NASA

Read the latest NASA news today on Newser.com

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47-Year-Old Voyager Probe Responds to 'Poke'

Communication not entirely lost as received data could offer clues to malfunction

(Newser) - The bad news is the Voyager 1 mission team still isn't sure why the 47-year-old spacecraft is sending garbled messages from the outer reaches of the solar system. The good news is that the communication link isn't entirely severed across a gap of 15 billion miles, as a...

Voyager 1 Is Sending Back Garbled Messages

Losing contact with the aging craft is a scientific loss, but also an 'emotional' one

(Newser) - If you're still sentimental about Pluto's planetary status, get ready for a galactic gut punch. NASA's steadfast Voyager 1, which has been sending crucial data from space for nearly 50 years, is experiencing a serious glitch that may permanently end its communication back to Earth. NPR reports...

NASA Watched 'Helplessly' as 2 Satellites Got Perilously Close

Space agency's TIMED spacecraft, defunct Russian satellite came within 65 feet of each other last week

(Newser) - Last week, a NASA satellite "almost got clobbered high above Earth." That's the scoop from Space.com , which reports on a near collision last Wednesday between the space agency's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) research spacecraft, which has been in space studying data since...

Odysseus to Be 'Tucked in for the Cold Night of the Moon'

Moon lander broke leg upon landing on lunar surface

(Newser) - The first private US spacecraft to land on the moon broke a leg at touchdown before falling over , and had just a few hours of power left before its anticipated premature shutdown Wednesday night, the AP reports. Intuitive Machines, the company that built the lander, released new photos Wednesday, six...

How to Watch Today&#39;s Attempted Moon Landing
How to Watch
Today's Attempted
Lunar Landing
the rundown
Feb 22, 2024 1:30 AM CST

How to Watch Today's Attempted Lunar Landing

Odysseus is in orbit, will attempt to touch down at 5:30pm Eastern time

(Newser) - Odysseus, the robotic moon lander launched last week by a private Houston company, successfully entered the moon's orbit Wednesday, and is scheduled to land Thursday at 5:30pm Eastern time—which, if successful, would be the first time in more than five decades that a US spacecraft has touched...

NASA Puts Out Call for Volunteers: 'Martians Wanted'

Live and work in Mars simulator for a year to help space agency prep for the real thing

(Newser) - For those just itching to find out what it's like to live on the red planet, NASA has your dream job. The space agency is looking for four volunteers for its next mission to simulate life on Mars for a year. Selected applicants would actually be living in Houston,...

NASA Hits the Jackpot on Its 'Rubble Return Goal'

OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned double the expected samples from asteroid Bennu

(Newser) - NASA finally has counted up all the asteroid samples returned by a spacecraft last fall—and it's double the rubble return goal. Officials reported Thursday that the Osiris-Rex spacecraft collected 4.29 ounces of dust and pebbles from asteroid Bennu. That's just over half a cup and the...

Asteroid Size of Empire State Building Is About to Fly By Earth

2008 OS7 will come within 1.7M miles of our planet on Friday, though experts assure that it won't hit us

(Newser) - An asteroid as big as a skyscraper will pass within 1.7 million miles of Earth on Friday. But it's not on a collision course with us, as it will pass seven times the distance from Earth to the moon, per the AP . NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object...

That's a Wrap for NASA's 4-Pound Mars Helicopter

Rotor blade damage permanently grounds Ingenuity

(Newser) - NASA's little Mars helicopter has flown its last flight. The space agency announced Thursday that the 4-pound chopper named Ingenuity can no longer fly because of rotor blade damage. While it remains upright and in contact with flight controllers, its $85 million mission is officially over, officials said. Originally...

NASA Finally Unlocks Its Asteroid Sample
OSIRIS-REx Reveals
a 'Treasure Trove'
Jan 24, 2024 12:51 PM CST

OSIRIS-REx Reveals a 'Treasure Trove'

NASA finally unlocks long-sought asteroid sample, with some decent-sized rocks

(Newser) - After months of painstaking effort, the last two screws have finally been removed from the end of OSIRIS-REx's articulated arm, which grabbed a sample of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu as part of a $1 billion NASA mission, allowing scientists to look inside. They found a "treasure trove of...

