NASA
Every Cosmic Herald story on NASA — missions, launches, discoveries, and the business of space, newest first.
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Missions
Artemis II Heat Shield Analysis: Nine Spots of Char Loss Versus 103 on Artemis I
NASA's Oct. 15 post-flight analysis finds Orion's Artemis II heat shield lost char in just nine spots versus 103 on Artemis I, a tenfold drop that supports the gas-pressure explanation and the switch to a more permeable Avcoat for Artemis III.
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Missions
Two Spacewalks to Finish the Station's Power Upgrade With the Last Roll-Out Solar Arrays
With CRS-35 carrying the final pair of roll-out solar arrays, NASA will preview spacewalks 100 and 101 on Oct. 20, when Anil Menon and Joshua Kutryk are set to install arrays seven and eight and lift ISS power from 160 kW to about 215 kW.
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Missions
Jupiter's Magnetodisk Ripples Like a Flag, Juno Data Show
Juno data show that Jupiter's magnetodisk current sheet is not a smooth, tilted disk. When magnetic reconnection breaks its field lines, the sheet crumples into ripples that rotate with the planet and sweep past the spacecraft again and again.
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Missions
Artemis II Science Data Goes Public: Impact Flashes, a Rainbow Moon and 54 Minutes of Eclipse
NASA has released more than 800 GB of Artemis II lunar science data, including five confirmed impact flashes, a far-side region humans had never seen in sunlight, and a 54-minute total solar eclipse viewed from beyond the Moon.
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Missions
Japan's MMX Mars Moons Sample-Return Probe Nears Its Oct. 19 Launch
JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft is set to launch on an H3 rocket from Tanegashima on Oct. 19. It aims to bring about 10 grams of Phobos back to Earth in 2031, carrying NASA hardware and a French-German rover along the way.
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Missions
Dragon's 35th Cargo Run Brings the Last ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays, Targeting an Oct. 13 Launch
NASA and SpaceX are targeting 6:33 a.m. EDT Oct. 13 for CRS-35, a Cargo Dragon carrying more than 6,300 pounds to the ISS, including the last pair of roll-out solar arrays meant to keep the station powered through its controlled deorbit.
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Missions
China Narrows Tianwen-3 Mars Sample-Return Landing Zone to Eight Candidates in Hunt for Ancient Life
China's Tianwen-3 team has cut its Mars landing-site shortlist to eight candidates rich in ancient standing-water evidence, with three finalists due by the end of 2026 ahead of a roughly 2028 launch aimed at returning samples by 2031.
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Missions
COSI Comes Together: NASA's Gamma-Ray Telescope Chasing the Galaxy's Antimatter Mystery Heads Toward a 2027 Launch
NASA has posted an image of engineers lifting COSI's detector assembly, a milestone for the gamma-ray Small Explorer built to trace the Milky Way's 511 keV antimatter glow and slated to fly on a Falcon 9 in 2027.
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Missions
Crew-13 Heads to the Space Station: A Second Flight for Watkins and Three Rookies
SpaceX Crew-13 launches at 11:10 a.m. EDT Oct. 1 from SLC-40 with Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney, Joshua Kutryk and Sergey Teteryatnikov for about six months on Expedition 75, after an oxidizer-leak delay from Sept. 12.
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Missions
Crew-13's Jessica Watkins, Luke Delaney and Crewmates Enter Quarantine Ahead of Oct. 1 ISS Launch
NASA and SpaceX have locked in Oct. 1 at 11:10 a.m. EDT for Crew-13's Falcon 9/Dragon launch to the ISS, after an oxidizer-valve leak pushed the flight past its original Sept. 12 target.
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Missions
Progress 96 Docks at ISS After a Week-Long Delay Nobody Fully Explained
Russia's Progress 96 cargo ship reached the ISS on September 19 after an undisclosed Soyuz third-stage fault forced a hangar rollback and a rare three-day rendezvous.
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Missions
StarBurst Gets a Ride: NASA Books a Falcon 9 Rideshare for Its Neutron-Star-Merger Detector
NASA has booked SpaceX to fly StarBurst, a roughly 300 kg gamma-ray satellite built to catch the first flash of merging neutron stars, on a Falcon 9 Bandwagon rideshare no earlier than 2028.
