the afterglow of GRB 221009A about an hour after it was first detected. The bright rings form as a result of X-rays scattered from otherwise unobservable dust layers within our galaxy that lie in the direction of the burst./Credit: NASA/Swift/A. Beardmore (University of Leicester)

The signal, originating from the direction of the constellation Sagitta, had traveled an estimated 1.9 billion years to reach Earth. Astronomers think it represents the birth cry of a new black hole, one that formed in the heart of a massive star collapsing under its own weight. In these circumstances, a nascent black hole drives powerful jets of particles traveling near the speed of light. The jets pierce through the star, emitting X-rays and gamma rays as they stream into space.

The light from this ancient explosion brings with it new insights into stellar collapse, the birth of a black hole, the behavior and interaction of matter near the speed of light, the conditions in a distant galaxy – and much more. Another GRB this bright may not appear for decades.

According to a preliminary analysis, Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected the burst for more than 10 hours. One reason for the burst’s brightness and longevity is that, for a GRB, it lies relatively close to us.

NASA

“This burst is much closer than typical GRBs, which is exciting because it allows us to detect many details that otherwise would be too faint to see,” said Roberta Pillera, a Fermi LAT Collaboration member who led initial communications about the burst and a doctoral student at the Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy. “But it’s also among the most energetic and luminous bursts ever seen regardless of distance, making it doubly exciting.”

The burst also provided a long-awaited inaugural observing opportunity for a link between two experiments on the International Space Station – NASA’s NICER X-ray telescope and a Japanese detector called the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI). Activated in April, the connection is dubbed the Orbiting High-energy Monitor Alert Network (OHMAN). It allows NICER to rapidly turn to outbursts detected by MAXI, actions that previously required intervention by scientists on the ground.

“OHMAN provided an automated alert that enabled NICER to follow up within three hours, as soon as the source became visible to the telescope,” said Zaven Arzoumanian, the NICER science lead at Goddard. “Future opportunities could result in response times of a few minutes.”

NASA: Are you in an area of Lucy then take a photograph, post it to social media

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Arun Kumar N

On Oct. 16, at 7:04 a.m. EDT, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, the first mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, will skim the Earth’s atmosphere, passing a mere 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the surface. By sling-shotting past Earth on the first anniversary of its launch, Lucy will gain some of the orbital energy it needs to travel to this never-before-visited population of asteroids.

The Trojan asteroids are trapped in orbits around the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter, either far ahead of or behind the giant planet. Lucy is currently one year into a twelve-year voyage. This gravity assist will place Lucy on a new trajectory for a two-year orbit, at which time it will return to Earth for a second gravity assist. This second assist will give Lucy the energy it needs to cross the main asteroid belt, where it will observe asteroid Donaldjohanson, and then travel into the leading Trojan asteroid swarm. There, Lucy will fly past six Trojan asteroids: Eurybates and its satellite Queta, Polymele and its yet unnamed satellite, Leucus, and Orus. Lucy will then return to Earth for a third gravity assist in 2030 to re-target the spacecraft for a rendezvous with the Patroclus-Menoetius binary asteroid pair in the trailing Trojan asteroid swarm.

This illustration shows the Lucy spacecraft passing one of the Trojan Asteroids near Jupiter./CREDIT:Southwest Research Institute

For this first gravity assist, Lucy will appear to approach Earth from the direction of the Sun. While this means that observers on Earth will not be able to see Lucy in the days before the event, Lucy will be able to take images of the nearly full Earth and Moon. Mission scientists will use these images to calibrate the instruments.

Lucy’s trajectory will bring the spacecraft very close to Earth, lower even than the International Space Station, which means that Lucy will pass through a region full of earth-orbiting satellites and debris. To ensure the safety of the spacecraft, NASA developed procedures to anticipate any potential hazard and, if needed, to execute a small maneuver to avoid a collision.

