Page 9 - Nasa

Private lander Athena may have fallen over near moon's south pole

A privately owned lunar lander touched down on the moon with a drill, drone and rovers for NASA and other customers Thursday, but quickly ran into trouble and may have fallen over. Intuitive Machines said it was uncertain whether its Athena lander was upright near the moon's south pole standing 15 feet (4.7 meters) tall or lying sideways like its first spacecraft from a year ago. Controllers rushed to turn off some of the lander's equipment to conserve power while trying to determine what went wrong. It was the second moon landing this week by a Texas company under NASA's commercial lunar delivery programme. Sunday's touchdown was a complete success. The company's newest Athena lander dropped out of lunar orbit as planned. The hourlong descent appeared to go well until the final approach when the laser navigation system began acting up. It took a while for Mission Control to confirm touchdown. We're on the surface, reported mission director and co-founder Tim Crain. A few minutes

Nasa powers down two instruments on Voyager spacecraft to save energy

NASA is switching off two science instruments on its long-running twin Voyager spacecraft to save power. The space agency said Wednesday an instrument on Voyager 2 that measures charged particles and cosmic rays will shut off later this month. Last week, NASA powered down an instrument on Voyager 1 designed to study cosmic rays. The energy-saving moves were necessary to extend their missions, Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. The twin spacecraft launched in 1977 and are currently in interstellar space, or the space between stars. Voyager 1 discovered a thin ring around Jupiter and several of Saturn's moons, and Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune. Each spacecraft still has three instruments apiece to study the sun's protective bubble and the swath of space beyond. Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles (24.14 billion kilometers) from Earth and Voyager 2 is over 13 billion miles (20.92 billion ...

Nasa's 2 stranded astronauts nearing return after 9 months in space

NASA's two stuck astronauts are just a few weeks away from finally returning to Earth after nine months in space. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have to wait until their replacements arrive at the International Space Station next week before they can check out later this month. They'll be joined on their SpaceX ride home by two astronauts who launched by themselves in September alongside two empty seats. During a news conference Tuesday, Wilmore said that while politics is part of life, it did not play into his and Williams' return, moved up a couple weeks thanks to a change in SpaceX capsules. President Donald Trump and SpaceX's Elon Musk said at the end of January that they wanted to accelerate the astronauts' return, blaming the previous administration. But Williams, in response to a question, did take issue with Musk's recent call to dump the space station in two years, rather than waiting until NASA's projected deorbit in 2031. She noted all the scientific research being ...

Nasa's SPHEREx and PUNCH missions delayed; Know about the next launch date

Nasa's SPHEREx and PUNCH missions have been delayed to March 6, allowing the agency more time to complete vehicle processing and prelaunch checkouts

Firefly's 'Blue Ghost' mission successfully lands on Moon's surface

Nicknamed 'Ghost Riders in the Sky,' Blue Ghost Mission 1 follows just over a year after the first-ever commercial lunar landing

New NASA data lowers asteroid 2024 YR4's Earth impact risk to just 0.004%

After estimating an initial 3.1 per cent impact probability, Nasa's latest calculations revealed that the asteroid 2024 YR4 has near-zero chances of hitting Earth in 2032

Never heard of Musk offer for early astronaut return: Ex-Nasa leader Melroy

The comments cast doubt on Musk's claims that his attempts to stage an early rescue mission were blocked by former US President Joe Biden's White House because of the billionaire's support of Trump

AstroForge: Earth's first asteroid mining prospector heads to launchpad

That may sound familiar: A decade ago, news stories were aflutter about the wealth promised by asteroid mining companies. But things didn't quite work out

Explained: Musk argues with European astronaut over Sunita Williams' return

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were initially sent to the ISS aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in June 2024 on a short eight-day mission. However, their return has been repeatedly pushed back

Sunita Williams 'abandoned'? Musk, astronaut feud over Biden's role

Sunita Williams' delayed return sparks a heated feud between Elon Musk and astronaut Andreas Mogensen, as Biden faces blame and Trump tasks SpaceX with bringing them home

Elon Musk calls for hastening end of Nasa's space station programme

Elon Musk's SpaceX is a major partner on the ISS programme, with Nasa contracts to deliver astronauts and cargo to the station

Nasa planning to destroy city-killer asteroid, 2024 YR4? Know more

The latest Nasa study revealed that the city killer asteroid, 2024 YR4, has 1.5 per cent chance of hitting the earth. Space agencies across the world unite to track and deflect YR4

Nasa working to exempt probationary employees from government-wide layoffs

The expectation comes after Nasa employees had braced for news of job cuts on Tuesday, six people familiar with the matter said Wednesday

Musk claims Biden left Williams, Wilmore in space for 'political reasons'

Donald Trump and his advisor Musk claimed that the previous Joe Biden administration was going to leave NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore in space

India, US call for space collaboration, launch new innovation bridge

Calling for ramping up collaboration in space exploration, including on long-duration human spaceflight missions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump hailed 2025 as a pioneering year for US-India civil space cooperation. The two leaders, who also launched INDUS Innovation bridge, held wide-ranging talks on Thursday (Friday IST) focussing on broadening the bilateral partnership, including in the fields of defence, energy, space and critical technology. Modi and Trump called for more collaboration in space exploration, including on long-duration human spaceflight missions, spaceflight safety and sharing of expertise and professional exchanges in emerging areas, including planetary protection, according to a joint statement issued after the discussions. The leaders committed to further commercial space collaboration through industry engagements in conventional and emerging areas, such as connectivity, advanced spaceflight, satellite and space launch systems, space .

Asteroid threat grows: 300-foot rock has higher chance of impact in 2032

The risk assessment of the newly discovered asteroid 2024 YR4 has increased from a chance of 1.2% impact over the last week to 2.1% due to new observations

Stranded in space: Updates on Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore's Earth return

Nasa recently confirmed the news that astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore who are stranded in space for nine months are likely to return to Earth in mid-March

Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore may return to Earth sooner under new plan

NASA's two stuck astronauts may come back to Earth a little sooner than planned. The space agency announced Tuesday that SpaceX will switch capsules for upcoming astronaut flights in order to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home in mid-March instead of late March or April. That will shave at least a couple weeks off their prolonged stay at the International Space Station, which hit the eight-month mark last week. Human spaceflight is full of unexpected challenges, NASA's commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said in a statement. The test pilots should have returned in June on Boeing's Starliner capsule after what should have been a weeklong flight demo. But the capsule had so much trouble getting to the space station that NASA decided to bring it back empty and reassigned the pair to SpaceX. Then SpaceX delayed the launch of their replacements on a brand new capsule that needed more prepping, which added more time to Wilmore and Williams' mission. With even more work s

Nasa's James Webb telescope zeroes in on asteroid that could hit Earth

Nasa is directing the James Webb Space Telescope to track asteroid 2024 YR4, whose collision risk with Earth has risen to 2.3 per cent, in a bid to better understand its size and trajectory

Hunting for life in alien atmospheres: Nasa probe Pandora to launch soon

Nasa's new space telescope Pandora is set to study at least 20 unknown exoplanets to analyse their atmospheres for haze, clouds, and water