NASAs

NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity passes 30 minutes of total air time

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The first Martian drone has reached the 30 minute air time mark. After a 117-second Mars sortie on Dec. 5, the total flight time for the Ingenuity helicopter is 30 minutes and 48 seconds after 17 total flights, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement on Wednesday (Dec. 15). There was a delay in … Read more

NASA’s Perseverance rover finds organic chemicals on Mars

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NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has found life’s building blocks on the Red Planet. Perseverance has identified carbon-containing organic chemicals in some of the rocks it has examined on the floor of Mars’ Jezero Crater, mission team members announced on Wednesday (Dec. 15).  To be clear: This is not a detection of Mars life. Organics can … Read more

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has touched the sun in daring mission milestone

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The Parker Solar Probe has finally reached the atmosphere of the sun. The NASA spacecraft spent more than three years winding its way by planets and creeping gradually closer to our star to learn more about the origin of the solar wind, which pushes charged particles across the solar system. Since solar activity has a … Read more

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope secured atop rocket ahead of Dec. 24 launch (photos)

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NASA’s next big space telescope just took another step toward its highly anticipated launch this month. On Saturday (Dec. 11), the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope was secured atop the Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket that will send it into the final frontier from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.  “After its arrival in the final … Read more

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launch: Live updates

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Refresh 2021-12-15T01:04:36.927Z New launch date set (Image credit: M.Pedoussaut/ESA) The James Webb Space Telescope is now scheduled to launch no earlier than Christmas Eve (Dec. 24), NASA announced today. “The James Webb Space Telescope team is working a communication issue between the observatory and the launch vehicle system,” NASA officials said in a statement. “This will … Read more

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Is Fueled for Late December Launch

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The new James Webb Space Telescope is topped off and one step closer to taking flight.  Mission team members have finished fueling the James Webb Space Telescope at ahead of its planned Dec. 22 launch from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, the European Space Agency announced Monday (Dec. 6). The fueling for Webb, which is an … Read more

NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Impact Monitoring System Just Got Switched On

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When it comes to avoiding asteroid-inflicted apocalypse, we’ll take all the help we can get, and NASA’s next-generation asteroid impact monitoring system, which has just been activated, has us sleeping a little bit easier in our beds.   Called Sentry-II, the new system can take data collected from telescopes and work out the path of … Read more