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Cassini sails by Saturn’s moon Titan for last time
NASA's Cassini spacecraft sped by the moon Titan on Saturday, using the hazy world's gravity to slingshot the probe on a trailblazing trajectory to explore the region between Saturn's hydrogen-helium atmosphere and the planet's famous rings for the first time.
Saturn’s disk-shaped moon Atlas spotted by Cassini
One of Saturn's peculiar moons has received an up-close look from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which sent back the best-ever pictures of Atlas, an object shaped like a flying saucer orbiting just outside the planet's rings.
New discoveries raise prospects for life on moons of Jupiter and Saturn
Scientists announced Thursday that measurements from NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected hydrogen gas, a key energy source for microbial life, in a plume gushing from a vast liquid water ocean buried beneath the icy shell of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
InSight lander’s troubled seismometer passes major test
A balky interplanetary seismic instrument that ran into technical problems in 2015, forcing a two-year delay in the launch of NASA's InSight lander to Mars, cleared a major test last week after engineers redesigned part of the sensor package, boosting confidence that the mission will be ready to blast off in May 2018.
Curiosity rover shows new signs of wheel wear
Engineers have spotted two small breaks in the treading on the left middle wheel on NASA's Curiosity rover, one of six wheels that have moved the robot nearly 10 miles across the Martian surface since landing in August 2012.
Juno orbiter races by Jupiter on fourth science pass
NASA's Juno spacecraft sailed over Jupiter's cloud tops early Monday, the fourth time the solar-powered probe has approached the giant planet and collected science data since its arrival last July 4.
Scientists say thinning atmosphere drove the drying and cooling of Mars
Data collected by NASA's MAVEN spacecraft in its first two years at Mars confirm suspicions that the solar wind is blasting away the planet's atmosphere and helped transform the world from a warmer, wetter and potentially habitable world into the barren landscape seen today, scientists said.
Rosetta’s comet shows scars from swing through inner solar system
Scientists examining imagery from Europe's Rosetta spacecraft have logged numerous changes to the face of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, from collapsing cliffs to a growing crack through the comet's neck that could foretell the eventual unraveling of the city-sized icy world.
Europe’s ExoMars spacecraft begins lowering its orbit
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a Russian-launched, European-built spacecraft that arrived at Mars in October, is starting to dip into the upper reaches of the red planet's atmosphere in a year-long "aerobraking" campaign place the observatory in the right position to hunt for methane, an indicator of potential biological activity.
Trump budget blueprint focuses on deep space exploration, commercial partnerships
The Trump administration is proposing $19.1 billion for NASA in its fiscal 2018 budget blueprint, a 0.8 percent decrease from 2017 funding levels, focusing on deep space exploration, both human and robotic, and increased public-private partnerships to lower costs and encourage private sector innovation.