December 16th, 2018
Author: 
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket launched NASA’s ELaNa-19 mission from Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, on December 16, 2018 local time. NASA Venture Class Launch Service flight of the CubeSat Launch Initiative Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) XIX mission launched the following cubesats: Ceres and STF-1 (NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center), CubeSail (University of […]
Posted in 
NASA’s InSight Mars lander has produced new Sol 18: Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) imagery, acquired on December 15, 2018. The robotic arm-mounted, Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) is surveying the lander surroundings in preparation for deployment of surface science gear. InSight touched down on Mars at 11:52:59 a.m. PT (2:52:59 p.m. ET) on Nov. 26, 2018. […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2259 tasks. “May the (drill) force be with us!” reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland A recent Curiosity rover drive around to the north side of “Rock Hall” in was successful, placing the robot at a lower tilt and with room […]
Today, Virgin Galactic conducted its fourth powered test flight and first space flight of its commercial SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity. The achievement has been recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who announced today that early next year they will present pilots Mark Stucky and Frederick Sturckow with FAA Commercial Astronaut Wings at a ceremony in […]
China Central Television (CCTV) reports that the country’s Chang’e-4 lunar probe has successfully decelerated near the Moon Wednesday This is a vital step forward leading to the spacecraft’s attempt to make the first-ever soft landing on the farside of the Moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced. Elliptical lunar orbit CCTV reports that after […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is wrapping up Sol 2257 tasks. Reports Brittney Cooper, an atmospheric scientist at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: “Even on Mars, where every second of Curiosity’s sol is planned, things don’t always go quite as expected.” In this case, a planned drive of the robot stopped at the mid-drive point. Bump […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2256 tasks. The hunt for red Jura continues reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist; University of Tennessee in Knoxville. “After a successful weekend of activities and driving, we were hopeful that we would wake up on Sol 2256 and be ready for contact science and drilling,” […]
China’s adventurous mission to the farside of the Moon attained its second orbit trimming on Sunday afternoon The Chang’e-4 lunar probe was launched in the early hours of Saturday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. If all goes well, the lander/rover will touch down on the farside of the […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is wrapping up Sol 2255 duties. Reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA/JPL in Pasadena, California, even though they looked promising, the red Jura rocks scientists had hoped to drill are too fractured to drill safely. “The texture of these rocks is actually fairly typical of the red Jura […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2250 duties. Susanne Schwenzer, a planetary geologist at the Open University, Milton Keynes, in the U.K., reports that on sol 2250 the rover is to finish observations on and around the Highfield drill hole and drive to an area where red Jura is exposed. Change detection “The […]
