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Observations made overnight on Feb. 19 – 20 of asteroid 2024 YR4 have further decreased its chance of Earth impact on Dec. 22, 2032, to 0.28%. NASA’s planetary defense teams will continue to monitor the asteroid to improve our predictions of the asteroid’s trajectory. With this new data, the chance of an impact with the …

Now that skies are darker after a week of limited visibility around full moon, astronomers have resumed observations of asteroid 2024 YR4. Ground-based telescopes require dark skies to observe asteroids, which are often very faint. Around the time of a full moon, the sky becomes too bright to detect these faint points of light. NASA’s …

Engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida completed stacking the twin SLS (Space Launch System) solid rocket boosters inside the Vehicle Assembly Building for the agency’s Artemis II crewed test flight around the Moon. At launch and during liftoff, the boosters, which each stand 177 feet tall, will provide the majority of the 8.8 […]

On Wednesday, the Expedition 72 crew aboard the International Space Station focused its efforts mostly on spacesuits and advanced exercise gear. The orbital residents also worked on crew and cargo spacecraft operations at the orbital outpost.

The Expedition 72 crew spent Tuesday setting up a free-flying robotics competition for students and a cleaning a 3D biological printer. The International Space Station residents also conducted blood and saliva tests, cleaned crew quarters, and packed a cargo ship for departure.

Muscle stimulation and blood tests topped the International Space Station research schedule on Friday helping doctors learn how to keep astronauts healthy on long-term missions. The Expedition 72 residents also winded down the work week cleaning spacesuits and life support gear aboard the orbital outpost.

After about a month in transit to the Moon, Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander successfully completed a four-minute lunar orbit insertion burn Thursday – the longest and most challenging burn conducted to date by the lander’s main engine and reaction control system thrusters. Now that the lander is in lunar trajectory, over the next 16 …

Human research, the series of ongoing investigations to understand how an astronaut’s body adapts to living long-term in space, was the main science topic aboard the International Space Station on Thursday. The Expedition 72 residents also continued packing a cargo craft for its upcoming departure and conducted an emergency drill to stay familiar with response, communication, and coordination procedures.

Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) are icy bodies ranging in size from Pluto and Eris (dwarf planets with diameters of about 1,500 miles) down to tens of miles (Arrokoth) and even smaller. TNOs are on orbits comparable in size, or even much larger than, that of Neptune. The existence of TNOs was postulated by Kenneth Edgeworth, and …

The Expedition 72 crew continued its research on Wednesday to better understand space-caused eye pressure changes and ensure crew members stay healthy on future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The orbital residents also kept up the continuous operations of critical science gear and life support systems on the International Space Station.