“The Lucy team has prepared two different maneuvers,” says Coralie Adam, Lucy deputy navigation team chief from KinetX Aerospace in Simi Valley, California. “If the team detects that Lucy is at risk of colliding with a satellite or piece of debris, then–12 hours before the closest approach to Earth –the spacecraft will execute one of these, altering the time of closest approach by either two or four seconds. This is a small correction, but it is enough to avoid a potentially catastrophic collision.”

NASA/Photo: Nasa.gov

Lucy will be passing the Earth at such a low altitude that the team had to include the effect of atmospheric drag when designing this flyby. Lucy’s large solar arrays increase this effect.

“In the original plan, Lucy was actually going to pass about 30 miles closer to the Earth,” says Rich Burns, Lucy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “However, when it became clear that we might have to execute this flyby with one of the solar arrays unlatched, we chose to use a bit of our fuel reserves so that the spacecraft passes the Earth at a slightly higher altitude, reducing the disturbance from the atmospheric drag on the spacecraft’s solar arrays.”

At around 6:55 a.m. EDT, Lucy will first be visible to observers on the ground in Western Australia (6:55 p.m. for those observers). Lucy will quickly pass overhead, clearly visible to the naked eye for a few minutes before disappearing at 7:02 a.m. EDT as the spacecraft passes into the Earth’s shadow. Lucy will continue over the Pacific Ocean in darkness and emerge from the Earth’s shadow at 7:26 a.m. EDT. If the clouds cooperate, sky watchers in the western United States should be able to get a view of Lucy with the aid of binoculars.

“The last time we saw the spacecraft, it was being enclosed in the payload fairing in Florida,” said Hal Levison, Lucy principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Boulder, Colorado office. “It is exciting that we will be able to stand here in Colorado and see the spacecraft again. And this time Lucy will be in the sky.”

Lucy will then rapidly recede from the Earth’s vicinity, passing by the Moon and taking a few more calibration images before continuing out into interplanetary space.

“I’m especially excited by the final few images that Lucy will take of the Moon,” said John Spencer, acting deputy project scientist at SwRI. “Counting craters to understand the collisional history of the Trojan asteroids is key to the science that Lucy will carry out, and this will be the first opportunity to calibrate Lucy’s ability to detect craters by comparing it to previous observations of the Moon by other space missions.”

The public is invited to join the #WaveToLucy social media campaign by posting images of themselves waving towards the spacecraft and tagging the @NASASolarSystem account. Additionally, if you are in an area where Lucy will be visible, take a photograph of Lucy and post it to social media with the #SpotTheSpacecraft hashtag.

Instructions for observing Lucy from your location are available here.

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No Picnic in the Clouds! It’s JPL aerobot

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Srinivas Chakravarty

JPL’s Venus Aerial Robotic Balloon Prototype Aces Test Flights

A scaled-down version of the aerobot that could one day take to the Venusian skies successfully completed two Nevada test flights, marking a milestone for the project.

The intense pressure, heat, and corrosive gases of Venus’ surface are enough to disable even the most robust spacecraft in a matter of hours. But a few dozen miles overhead, the thick atmosphere is far more hospitable to robotic exploration.

One concept envisions pairing a balloon with a Venus orbiter, the two working in tandem to study Earth’s sister planet. While the orbiter would remain far above the atmosphere, taking science measurements and serving as a communication relay, an aerial robotic balloon, or aerobot, about 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter would travel into it.

To test this concept, a team of scientists and engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the Near Space Corporation in Tillamook, Oregon, recently carried out two successful flights of a prototype balloon that’s about a third of that size.

The shimmering silver balloon ascended more than 4,000 feet (1 kilometer) over Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to a region of Earth’s atmosphere that approximates the temperature and density the aerobot would experience about 180,000 feet (55 kilometers) above Venus. Coordinated by Near Space, these tests represent a milestone in proving the concept’s suitability for accessing a region of Venus’ atmosphere too low for orbiters to reach, but where a balloon mission could operate for weeks or even months.

“We’re extremely happy with the performance of the prototype. It was launched, demonstrated controlled-altitude maneuvers, and was recovered in good condition after both flights,” said robotics technologist Jacob Izraelevitz, who leads the balloon development as the JPL principal investigator of the flight tests. “We’ve recorded a mountain of data from these flights and are looking forward to using it to improve our simulation models before exploring our sister planet.”

