Category Archives: NASA

Much-feared asteroid Apophis won’t hit Earth for at least 100 years, Nasa says

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Chunk of space rock was once the ‘poster child for hazardous asteroids’ but it will be a while before humans need to worry about it again

Nasa has given Earth the all clear on the chances of an asteroid called Apophis hitting our planet any time in the next century, having worried space scientists for over 15 years.

The 340-metre (1,100ft) chunk of space rock hit the headlines in 2004 after its discovery led to some worrying forecasts about its orbit. It became a “poster child for hazardous asteroids”, according to one Nasa expert.

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Perseverance rover sends back first ever recording of driving on Mars – video

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Nasa’s latest Mars rover, Perseverance, has sent back the sounds of its six metal wheels driving across the planet’s surface. The recording was captured by one of its two onboard microphones, with Nasa releasing 16 minutes’ worth. Engineers are investigating whether a high-pitched scratching noise is caused by electromagnetic interference or the rover’s movement. Perseverance will continue to look for somewhere to launch the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, a drone that it is carrying

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Perseverance Mars rover: Nasa releases first-drive review

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Vehicle had no problem going 6.5 metres, turning and backing up, then photographed its own wheel marks on planet’s surface

Nasa’s Mars rover Perseverance has taken a short drive two weeks after touching down, mission managers have said.

The six-wheeled, car-sized probe went 6.5 metres (21.3 feet) during a half-hour test within Jezero crater, an ancient lake bed and river delta.

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Nasa releases video of Perseverance rover landing on Mars

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Space agency also reveals audio recorded by Perseverance on surface of red planet

Nasa has unveiled a first-of-its-kind video of its car-sized rover Perseverance making its sensational landing on Mars, and released the first audio recorded on the surface of the red planet.

The American space agency shared the footage on Monday, days after the spacecraft made its dramatic descent to the Martian surface.

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Nasa scientists hail Perseverance rover’s arrival on Mars with stunning images

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Car-sized vehicle designed to seek signs of life is pronounced ‘healthy’ after dramatic descent to surface of the red planet

Nasa scientists have said the Perseverance Mars rover is “healthy” and is beaming back many stunning new images from the surface of the planet, promising significant scientific discoveries ahead.

Related: Perseverance’s mission to Mars – in pictures

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Mars rover landing: Nasa’s Perseverance safely touches down in search of life

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Radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone

Nasa’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.

Mission managers at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone inside Jezero crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed.

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Nasa Perseverance rover to land on Mars in search of life

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Spacecraft will descend on red planet carrying helicopter and instruments to look for biosignatures

A rover and a tiny helicopter are preparing to land on Mars, aiming to offer an opportunity to answer an enduring question: has life ever emerged on another planet?

Nasa’s ninth mission to descend on the cold, dry, red planet will be steered by a $2.7bn (£2.1bn), car-sized, six-wheeled rover christened Perseverance, which is expected to touch down on Thursday following a seven-month journey.

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Nasa’s Boeing deep space rocket set for ‘once-in-a-generation’ test

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Test is step before first unmanned launch later this year, in push to land humans on the moon again by 2024

Nasa’s Boeing-built deep space exploration rocket, Space Launch System (SLS), is set to fire its behemoth core stage for the first time on Saturday, a crucial test for a years-delayed US government project facing mounting pressure from emerging private sector technology.

The SLS hot fire test, expected to begin at 5pm CST Saturday at Nasa’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, will cap a nearly year-long “Green Run” test campaign to validate the rocket’s design.

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2020 was hottest year on record by narrow margin, Nasa says

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Due to different methods, US Noaa judged year as fractionally cooler than 2016 while UK Met Office put 2020 in close second place

Last year was by a narrow margin the hottest ever on record, according to Nasa, with the climate crisis stamping its mark on 2020 through soaring temperatures, enormous hurricanes and unprecedented wildfires.

The average global land and ocean temperature in 2020 was the highest ever measured, Nasa announced on Thursday, edging out the previous record set in 2016 by less than a tenth of a degree.

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Jeff Bezos: Blue Origin space company will take first woman to the moon

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  • Amazon owner seeks Nasa lunar lander contract
  • Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Dynetics also in competition

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin will take the first woman to the moon, the billionaire said as Nasa nears a decision over who will supply its first privately built lunar landers, meant to be capable of sending astronauts to the moon by 2024.

