Solar System – Spaceflight Now

Webb spots vast plume of water vapor spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus

June 2, 2023 Spaceflight Now

Using the sensitivity of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have managed to detect a vast plume of water vapor spewing from the southern pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, a jet extending nearly 6,000 miles and feeding a previously detected torus circling the entire planet.

Jammed radar boom on Jupiter-bound JUICE probe finally freed

May 19, 2023 Spaceflight Now

After three weeks of intense analysis and troubleshooting, European Space Agency flight controllers have finally succeeded in freeing a jammed boom critical to the Jupiter-bound JUICE probe’s ice-penetrating radar instrument.

China releases first pictures from Zhurong rover since Mars landing

May 19, 2021 Stephen Clark

China’s space agency released the first pictures from the Zhurong Mars rover rover Wednesday, showing the six-wheel robot ready to drive down a ramp from its landing platform to begin exploring the Red Planet.

China lands its first probe on Mars

May 15, 2021 Stephen Clark

China’s space agency said Friday the country’s first Mars rover safely touched down and began sending data back to Earth, joining the United States as the only two nations to successfully land and operate a spacecraft on the surface of the Red Planet.

Chinese rover heads for landing on Mars

May 14, 2021 Stephen Clark

A Chinese rover outfitted with cameras, a weather station, and a sophisticated laser spectrometer could touch down on Mars as soon as Friday, a feat that would make China the second nation to successfully land and operate a spacecraft on the surface of the Red Planet.

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter aces first longer-range flight on Mars

April 25, 2021 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flew farther and faster Sunday than the rotorcraft’s first two test flights in the Martian atmosphere, traveling the length of a football field while exceeding distances and speeds achieved during testing on Earth, officials said.

NASA’s Mars helicopter completes second, higher flight

April 23, 2021 Stephen Clark

The second flight of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter in the Martian atmosphere Thursday took the rotorcraft higher than its first hop. A third takeoff as soon as Sunday will take the helicopter more than 150 feet away from its makeshift airfield as engineers attempt more daring test flights.

In another first, NASA’s Perseverance rover generates oxygen on Mars

April 22, 2021 Stephen Clark

In another first on Mars, an instrument inside NASA’s Perseverance rover has made oxygen out of carbon dioxide sucked in from the planet’s atmosphere, officials said Wednesday. The technology could help future astronauts “live off the land” by generating their own rocket fuel and breathing air.

SLS core ready for shipment to Florida; NASA still hopes for late 2021 launch

April 21, 2021 Stephen Clark

Teams at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi removed the core of NASA’s first Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket from a test stand earlier this week for loading onto a barge to carry it to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the rocket stage is due to arrive by the end of the month to start final preparations for a test flight around the Moon.

After successful first flight, NASA wants to push Mars helicopter to its limits

April 19, 2021 Stephen Clark

The work isn’t over for NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter. Engineers hope to fly the rotorcraft four more times in the next two weeks before calling it quits on the pioneering technology experiment, which accomplished the first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet Monday.