The only balloon-borne exploration of Venus’ atmosphere to date was a part of the twin Soviet Vega 1 and 2 missions that arrived at the planet in 1985. The two balloons (which were about 11.5 feet, or 3.6 meters, in diameter when filled with helium) lasted a little over 46 hours before their instruments’ batteries ran out. Their short time in the Venusian atmosphere provided a tantalizing hint of the science that could be achieved by a larger, longer-duration balloon platform floating within the planet’s atmosphere.

A prototype aerial robotic balloon, or aerobot, is readied for a sunrise test flight at Black Rock Desert, Nevada, in July 2022, by team members from JPL and Near Space Corporation. The aerobot successfully completed two flights, demonstrating controlled altitude flight. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

‘Roving’ the Skies

The ultimate goal of the aerobot would be to travel on the Venusian winds, floating from east to west, circumnavigating the planet for at least 100 days. The aerobot would serve as a platform for a range of science investigations, from monitoring the atmosphere for acoustic waves generated by venusquakes to analyzing the chemical composition of the clouds. The accompanying orbiter would receive data from the aerobot and relay it to Earth while providing a global view of the planet.

Much like a Mars rover is commanded to drive to an interesting rock or other feature, the aerobot can be directed to raise and lower its altitude – something the Vega balloons couldn’t do – to conduct science between about 171,000 and 203,000 feet (52 and 62 kilometers) within Venus’ atmosphere.

The prototype balloon was fabricated using Near Space’s techniques for performance aerospace inflatables. Designed as a “balloon within a balloon,” it has a rigid inner reservoir filled with helium under high pressure and an encapsulating outer helium balloon that can expand and contract. To increase altitude, helium vents from the inner reservoir into the outer balloon, which expands to give the aerobot additional buoyancy. When it’s time to reduce altitude, helium is pumped back into the reservoir, causing the outer balloon to shrink and decrease the aerobot’s buoyancy.

“The success of these test flights is a huge deal for us: We’ve successfully demonstrated the technology we’ll need for investigating the clouds of Venus,” said Paul Byrne, an associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis and aerobot science collaborator. “These tests form the foundation for how we can achieve long-term robotic exploration high above Venus’ hellish surface.”

The one-third scale prototype aerobot is designed to withstand the corrosive chemicals in Venus’ atmosphere. During the flights, the balloon’s materials were tested for the first time, giving the team confidence that a larger aerobot design could operate in Venus skies. Credit: Near Space Corporation

No Picnic in the Clouds

While this region of Venus’ atmosphere is more forgiving than its lower reaches, long-duration flights in the rocky planet’s clouds, which contain sulfuric acid and other corrosive chemicals, would be no picnic. So the multilayered material developed for the aerobot’s outer balloon includes an acid-proof coating, a metallization layer to reduce solar heating, and a structural inner layer that keeps it strong enough to carry the science instruments below. New techniques have also been developed to ensure a long-duration acid-proof seal with minimal helium leakage from the seams.

“The materials being used for Venus survivability are challenging to fabricate with, and the robustness of handling we’ve demonstrated in the Nevada launch and recovery gives us confidence for balloon’s reliability on Venus,” said co-investigator Tim Lachenmeier, chief executive officer of Near Space.

While the recent Nevada tests were a milestone for a future concept designed with Venus in mind, the researchers say the technology could also be used by high-altitude science balloons that need to control their altitude in Earth’s skies.

Webb Telescope, Hubble Telescope Capture Detailed images of DART Impact

Posted on September 29, 2022 by Srinivas Chakravarty

Two of NASA’s Great Observatories, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, have captured views of a unique NASA experiment designed to intentionally smash a spacecraft into a small asteroid in the world’s first-ever in-space test for planetary defense. These observations of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact mark the first time that Webb and Hubble simultaneously observed the same celestial target.

