News Archive / Missions
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Astronaut Douglas Hurley to serve as Demo-2 spacecraft commander
Laurel KornfeldMay 8th, 2020NASA astronaut Douglas Gerald Hurley flew on the last crewed mission to launch from American soil 11 years ago, and fittingly, will serve as spacecraft commander of Crew Dragon Demo-2, the first crewed flight to resume launches from the US.
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James Webb Space Telescope to unlock wonders of the Universe.
Theresa CrossMay 8th, 2020The James Webb Space Telescope will work to further uncover the mysteries of the Universe after it launches in 2021 from the Guiana Space Center aboard an Ariane 5 rocket
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Astronaut Bob Behnken will be one of two-person crew on Crew Dragon Demo-2 launch
Laurel KornfeldMay 6th, 2020When NASA’s Crew Dragon Demo-2 launches astronauts from American soil for the first time since 2011, astronaut Robert L. “Bob” Behnken will ride on the spacecraft as the mission’s joint operations commander.
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Yevgeny Mikrin, General Designer of Russian space program, dead at age 64
Sean CostelloMay 5th, 2020The Russian space community is mourning the tragic loss of their General Designer, with Roscosmos confirming today that Yevgeny Anatolyevich Mikrin died in hospital on May 5, 2020, at the age of 64.
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NASA selects three companies to develop lunar landers
Cullen DesforgesMay 1st, 2020NASA announced on April 30, 2020 that it had selected three companies to develop lunar landers for its Artemis program.
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Progress 75 resupply ship docks at International Space Station
Sean CostelloApril 25th, 2020At 1:12am EDT on April 25, 2020, the uncrewed Progress 75 Russian resupply ship successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS).
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30 years since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope
Theresa CrossApril 24th, 2020Thirty years ago today, the Hubble Space Telescope took to the skies aboard STS-31 and Space Shuttle Discovery.
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New Horizons conducts parallax experiment; team searches for KBOs
Laurel KornfeldApril 24th, 2020More than five billion miles from Earth and over 14 years past launch, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is conducting an experiment measuring the distance to two nearby stars while mission scientists are using Earth-based telescopes to search for new Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) for the spacecraft to study.
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SpaceX set to launch its seventh Starlink mission
Cullen DesforgesApril 21st, 2020SpaceX will launch 60 Starlink satellites from LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, April 22, 2020.
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Kepler data reveals Earth-like planet in star’s habitable zone
Laurel KornfeldApril 21st, 2020Scientists who took a second look at data returned by NASA’s Kepler space telescope have discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star.
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SpaceX to conduct first crewed launch in late May
Cullen DesforgesApril 17th, 2020On Friday April 17,2020, NASA and SpaceX announced that astronauts will launch from American soil for the first time in nearly nine years on SpaceX’s DM-2 mission in late May 2020.
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Pluto may have deep, ancient underground ocean
Laurel KornfeldApril 14th, 2020Two new studies of data collected by the New Horizons spacecraft during its 2015 Pluto flyby suggest the dwarf planet has a deep subsurface ocean that may have been present all 4.5 billion years of Pluto’s existence.
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Mars’ magnetic field is 10 times stronger than previously thought
Laurel KornfeldApril 14th, 2020Data collected by NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander on Mars has surprised scientists by indicating the Red Planet has a magnetic field 10 times stronger than previously suspected.
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Boeing to fly uncrewed Starliner mission for second time
Theresa CrossApril 6th, 2020Boeing announced that Starliner would fly a second unmanned test mission in the Fall of 2020 from Florida due to an unsuccessful test flight in December of last year.
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NASA adds crew member to first operational Crew Dragon mission
Cullen DesforgesApril 5th, 2020HOUSTON, TX – On March 31, NASA announced that astronaut Shannon Walker will join fellow astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover on the first operation flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. A native of Houston, Walker began her NASA journey as a Flight Controller on behalf of Rockwell Collins during the […]
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OneWeb announces layoffs, files for bankruptcy following latest launch
Matt HaskellMarch 30th, 2020In a surprising recent development, satellite broadband internet provider OneWeb filed for bankruptcy just one week following the successful launch of 34 satellites atop a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
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ULA launches final AEHF satellite atop Atlas V
Theresa CrossMarch 26th, 2020Blue skies and light winds – they were near perfect conditions for a Florida afternoon launch.
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ULA set to loft final Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite
Patrick AttwellMarch 26th, 2020Poised for launch on Thursday March 26, 2020, an Atlas V rocket is set to lift the sixth and final Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite. The 2-hour long launch window opens at 2:57 PM EDT (18:57 UTC) and stretches until 4:57 EDT (20:57 UTC).
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Twelve features on asteroid Bennu get official names
Laurel KornfeldMarch 24th, 2020Twelve surface features on the asteroid Bennu, imaged by NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) probe from orbit, have been officially named by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which regulates the naming of celestial objects and their surface features.
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Voyager 2 will be on its own while DSN antenna is upgraded
Laurel KornfeldMarch 23rd, 2020The only radio telescope capable of communicating with NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft will undergo nearly 11 months of upgrades to its 230-foot- (70-meter-) wide antenna, during which it will be unable to transmit commands to the 42-year-old spacecraft, which is now traveling in interstellar space.
