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Perils and discoveries lie ahead for long-lived Saturn orbiter
Scientists are bracing for a blitz of discoveries in the last six months of Cassini's mission at Saturn, when the plutonium-powered robot will repeatedly ram through an unexplored gap in the planet's famous rings, then make a destructive plunge into the atmosphere in September.
Cassini glimpses saucer-shaped moon plowing through Saturn’s rings
Saturn's moon Pan, embedded in a gap in Saturn's icy rings, has drawn comparisons to a walnut or ravioli in new images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Q&A with Earl Maize, Cassini project manager (members only)
Earl Maize, who leads the Cassini mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, started working on the Saturn orbiter project in 1992. In September, the spacecraft will take an intentional plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, gaining unprecedented up-close measurements and ending a 13-year odyssey round the ringed planet.
VideoLightning mapper beams back first views from space
A sensitive infrared camera mounted on NOAA's new GOES-16 weather satellite has captured its first astounding images of lightning flashes from a perch more than 22,000 miles out in space.
NASA spacecraft steers clear of Martian moon Phobos
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft in orbit around Mars maneuvered out of the path of Phobos earlier this week after navigators predicted the spacecraft could run into the Martian moon in the near future, highlighting the challenge of tracking an international fleet of Mars probes set to double in size by 2021.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft to remain in current orbit around Jupiter
Concerns about the health of the Juno spacecraft's main engine have compelled NASA managers to keep the research probe in its current arcing, high-altitude orbit around Jupiter, a decision that will delay the full science return from the $1.1 billion mission but should still allow it to meet all predetermined objectives.
Scientists narrow list of landing sites for NASA’s next Mars rover
A rover NASA plans to launch to Mars in 2020 will likely explore one of three locations selected last week by a scientific advisory group, which picked candidate landing sites that were once homes to ancient lakes and hot springs.
Juno dives over Jupiter’s cloud tops with main engine still offline
NASA's Juno spacecraft made a high-speed pass less than 3,000 miles over Jupiter's turbulent clouds Thursday, taking dozens of pictures, measuring radiation and plasma waves, and peering deep inside the planet's atmosphere, but officials still have not cleared the orbiter's main engine for a planned maneuver to position the probe in its intended science orbit.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe moonlights as asteroid sleuth
On course to collect specimens from asteroid Bennu after its launch last year, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will search this month for objects locked in orbits near Earth, a bonus science opportunity to locate possible fragments of the primordial building blocks that formed our home planet.
Cassini offers best-ever view of Saturn’s rings
A sequence of images captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft last month are the most detailed pictures ever taken of Saturn's famous rings, revealing complex, unexplained bands and the movements of dozens of tiny icy moonlets spinning around the planet.