On Sept. 26, 2022, at 7:14 pm EDT, DART intentionally crashed into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet in the double-asteroid system of Didymos. It was the world’s first test of the kinetic impact mitigation technique, using a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid that poses no threat to Earth, and modifying the object’s orbit. DART is a test for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards.

The coordinated Hubble and Webb observations are more than just an operational milestone for each telescope – there are also key science questions relating to the makeup and history of our solar system that researchers can explore when combining the capabilities of these observatories.

“Webb and Hubble show what we’ve always known to be true at NASA: We learn more when we work together,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “For the first time, Webb and Hubble have simultaneously captured imagery from the same target in the cosmos: an asteroid that was impacted by a spacecraft after a seven-million-mile journey. All of humanity eagerly awaits the discoveries to come from Webb, Hubble, and our ground-based telescopes – about the DART mission and beyond.”

Observations from Webb and Hubble together will allow scientists to gain knowledge about the nature of the surface of Dimorphos, how much material was ejected by the collision, and how fast it was ejected. Additionally, Webb and Hubble captured the impact in different wavelengths of light – Webb in infrared and Hubble in visible. Observing the impact across a wide array of wavelengths will reveal the distribution of particle sizes in the expanding dust cloud, helping to determine whether it threw off lots of big chunks or mostly fine dust. Combining this information, along with ground-based telescope observations, will help scientists to understand how effectively a kinetic impact can modify an asteroid’s orbit.

Webb Captures Impact Site Before and After Collision

Webb took one observation of the impact location before the collision took place, then several observations over the next few hours. Images from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) show a tight, compact core, with plumes of material appearing as wisps streaming away from the center of where the impact took place.

Observing the impact with Webb presented the flight operations, planning, and science teams with unique challenges, because of the asteroid’s speed of travel across the sky. As DART approached its target, the teams performed additional work in the weeks leading up to the impact to enable and test a method of tracking asteroids moving over three times faster than the original speed limit set for Webb.

“I have nothing but tremendous admiration for the Webb Mission Operations folks that made this a reality,” said principal investigator Cristina Thomas of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. “We have been planning these observations for years, then in detail for weeks, and I’m tremendously happy this has come to fruition.”

Scientists also plan to observe the asteroid system in the coming months using Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). Spectroscopic data will provide researchers with insight into the asteroid’s chemical composition.

Webb observed the impact over five hours total and captured 10 images. The data was collected as part of Webb’s Cycle 1 Guaranteed Time Observation Program 1245 led by Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA).

Hubble Images Show Movement of Ejecta After Impact

Hubble also captured observations of the binary system ahead of the impact, then again 15 minutes after DART hit the surface of Dimorphos. Images from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 show the impact in visible light. Ejecta from the impact appear as rays stretching out from the body of the asteroid. The bolder, fanned-out spike of ejecta to the left of the asteroid is in the general direction from which DART approached.

Some of the rays appear to be curved slightly, but astronomers need to take a closer look to determine what this could mean. In the Hubble images, astronomers estimate that the brightness of the system increased by three times after impact, and saw that brightness hold steady, even eight hours after impact.

Description of the above images: These images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, taken (left to right) 22 minutes, 5 hours, and 8.2 hours after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) intentionally impacted Dimorphos, show expanding plumes of ejecta from the asteroid’s body. The Hubble images show ejecta from the impact that appear as rays stretching out from the body of the asteroid. The bolder, fanned-out spike of ejecta to the left of the asteroid is in the general direction from which DART approached. These observations, when combined with data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, will allow scientists to gain knowledge about the nature of the surface of Dimorphos, how much material was ejected by the collision, how fast it was ejected, and the distribution of particle sizes in the expanding dust cloud.

Credits: Science: NASA, ESA, Jian-Yang Li (PSI); image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Hubble plans to monitor the Didymos-Dimorphos system 10 more times over the next three weeks. These regular, relatively long-term observations as the ejecta cloud expands and fades over time will paint a more complete picture of the cloud’s expansion from the ejection to its disappearance.

“When I saw the data, I was literally speechless, stunned by the amazing detail of the ejecta that Hubble captured,” said Jian-Yang Li of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, who led the Hubble observations. “I feel lucky to witness this moment and be part of the team that made this happen.”

