Asteroids – Spaceflight Now

Asteroid Ryugu revealed by approaching Japanese spacecraft

June 20, 2018

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.

Government study looks to improve planning for possible asteroid impact

June 20, 2018

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is spearheading a 10-year plan to improve detection of near-Earth asteroids and comets that could crash into Earth and to expand research into possible countermeasures to deflect an incoming body if detected in time, officials said Wednesday.

Asteroid missions on track to reach their destinations in 2018

January 18, 2018

Pioneering spacecraft from NASA and the Japanese space agency promise to reveal two unexplored asteroids later this year, officials said Wednesday, beginning surveys that will culminate in daring descents to capture samples for return to Earth, where eager scientists await a hands-on look at the specimens.

An interstellar interloper is dashing through our solar system

November 22, 2017

Astronomers say an object observed speeding through our solar system last month has an unexpected cigar-like shape and originated from another star, making it the first confirmed interstellar asteroid.

NASA’s Dawn mission gears up for close look at Ceres

October 20, 2017

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will remain at Ceres for the rest of its mission, heading closer to the asteroid belt’s largest resident than ever before to obtain new measurements of ice, salts and a tenuous intermittent atmosphere detected around the dwarf planet, the space agency announced Thursday.

Asteroid-bound probe returns Earth-moon family portrait

October 12, 2017

Ten days after a swingby to receive a gravitational boost toward its asteroid target, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft turned one of its cameras back toward Earth, resolving its bluish home planet hanging in the void of space accompanied by the moon.

Scientists celebrate 10th anniversary of Dawn mission’s launch

September 27, 2017

In the ten years since its launch from Cape Canaveral, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has orbited the two largest worlds in the asteroid belt and overcome defective components that threatened to derail the mission on its 4 billion-mile voyage, discovering unexpectedly rich geologic tapestries suggesting both destinations have a watery past.

Q&A with Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator on NASA’s Dawn mission

September 27, 2017

Carol Raymond helps lead the Dawn science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where she oversees research investigating comets and asteroids, including the two objects visited during Dawn’s decade-long mission: Vesta and Ceres.

OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission receives gravitational boost from planet Earth

September 22, 2017

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, en route to asteroid Bennu to retrieve samples and return them to scientists, slingshot past Earth on Friday, using gravity to change its trajectory for a rendezvous with its target late next year.

Dawn mission managers await NASA decision on spacecraft’s future

June 17, 2017

The future of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, running low on hydrazine fuel and now flying around the dwarf planet Ceres without the help of internal pointing wheels, will be decided in the coming weeks by top space agency managers.