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Growing dust storm encircles Mars, rover remains silent
The effects of a global dust storm on Mars have been observed by NASA's plutonium-powered Curiosity rover, which continues its scientific campaign as the thick veil of dust continues starving the aging Opportunity rover of solar energy on the other side of the planet.
Asteroid Ryugu revealed by approaching Japanese spacecraft
In the final days of a three-and-a-half year pursuit, Japan's Hayabusa 2 sample return spacecraft is beaming back clearer images of asteroid Ryugu, an unexplored object that scientists say resembles a spinning top or dumpling nearly 180 million miles from Earth.
Dawn spacecraft flying low over Ceres
In the closing months of a nearly 11-year mission, NASA's Dawn spacecraft has arrived in its final orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres and is obtaining the sharpest views yet of the king of the asteroid belt.
Huge dust storm knocks aging Mars rover out of contact with Earth
NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, 14 years past its original 90-day design life, has dropped out of contact with Earth after powering down everything but its master clock in a bid to weather a huge dust storm that is blotting out the sun, preventing the solar-powered rover from recharging its batteries, mission managers said Wednesday.
NASA approves three-year extension for Juno mission orbiting Jupiter
NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft wil spend another three years probing the inside of Jupiter, giving the mission more time to meet its primary science objectives after concerns over the health of the probe's engine prevented it from dropping into a lower, shorter orbit around the solar system's biggest planet.
More signs of past — and possibly present — habitability of Mars
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover, slowly making its way up the side of a towering mountain of sedimentary rock at the center of its Gale Crater landing site, has found fresh evidence for the red planet's past -- and possibly present -- habitability, scientists reported Thursday.
NASA’s New Horizons probe wakes up for New Year’s Day flyby
Speeding through the outer reaches of the solar system nearly 3.8 billion miles from Earth, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has awakened from a five-and-a-half month slumber, ready for a second act after its 2015 flyby of Pluto with a New Year's Day encounter with a primordial world set to become the most distant object ever explored.
Scientists resume use of Curiosity rover’s drill and internal lab instruments
Using new drilling techniques after a stalled electrical motor halted sampling operations on Mars, the Curiosity rover has delivered rock powder to one of its onboard lab instruments for analysis for the first time since 2016, officials said Monday.
NOAA’s new GOES-17 weather satellite has degraded vision at night
Engineers are studying a malfunction with the main imaging instrument on NOAA's GOES-17 weather satellite, launched March 1, that could limit the observatory's ability to monitor storms, winds and other weather phenomena at night, officials said Wednesday.
First interplanetary CubeSats already setting records in deep space
Two CubeSats developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched May 5 with the InSight mission to Mars have deployed their miniaturized antennas and captured a distant family portrait of the Earth and the moon.