Hubble captured 45 images in the time immediately before and following DART’s impact with Dimorphos. The Hubble data was collected as part of Cycle 29 General Observers Program 16674.

“This is an unprecedented view of an unprecedented event,” summarized Andy Rivkin, DART investigation team lead of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble and Webb science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.

NASA-Built ‘Weather Sensors’ Capture Vital Data on Hurricane Ian

Posted on September 29, 2022 by Bharath Panchajanya

A pair of microwave radiometers collected data on the storm as they passed over the Caribbean Sea aboard the International Space Station.

Two recently launched instruments that were designed and built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to provide forecasters data on weather over the open ocean captured images of Hurricane Ian on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022, as the storm approached Cuba on its way north toward the U.S. mainland.

COWVR (short for Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer) and TEMPEST (Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems) observe the planet’s atmosphere and surface from aboard the International Space Station, which passed in low-Earth orbit over the Caribbean Sea at about 12:30 a.m. EDT.

Ian made landfall in Cuba’s Pinar del Rio province at 4:30 a.m. EDT, according to the National Hurricane Center. At that time, it was a Category 3 hurricane, with estimated wind speeds of 125 mph (205 kph).

From aboard the International Space Station, NASA-built instruments Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer (COWVR) and Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems (TEMPEST) captured wind and water vapor data from Hurricane Ian as the storm neared Cuba. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The image above combines microwave emissions measurements from both COWVR and TEMPEST. White sections indicate the presence of clouds. Green portions indicate rain. Yellow, red, and black indicate where air and water vapor were moving most swiftly. Ian’s center is seen just off of Cuba’s southern coast, and the storm is shown covering the island with rain and wind.

Space News: Planetary-scale ‘heat wave’ discovered in Jupiter’s atmosphere

Posted on September 23, 2022 by Srinivas Chakravarty

An unexpected ‘heat wave’ of 700 degrees Celsius, extending 130,000 kilometres (10 Earth diameters) in Jupiter’s atmosphere, has been discovered. James O’Donoghue, of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has presented the results this week at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2022 in Granada.

Jupiter’s atmosphere, famous for its characteristic multicoloured vortices, is also unexpectedly hot: in fact, it is hundreds of degrees hotter than models predict. Due to its orbital distance millions of kilometres from the Sun, the giant planet receives under 4% of the amount of sunlight compared to Earth, and its upper atmosphere should theoretically be a frigid -70 degrees Celsius. Instead, its cloud tops are measured everywhere at over 400 degrees Celsius.

“Last year we produced – and presented at EPSC2021 – the first maps of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere capable of identifying the dominant heat sources,” said Dr O’Donoghue. “Thanks to these maps, we demonstrated that Jupiter’s auroras were a possible mechanism that could explain these temperatures.”

Just like the Earth, Jupiter experiences auroras around its poles as an effect of the solar wind. However, while Earth’s auroras are transient and only occur when solar activity is intense, auroras at Jupiter are permanent and have a variable intensity. The powerful auroras can heat the region around the poles to over 700 degrees Celsius, and global winds can redistribute the heat globally around Jupiter.

A panning-view of Jupiter’s upper atmospheric temperatures, 1000 kilometers above the cloud tops. Jupiter is shown on top of a visible image for context. In this snapshot, the auroral region (near the northern pole, in yellow/white) appears to have shed a massive, planetary-scale wave of heating towards the equator. The feature is over 130,000 kilometers long, or 10-Earth diameters, and is hundreds of degrees warmer than the background. For video see: https://youtu.be/gWT0QwSoVls/CREDIT:Hubble / NASA / ESA / A. Simon (NASA GSFC) / J. Schmidt. Credit: James O’Donoghue

Looking more deeply through their data, Dr O’Donoghue and his team discovered the spectacular ‘heat wave’ just below the northern aurora, and found that it was travelling towards the equator at a speed of thousands of kilometres per hour.

