Blogs

For the first time for a spacecraft, Parker Solar Probe completed an autonomous, closed-loop solar array angle control based on temperature.

On Oct. 4, 2018, technicians at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, installed the payload fairing on the Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket that will launch NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite. ICON is being prepared for launch on a Pegasus XL rocket which will be carried aloft by Northrop Grumman's L-1011 Stargazer aircraft. …

NASA and Northrop Grumman managers have completed the Flight Readiness Review ensuring preparations are on track for the launch of the agency's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite. The meeting took place at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California where the spacecraft is being processed. ICON is scheduled to be launched Oct. 26, 2018, by …

NASA and Northrop Grumman managers are holding a Flight Readiness Review to ensure preparations are continuing on track for the launch of the agency's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite. The meeting is taking place at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California where the spacecraft is being processed. ICON is scheduled to be launched Oct. …

By Miles Hatfield NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center September 22, 2018 marked the 12th launch anniversary of Hinode — a solar observatory collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the European Space Agency, the United Kingdom Space Agency and NASA. Twelve years is long enough for Hinode to observe …

On Oct. 3, Parker Solar Probe successfully completed its flyby of Venus at a distance of about 1,500 miles during the first Venus gravity assist of the mission.

By Tom Mason Office of Communications and Outreach Manager Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder On Sept. 11, 2018, at approximately 6 a.m. local time in eastern South America, NASA's Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, or GOLD, mission sent back its very first image. Maps like …

We like to call Parker Solar Probe the coolest, hottest, fastest mission under the Sun — and fall 2018 will prove why.

By Mara Johnson-Groh NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Recently, NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission — MMS — was in just the right place at the right time to observe a new kind of turbulent particle jet in near-Earth space. The particle jet streamed from a particularly turbulent region called the magnetosheath, just outside the outer boundary of …

By Steele Hill NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center On Sept 9-10, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory witnessed a double lunar transit, when the Moon passed between the SDO spacecraft and the Sun twice in just a few hours. But did you know that the Earth can also get in the way? Here's how Earth and Lunar …