Related: Japan’s Hayabusa2 capsule returns to Earth carrying asteroid samples

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SpaceX Nasa launch: astronauts head to International Space Station onboard Dragon capsule

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Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi successfully lifted off for the 27-hour flight on Sunday

SpaceX has launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on the first full-fledged taxi flight for Nasa by a private company.

The Falcon rocket thundered into the night from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with three Americans and one Japanese onboard, the second crew to be launched by SpaceX. The Dragon capsule on top – named Resilience by its crew in light of this year’s many challenges, most notably Covid-19 – is due to reach the space station after 27-and-a-half hours and remain there until spring.

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SpaceX delays Crew Dragon launch due to poor weather

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Forecasts of gusty, onshore winds over Florida force reschedule to Sunday of first full mission carrying four astronauts

Nasa and SpaceX have announced a 24-hour weather delay of their planned launch of four astronauts into orbit for America’s first fully fledged human mission using a privately owned spacecraft.

The liftoff time slipped from Saturday to Sunday evening due to forecasts of gusty, onshore winds over Florida – remnants of storm Eta – that would have jeopardised a return landing for the Falcon 9 rocket’s reusable booster stage, Nasa officials said.

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Nasa poised to return to crewed spaceflight with SpaceX capsule launch

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Public-private partnership with Elon Musk’s company to send four astronauts to international space station on Saturday

In a rocket ship perfectly named for the year of a global pandemic, three American astronauts and one from Japan are scheduled to blast off from Florida on Saturday evening as Nasa finally returns to the business of routine crewed spaceflight.

The 7.49pm launch of the SpaceX capsule Resilience from the Kennedy Space Center, a mission officially designated as Crew 1, will be the first time since the final flights of the space shuttle fleet in 2011 that the US space agency has its own operational rotating program of sending humans to the international space station.

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Treasure trove of Nasa photos including first selfie in space up for auction

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Sale by Christie’s in London of 2,400 vintage images ranges from the dawn of space age to the last men on the moon

Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind is on sale to the highest bidder after a private collector released a treasure trove of Nasa images from spaceflight’s golden era for auction, including the only photograph taken of the first human walking on the moon.

Related: Apollo 11: the fight for the first footprint on the moon

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Water exists on the moon, scientists confirm

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Proof of significant amounts of H2O has implications for future lunar missions

Scientists have gathered some of the most compelling evidence yet for the existence of water on the moon – and it may be relatively accessible. The discovery has implications for future missions to the moon and deeper space exploration.

With no significant atmosphere insulating it from the sun’s rays, it had been assumed that the moon’s surface was dry – until the 1990s, when orbiting spacecraft found indications of ice in large and inaccessible craters near the moon’s poles.

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Overstuffed Nasa spacecraft Osiris-Rex losing particles after bingeing on Bennu

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After an asteroid encounter, scientists scrambled to minimize the loss of space rocks as the craft belched rubble

A Nasa spacecraft is stuffed with so much asteroid rubble from this week’s grab that it’s jammed open and precious particles are drifting away in space, scientists said on Friday.

Related: Nasa Osiris-Rex spacecraft lands on asteroid Bennu in mission to collect dust

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Nasa Osiris-Rex spacecraft lands on asteroid Bennu in mission to collect dust

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Spacecraft ‘kissed the surface’ in brief landing on asteroid 200m miles away from Earth in US-first mission

A Nasa spacecraft has successfully landed on an asteroid, dodging boulders the size of buildings, in order to collect a handful of cosmic rubble for analysis back on Earth.

The space agency team behind the Osiris-Rex project said preliminary data showed the sample collection went as planned and that the spacecraft had lifted off the surface of asteroid Bennu.

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Talking on the moon: Nasa and Nokia to install 4G on lunar surface

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Move is part of US space agency’s plan to establish a long-term human presence on the moon by 2030

With competition among Earth’s telecoms providers as fierce as ever, equipment maker Nokia has announced its expansion into a new market, winning a deal to install the first cellular network on the moon.

The Finnish equipment manufacturer said it was selected by Nasa to deploy an “ultra-compact, low-power, space-hardened” wireless 4G network on the lunar surface, as part of the US space agency’s plan to establish a long-term human presence on the moon by 2030.

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Nasa is looking for private companies to help mine the moon

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The agency announced it is buying lunar soil from a commercial provider as part of a technology development program

Nasa has announced it is looking for private companies to go to the moon and collect dust and rocks from the surface and bring them back to Earth.

The American space agency would then buy the moon samples in amounts between 50 to 500 grams for between $15,000 to $25,000.

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