The heat wave was probably triggered by a pulse of enhanced solar wind plasma impacting Jupiter’s magnetic field, which boosted auroral heating and forced hot gases to expand and spill out towards the equator.

“While the auroras continuously deliver heat to the rest of the planet, these heat wave ‘events’ represent an additional, significant energy source,” added Dr O’Donoghue. “These findings add to our knowledge of Jupiter’s upper-atmospheric weather and climate, and are a great help in trying to solve the ‘energy crisis’ problem that plagues research into the giant planets.”

NASA Sets TV Coverage for Crewed Soyuz Mission to Space Station[Live schedule details]

Posted on September 18, 2022 by Arun Kumar N

NASA will provide live coverage of key events as a NASA astronaut and two cosmonauts launch and dock to the International Space Station on Wednesday, Sept. 21.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin will launch aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:54 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 21 (6:54 p.m. Baikonur time). Coverage will begin at 9 a.m. on NASA Television’s Public Channel, the NASA app, and on the agency’s website.

NASA also will air continuous coverage of an Artemis I tanking test on NASA TV’s Media Channel beginning at 7:15 a.m.

At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio performs preflight checkouts in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. Rubio is scheduled to launch with crewmates Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin Sept. 21 for a six-month mission on the International Space Station.
Credits: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

Soyuz MS-22 launch and key events as well of coverage of the Artemis I tanking test will be available to watch online at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

After a two-orbit, three-hour journey, the Soyuz will dock to the space station’s Rassvet module at 1:11 p.m. About two hours after docking, hatches between the Soyuz and the station will open and the crew members will greet each other.

Once aboard station, the trio will join Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev, cosmonauts Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov of Roscosmos, as well as NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin will spend six months aboard the orbital laboratory.

This will be Prokopyev’s second flight into space and the first for Rubio and Petelin.

Mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern):

Wednesday, Sept. 21

9 a.m. – Coverage begins on NASA TV’s Public Channel for 9:54 a.m. launch.

12:15 p.m. – Coverage begins on NASA TV’s Public Channel for 1:11 p.m. docking.

3:30 p.m. – Coverage begins on NASA TV for hatch opening and welcome remarks.

NASA Hosts National Space Council Meeting, Vice President Kamala Harris Chairs Event

Posted on September 10, 2022 by Arun Kumar N

Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted the importance of climate, human spaceflight, and STEM education during the Biden-Harris Administration’s second National Space Council meeting Friday, held at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“For generations, with our allies and partners around the globe, America has led our world in the exploration and use of space,” said Harris. “Our leadership has been guided by a set of fundamental principles – cooperation, security, ambition, and public trust – which is the recognition, of course, that space can and must be protected for the benefit of all people.

There is so much we still don’t know and so much we still haven’t done – space remains a place of undiscovered and unrealized opportunity. Our test and our responsibility is to work together to guide humanity forward into this new frontier and to make real the incredible potential of space for all people.”

National Space Council Meeting led by Chairwoman, Vice President Kamala Harris. Photo Date: September 9, 2022. Location: Building 9NW, SVMF. Photographer: Robert Markowitz.

For more than 50 years, NASA satellites have provided open-source and publicly available data on Earth’s land, water, temperature, weather, and climate. Improving access to key climate information is a priority for the agency. Building on his previous announcement, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson released the first concept, and shared a new video for the Earth Information Center. The center will allow the public to see how the Earth is changing and guide decision makers to mitigate, adapt, and respond to climate change.

“Just like we use mission control to monitor operations during spaceflight, we’re embarking on this effort to monitor conditions here on our home planet, and it will be available to everyone in an easy-to-access format,” Nelson said.

Planning for the Earth Information Center is underway with the initial phase providing an interactive visual display of imagery and data from NASA and other government agencies. NASA Headquarters plans to house this initial interactive display with goals to expand in person and virtual access over the next five years.

The Vice President also underscored the important research conducted on the International Space Station that will enable long duration stays on the Moon and future human missions to Mars, in addition to benefits to life here on Earth.

