NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully performed its first deep-space maneuver, firing its main engine and changing its trajectory as it continues on its mission towards Jupiter. Pasadena, California – Earlier today, navigators and mission controllers for NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter watched their computer screens as their spacecraft successfully performed its first deep-space maneuver. This first [...]

On August 23rd, NASA will launch the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, a pair of specially designed satellites to gather information about the Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, the concentric bands of plasma that protect the biosphere of the planet from highly charged particles. These probes will allow a detailed study of the Van Allen radiation [...]

NASA’s GRAIL Mission, with twin probes named Ebb and Flow, has delivered over 99.99 percent of the data that was collected on the moon and will now extend its mission to take an even closer look at the moon’s gravity field. Pasadena, California — A NASA mission to study the moon from crust to core [...]

The NASA Dawn mission is receiving 40 extra days to explore Vesta and scientists plan to make the most out of it. They hope to learn more about this mysterious asteroid while extending the observations at Dawn’s current low-altitude mapping orbit and building the best possible maps of the elemental composition of Vesta’s surface. PASADENA, [...]

New images from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft have revealed previously unknown geological features about the asteroid Vesta. While Vesta is one of the brightest objects in the solar system, Dawn found that some areas on Vesta can be nearly twice as bright as others and the brightness is most predominant in and around craters that vary [...]

By the standards of space-based astronomy, NASA’s new NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) telescope that will be launched later this month has a modest budget of $165 million. However, it and XMM-Newton will try to probe the insides of the supermassive black holes hidden inside of galaxies. Both space-based telescopes are sensitive to high-energy photons [...]

The GRAIL spacecraft has officially begun its science phase and will map the gravity field of the moon three times over the next 84 days, allowing scientist to better understand how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved. PASADENA, California — NASA’s Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft orbiting [...]

Recently published research papers reveal new details of how Saturn’s moon Titan shifts with the seasons and throughout the day. The research is based on data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and shows in detail how Titan’s atmosphere and surface behave much like Earth’s atmosphere. A set of recent papers, many of which draw on data [...]

NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has a total of 9,000 individual mirror segments that are only 200 microns thick and will be the first orbiting telescope to focus X-rays in the high-energy range, creating the most detailed images ever taken in this slice of the electromagnetic spectrum. It pays to persevere. No one knows [...]

Researchers recently examined the new high-resolution images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft and found that “recent” geologic activity has occurred on the moon. Small valleys are forming on the surface as the moon’s crust is being stretched and the scientists believe this activity occurred less than 50 million years ago. New images from [...]

The first test was conducted yesterday on the J-2X engine powerpack by engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. This initial test was the first time cryogenic fuels were introduced into the powerpack and was designed to ensure that the powerpack and facility control systems are functioning properly. Engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center conducted an [...]

NASA has requested a $17.7 billion budget for fiscal year 2013 which includes $4 billion for space operations, $4 billion for exploration activities in the Human Exploration Operations mission directorate, including close-out of the Space Shuttle Program, and funding for the International Space Station, $4.9 billion for science, $669 million for space technology and $552 [...]