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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.
China sets November launch for lunar sample return mission
China plans to launch a robotic mission to return samples from the lunar surface, the first such mission in four decades, in November on top of the country's new heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket, according to state media reports.
New U.S. weather satellite with improved camera sends back first images
A new-generation weather satellite launched in November promising to deliver better images of hurricanes, storms and clouds than any mission before has returned its first tantalizing pictures from geostationary orbit.
Japanese spacecraft spots planet-spanning wave on Venus
Images from Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft have revealed a gigantic wave in the atmosphere of Venus, and scientists say it may be the largest such feature in the solar system.
New Horizons to continue mission of discovery with Kuiper Belt encounter
Scientists planning the the next phase of NASA's New Horizons mission, a robotic craft that completed the first exploration of Pluto in 2015, are going into the flyby of a frozen, faraway city-sized clump of rock on New Year's Day 2019 armed with little knowledge of the target lurking around 4 billion miles from Earth.
Future of asteroid deflection mission to be decided soon
Decisions on the future of a joint robotic mission between NASA and the European Space Agency to demonstrate the ability to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth have been put off until later this year after European governments declined to fully fund their part of the project in December.