February 25th, 2021
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China’s Tianwen-1 probe on Wednesday entered a parking orbit around Mars after performing an orbital maneuver, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). Launched on July 23, 2020, Tianwen-1 successfully has completed its third braking at Mars yesterday at 6:29 a.m. (Beijing time). The parking orbit’s farthest point from Mars is 36,660 miles […]
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Lunar lava tubes are receiving attention by the European Space Agency – considered an interesting option as long-term shelter for future human visitors to the Moon. Through ESA’s Open Space Innovation Platform, a campaign was initiated calling for novel ideas to address detecting, mapping and exploring caves on the Moon. Also involved is the SysNova […]
Count ‘em: There’s now a fleet of Mars explorers busy at work in orbit and on the surface of the Red Planet, observes Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Eleven — NASA’s Curiosity, Perseverance, InSight, Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, Europe’s Mars Express, the Trace Gas Orbiter, […]
The NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera system has spotted the Perseverance Rover on the surface of the Red Planet. Imagery also shows many parts of the descent system that got the safely down. The rover itself sits at the center of a blast pattern created by the hovering skycrane (labeled as “descent stage”) that […]
Russia is readying its return to the Moon – the launch of the robotic Luna-25. “For the first time in 45 years, we are to resume exploration of the Moon. In October, the first descent module will be launched from the spaceport Vostochny, Roscosmos corporation CEO Dmitry Rogozin told Russian President Vladimir Putin last […]
Chinese President Xi Jinping met space scientists and engineers involved in the research and development of the Chang’e-5 lunar mission at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Monday. Xi inspected specimens from the Moon brought back by the return sample mission. The successful Chang’e-5 lunar mission retrieved about 4 pounds (1,731 […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 3038 duties – and is in “don’t forget me mode” – now joined on the Red Planet by NASA’s Perseverance robot at Jezero Crater. Curiosity has returned new imagery from its Gale crater locale. Here’s a representative sample showing the rover’s surrounding views:
China is pressing forward on construction of the country’s own space station. To do so, multiple classes of Long March boosters are to be utilized. First up is lofting the station’s core module, the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-12 piloted spacecraft. According to China Central Television (CCTV) rendezvous and docking as well as […]
NASA’s powerful LROC imaging system on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has produced a new photo of China’s Chang’e-5 descent stage sitting on the basaltic plains of Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”) on the Moon. China’s Chang’e-5 lunar mission was a successful multi-phase affair involving an orbiter, a lander, an ascender, and a returner spacecraft […]
Newly released imagery from NASA’s Perseverance rover mission captures milestone minutes at the start of its journey. A high-resolution still image is part of a video taken by several cameras as NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. A camera aboard the descent stage captured the image. In […]