NASA/Photo: Nasa.gov

“NASA uses the International Space Station to conduct critical research on the risks associated with future Mars missions – space radiation, isolation, and distance from Earth, just to name a few. It’s also a testbed to develop the technologies we’ll need for long duration stays on the Moon, where we will build an Artemis Base Camp on the surface and Gateway outpost in lunar orbit,” Nelson said. “Research on the space station demonstrates that the benefits of microgravity are not just for discovery. We also develop new technologies that improve life on Earth, like treatments for cancer.”

In conjunction with the meeting, NASA announced a new Space Grant K-12 Inclusiveness and Diversity in STEM (SG KIDS) opportunity that will award more than $4 million to institutions across the U.S. to help bring the excitement of NASA and STEM to traditionally underserved and underrepresented groups of middle and high school students. The announcement is a part of a broader set of commitments made by public, private, and philanthropic partners announced by the Vice President to help in the recruitment and development of the next generation of the space workforce.

SG KIDS also addresses the White House Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, as well as NASA Administrator Bill Nelson’s focus on providing authentic STEM opportunities to K-12 students.

While at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Vice President Harris toured the agency’s mission control with Nelson and Johnson Center Director Vanessa Wyche. The Vice President also spoke with NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins, living and working aboard the International Space Station about how their research benefits life on Earth, supports long duration space flight, and protects our planet.

The Vice President also received a tour of the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF), where space flight crews and their support personnel receive world class training on high-fidelity hardware for real-time mission support. The SVMF consists of space station, Orion, Commercial vehicle mockups, part-task trainers and rack interfaces, a Precision Air Bearing Floor, and a Partial Gravity Simulator.

A recording of the full National Space Council meeting is available online at:

https://go.nasa.gov/3eEGxEW

US Postal Service Celebrates NASA’s Webb Telescope With New Postal Stamp

Posted on September 9, 2022 by Srinivas Chakravarty

The U.S. Postal Service will issue a stamp celebrating NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, the largest, most powerful, and most complex science telescope ever put in space. The stamp, which features an illustration of the observatory, will be dedicated in a ceremony Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum in Washington.

“When anyone who uses these stamps looks at this telescope, I want them to see what I see: its incredible potential to reveal new and unexpected discoveries that help us understand the origins of the universe, and our place in it,” said NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana. “This telescope is the largest international space science program in U.S. history, and I can’t wait to see the scientific breakthroughs it will enable in astronomy.”

Webb, a mission led by NASA in partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), launched Dec. 25, 2021, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Over the following months, Webb traveled to its destination nearly one million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth, underwent weeks of complex deployments to unfold into its final configuration, and prepared its mirrors and science instruments to capture never-before-seen views of the universe.

The U.S. Postal Service will issue a stamp highlighting NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on Sept. 8, 2022. U.S. Postal Service Art Director Derry Noyes designed the stamp using existing art by James Vaughan and an image provided by NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Credits: U.S. Postal Service

NASA released Webb’s first full-color images and spectra July 12 – providing a first look at the observatory’s powerful capabilities. The U.S. Postal Service stamp honors these achievements as Webb continues its mission to explore the unknown in our universe and study every phase in cosmic history.

“I am excited to add this beautiful stamp to our collection, as we watch from the ground as humanity’s newest and most capable telescope unlocks the greatest secrets of our cosmos that have been waiting to be revealed since the beginning of time,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “The Webb Telescope represents the start to a new era of what we can accomplish for the benefit of all.”

The stamp features an artist’s digital illustration of Webb against a background of stars. The selvage around each set of stamps showcases a sharp image of a star, captured while setting up the telescope in space to confirm precise alignment of Webb’s 18 hexagonal mirror segments.

The U.S. Postal Service’s first day of issue event is free and open to the public on Thursday, Sept. 8, at 11 a.m. EDT at the National Postal Museum. NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana; Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; and Erin Smith, Webb deputy observatory project scientist at NASA Goddard will be among the speakers providing remarks.

NASA/Photo: Nasa.gov

To follow along with NASA’s Webb Telescope as it begins its mission to unfold the infrared universe, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/webb

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier infrared space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).