Although PACE was formally authorized in 2015, its concept has been on the minds of NASA Earth scientists for over 21 years. In 2023, that concept is now an assembled spacecraft at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. This past month, the PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) mission advanced closer to launch, …
The launch window is now open for NASA's 2023 New Zealand Super Pressure Balloon (SPB) launch campaign aimed to further test and qualify NASA's SPB technology, which can offer cost savings compared to space missions. Pictured here, technicians work on the SuperBIT payload and test out the different support and communications systems on the gondola …
This week, we have been recapping noteworthy OSIRIS-REx mission events each day so you can catch up on anything you may have missed so far on NASA's first mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. (Post #4 in a series of four) At 1:50 p.m. EDT on Oct. 20, 2020, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft …
Technicians from NASA's Scientific Balloon Program recently performed weight test procedures of the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) payload in advance of planned super pressure balloon flight operations from Wanaka, New Zealand, in 2023. SuperBIT will use a wide field of view to image large galaxy clusters from a balloon platform in a near-space …
NASA's Psyche mission, which will explore a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, is on track to launch in October 2023 after a one-year delay to complete critical testing. The launch period will open Oct. 5 and close Oct. 25. The asteroid, which lies in the outer portion of the main asteroid belt between Mars …
This week, we are recapping noteworthy OSIRIS-REx mission events each day so you can catch up on anything you may have missed so far in NASA's first mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. (Post #3 in a series of four) Given Bennu's unexpectedly rough terrain, NASA's OSIRIS-REx team took extra time to …
The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 10:33 p.m. ET on March 28, 2023. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to …
This week, we are recapping noteworthy OSIRIS-REx mission events each day so you can catch up on anything you may have missed so far in NASA's first mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. (Post #2 in a series of four) After traveling 1.2 billion miles (2 billion kilometers) to Bennu, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft …
This week, we are recapping noteworthy OSIRIS-REx mission events each day so you can catch up on anything you may have missed so far in NASA's first mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. (Post #1 in a series of four) NASA's first mission to sample an asteroid, OSIRIS-REx, launched on Sept. 8, 2016, …
After seven years in space, including a nail-biting touchdown on Bennu in 2020 to gather up dust and rocks, NASA's intrepid OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is about to face one of its biggest challenges yet: deliver an asteroid sample to Earth while protecting it from heat, vibrations, and earthly contaminants. "Once the sample capsule touches down, …