NASA – Spaceflight Now

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.

Trump calls for establishment of U.S. “space force”

June 18, 2018

Catching observers off guard, President Trump, in remarks before a National Space Council Meeting at the White House Monday, officially directed to Pentagon to establish a sixth branch of the military, a “space force,” to ensure American dominance on the high frontier.

Alan Bean, moonwalker turned artist, dies at 86

May 26, 2018

Alan Bean, a Navy test pilot and astronaut who walked on the moon and then spent two months aboard America’s first space station before leaving NASA and becoming an accomplished artist, painting moonscapes and space vistas that garnered widespread critical praise, died Saturday. He was 86.

First interplanetary CubeSats already setting records in deep space

May 17, 2018

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.

Helicopter to accompany NASA’s next Mars rover to Red Planet

May 14, 2018

A flying drone fitted with counter-rotating blades, on-board autonomy, and a lightweight carbon-fiber fuselage will ride to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, officials announced Friday.

Q&A with Mimi Aung, Mars Helicopter project manager at JPL (members only)

May 14, 2018

Mimi Aung leads a cadre of engineers developing the Mars Helicopter, an aerial drone set to fly to the Red Planet with the Mars 2020 rover.

Rocketcam replay of InSight’s launch to Mars

May 11, 2018

United Launch Alliance has released a replay of the May 5 liftoff of NASA’s InSight mission to Mars aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, as viewed by aft- and forward-facing cameras on the two-stage launch vehicle.

Photos: Shrouded in fog, Atlas 5 takes flight from Vandenberg

May 9, 2018

A layer of fog intruding on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California kept nearby observers from seeing any sign of Saturday’s predawn launch of an Atlas 5 rocket carrying a robotic NASA probe to Mars. The only images of the Atlas 5’s fiery takeoff came from remote cameras placed at the launch pad, or from distant viewing points away from the poor visibility.

JWST beset by another problem as Northrop Grumman revamps training

May 8, 2018

Engineers working on the James Webb Space Telescope, which had its launch delayed to 2020 earlier this year, recently discovered another problem during testing at the observatory’s prime contractor Northrop Grumman in Southern California.

After foggy departure, it’s clear sailing to Mars for InSight lander

May 5, 2018

Making a fiery climb into a foggy sky Saturday over California’s Central Coast, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket dispatched NASA’s InSight lander on a 301-million-mile voyage to Mars with a package of European-built instruments to probe the inside of the Red Planet.