UPDATE AS OF JUNE 20, 2022: The Lucy team executed another deployment attempt on June 16. Although there was still no latch, the attempt reeled in additional lanyard and further stabilized the array. Future opportunities still exist to repeat the deployment commands if necessary. ————————- UPDATE AS OF JUNE 14, 2022: The Lucy team executed …
The Webb team continues to commission the 17 science instrument modes. This week we asked Nathalie Ouellette of the Université de Montréal to give more detail about the modes of the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS), Canada's scientific instrument on Webb. "NIRISS will be able to capture both images and spectra from different types …
Matching its own records for speed and distance to the Sun, NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its 12th close approach to the Sun on June 1, coming within 5.3 million miles (8.5 million kilometers) of the solar surface. The close approach (known as perihelion) occurred at 6:50 p.m. EDT (10:50 p.m. UTC), with Parker Solar …
WANAKA, New Zealand—NASA aborted the sixth launch attempt of its super pressure balloon (SPB) from Wanaka, New Zealand, Friday, May 27 (Thursday, May 26 in the United States) due to a ground support equipment issue. Inflation operations began, but the brakes on a key piece of equipment that guides and feeds the balloon material during …
The Webb team continues to work on commissioning the science instruments, the final step before starting science operations in the summer. We recently saw the beautiful image of the black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy, taken by the Event Horizon Telescope. One of the puzzles of modern astronomy is how every …
WANAKA, New Zealand—NASA postponed the scheduled launch of its super pressure balloon (SPB) from Wanaka, New Zealand, Thursday, May 26 (Wednesday, May 25 in the United States) due to unacceptable wind conditions. Surface and upper-level winds were over 10 knots, which is well over the limits required to safely conduct launch operations. "A high-pressure system …
WANAKA, New Zealand—NASA is targeting Thursday, May 26 (Wednesday, May 25 in the United States), to conduct a super pressure balloon (SPB) test flight launching from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, on a potential 100-day journey. NASA will begin flight preparations in the early morning hours Thursday and will continue to evaluate real-time and forecast weather …
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is nearing the final stages of preparations for launch, and the mission team is working to confirm that all hardware and software systems are operating correctly. An issue is preventing confirmation that the software controlling the spacecraft is functioning as planned. The team is working to identify and correct the issue. To …
As NASA's James Webb Space Telescope moves through the final phases of commissioning its science instruments, we have also begun working on technical operations of the observatory. While the telescope moves through space, it will constantly find distant stars and galaxies and point at them with extreme precision to acquire images and spectra. However, we …
WANAKA, New Zealand – NASA postponed the scheduled launch of its super pressure balloon (SPB) from Wanaka, New Zealand, Friday, May 13 (Thursday, May 12 in the United States) due to unacceptable wind conditions. Today's ground and lower-level winds were over limits and not aligned, which can create a shearing effect during launch operations. Wind …