NASA Needs Your Help Unraveling Cosmic Mysteries

Agency calls for citizen scientists to catalog pulses of gamma rays as discoveries continue

(Newser) - NASA needs your help to identify massive explosions in space. The space agency is calling on citizen scientists to become "burst chasers" by joining a project to interpret gamma-ray bursts across the universe and "decode what the universe is saying," according to a release . Huge amounts of...

NASA Delays Next 2 Moon Missions
NASA Delays
Artemis Missions
Jan 9, 2024 5:55 PM CST

NASA Delays Artemis Missions

Agency says astronauts won't walk on the moon until 2026 at the earliest

(Newser) - Tuesday was a frustrating day for people eager to see a US spacecraft return to the moon. Soon after Astrobotic Technology confirmed that a fuel leak had doomed its plan for a lunar landing in February, NASA said it had delayed its next two Artemis moon missions. The agency said...

&#39;We Are on Our Way to the Moon!&#39;
Historic Moon Mission
Might Be in Peril
UPDATED
Jan 8, 2024 1:20 PM CST

Historic Moon Mission Might Be in Peril

Private company's spacecraft develops fuel leak en route to first landing in more than 50 years

(Newser) - Updated throughout. The first US moon landing in more than 50 years was in jeopardy Monday after a private company's newly launched spacecraft developed a "critical" fuel leak. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology raced to orient its lander toward the sun so the solar panel could collect sunlight, as battery...

First US Moon Landing in 50 Years Is Near

Two private companies are racing to get there first next month

(Newser) - India scored a moon landing last year, and Japan hopes to do the same next month. Now two private companies are hustling to get the US back in the lunar game, more than five decades after the Apollo program ended. As the AP explains, it's all part of a...

Of Human Remains Headed to Moon, Navajo Say No

Navajo Nation wants commercial mission to deposit remains of US presidents, others halted

(Newser) - A space mission that will deposit a whole lot of human remains on the moon appears to be moving forward despite the Navajo Nation's objections. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren sent a letter to NASA and the US Department of Transportation last month, requesting the mission be postponed from...

NASA Releases 'Stunning' Images of a Jupiter Moon

It's been more than 20 years since we got this close to the volcanic Io

(Newser) - A NASA spacecraft paid a rare visit to an old friend over the holiday weekend—the volcanic Jupiter moon of Io, reports NPR . The Juno craft made a close flyby, at just under 1,000 miles, for the first time in 20 years and captured new photos that NASA is...

Trip to Moon to Include International Astronaut

NASA plan calls for mission to take place this decade

(Newser) - An international astronaut will join US astronauts on the moon by decade's end under an agreement announced Wednesday by NASA and the White House. The news came as Vice President Kamala Harris convened a meeting in Washington of the National Space Council, the third such gathering under the Biden...

NASA: 'It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Cosmos'

Space agency releases new image of 'Christmas Tree Cluster'

(Newser) - "It's beginning to look a lot like cosmos," NASA joked in a post on X with a new image of the "Christmas Tree Cluster." NASA also released an animation of NGC 2264, a cluster of young stars between 1 million and 5 million years old....

NASA Beams Cat Video to Earth From 19M Miles Away

This could be a big deal in terms of eventual Mars exploration

(Newser) - Ultra-high definition video of an orange tabby cat named Taters has been beamed to Earth from almost 19 million miles away. Why? Because NASA decided to use the 15-second video as part of its Deep Space Optical Communications experiment, CBS News reports. The video of the cat (who is owned...

Tomato Mysteriously Lost in Space Turns Up 8 Months Later

Astronaut Frank Rubio, who'd been accused of eating it, is vindicated

(Newser) - In late March, astronauts aboard the International Space Station successfully harvested a batch of space-grown tomatoes, and each astronaut was given a plastic baggie with a sample. One of those tomato bags ended up floating away, with the tiny tomato still inside, and now, nearly nine months later, the missing...

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