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902 articles
OSIRIS-REx reaches launch pad with money to spare
The scientist in charge of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission hopes to apply more than $30 million in leftover funding toward reducing the risk of the probe's touch-and-go maneuver to snag a piece of asteroid Bennu, then eventually hire more experts to analyze the primordial specimens when they return to Earth in 2023.
Lost Philae lander found on comet
Scientists culling through images taken last week by the Rosetta spacecraft's sharp-eyed science camera have finally pinpointed the exact spot the Philae lander settled on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a daring descent nearly two years ago, the European Space Agency announced Monday.
Juno beams back dramatic new pictures of Jupiter
NASA's Juno spacecraft, making its first scientific run over Jupiter's poles Aug. 27, captured remarkable images of Jupiter's atmosphere, showing that the equatorial bands and zones familiar to even amateur astronomers completely disappear at high latitudes.
Juno gets its closest look at Jupiter
Nearly two months after NASA's Juno spacecraft slipped into orbit around Jupiter, the solar-powered probe made a passage 2,600 miles over the giant planet's colorful banded clouds Saturday, the closest planned encounter during its 20-month exploration of the solar system's largest world.
Video: Walk around NASA’s new asteroid sample probe
Take a walk around NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft less than three weeks before its Sept. 8 launch on top of an Atlas 5 rocket. Rich Kuhns, the mission's program manager from Lockheed Martin, points out some of the major features on the probe.
Photos: OSIRIS-REx prepped for encapsulation
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is about to be sealed inside the nose fairing of its Atlas 5 rocket booster for a seven-year voyage to asteroid Bennu and back to Earth on a mission to seek out clues to the origin of life and the chaotic early solar system.
One of NASA’s cleanest spacecraft ever is ready to fly
Five years after winning $1 billion from NASA to mount the first U.S. asteroid sample return mission, scientists and engineers will get their last look at the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft this week as it is closed up inside the nose cone of an Atlas 5 rocket for launch in September.
Sophisticated new U.S. weather observatory being readied for launch
On the cusp of advancing U.S. weather forecasting, a powerful new satellite was shipped from its Denver factory to the Cape today in preparation for launch in November.
Q&A with Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator
Dante Lauretta, a researcher based at the University of Arizona, leads the science team on NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission scheduled for launch Sept. 8 on a round-trip journey to asteroid Bennu.
China’s Yutu rover dies on the moon
A Chinese rover sent to the moon in 2013 has stopped operating, officials announced Wednesday, ending a groundbreaking 31-month mission that made discoveries in lunar geology and catapulted China's space program to new heights.