Astrophysics, Astronomy & Space

Closing in on the Transverse Aeolian Ridges (TARs)

6 tiles L-NavCam NASA/JPL-Caltech

AST SpaceMobile plans to launch satellites for its direct-to-smartphone broadband constellation every one to two months starting in July, aiming to begin beta services for AT&T and Verizon in the United States before the end of the year.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

MDA Space received a contract valued at $1 billion Canadian ($715 million) in June 2024 from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for Phase C and D development of Canadarm3, Canada’s main contribution to the Gateway. The Canadian government announced its intent in 2019 to offer the robotic arm to NASA for the Gateway, and in return received seats on two Artemis missions, including the assignment of Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen to Artemis 2.

German launch services provider Exolaunch is working with non-U.S. customers to reclaim most of the tariffs they must pay to deploy their satellites via SpaceX.

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Assembled from 6 overlapping WATSON images using MS-ICE.

sol 1500 Selfie assembled from 6 overlapping Watson images

In a May 9 statement, ispace U.S., the American subsidiary of Japan’s ispace, said it will use a new engine called VoidRunner for its Apex 1.0 lunar lander. That lander is being developed by ispace U.S. for a team led by Draper flying a mission that is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

Part of a Soviet spacecraft is expected to crash back down to Earth this weekend, with experts still unsure of where it will land.

Mosaic of overlapping post-drive engineering images NASA/JPL-Caltech

Kann die Erde vor einem Asteroideneinschlag geschützt werden? 🛡️🌎 Mit der Hera-Mission der @esa testet Europa, ob sich ein Asteroid gezielt ablenken lässt. Dafür hat das DLR das Gravimeter GRASS mitentwickelt, das auf dem Asteroidenmond Dimorphos landen und dort die Schwerkraft messen wird. Was bringt das? Ein besseres Verständnis über den inneren Aufbau von Dimorphos – Wissen, das hilft, die Erde vor künftigen Einschlägen zu schützen.👉 Mehr im neuen DLR-Blogartikel: s.dlr.de/HERA

The Kosmos 482 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, now part of Kazakhstan, aboard a Molniya rocket on March 31, 1972. A short time later, the rocket's upper stage was supposed to propel the probe out of Earth orbit on an interplanetary journey toward Venus, where it would have become the third mission to land on the second planet from the Sun.

On 7 May, ESA announced the signing of the agreement, stating that the cooperation would focus on activities in low Earth orbit, with provisions for potential future missions to the Moon. The announcement specifically outlined plans to work together on the “interoperability of rendezvous and docking systems to allow their respective spacecraft to work together.” Other near-term areas of collaboration outlined in the agreement include astronaut training, analogue space missions on Earth, and parabolic flight training.

Seven government departments issued a notice April 30 entitled “Regulations on the Management of Terminal Equipment Directly Connected to Satellite Services,” establishing the legal and technical groundwork for satellite connectivity aligned with national objectives.

NASA has canceled plans to find a commercial partner to launch a robotic lunar rover and will instead pursue “alternative approaches” to fly the mission.

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features an H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. This nebula, known as N79, is a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionised, captured here by Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI).

A major part of NASA's nearly complete Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope just passed a lengthy thermal test to ensure it will function properly in the space environment.

NASA is considering scaling back its activities on the International Space Station, according to multiple sources. The changes, which are being considered primarily due to shortfalls in the space station budget, include:

online version - https://mars.nasa.gov/maps/location/?mission=Curiosity

Assembled from 15 overlapping Bayer reconstructed L-MastCam's. The scene is close to 2 meters wide. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Fredk

post-drive L-NavCam looking back towards the crater floor and distant crater rim walls. On the left are some mountains outside the crater. Raw image, no processing. NASA/JPL-Caltech

data extracted from JPL's mission data (JSON)

A beautiful but skewed spiral galaxy dazzles in today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. This galaxy, called Arp 184 or NGC 1961, sits about 190 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis (The Giraffe).

Hard to tell if this is the same core imaged a few sols ago. Watch this space for updates. But this one looks ready to cap / seal

As they returned to the airlock, the Earth below started to put on a lightning show, and Ayers took note, mesmerized. A day later, she picked up a camera and captured some additional lightning strikes, saying, "I am so amazed by the view we have up here of our Earth’s weather systems." I've chosen my favorite of these photos for today's post.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity captured this image of its current workspace, containing well-preserved polygonal shaped fractures, with waffle or honeycomb patterns. The rover acquired this image using its Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam) on May 1, 2025 — Sol 4527, or Martian day 4,527 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 16:41:35 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech

A couple of weeks ago, ground teams at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida removed one of the four main engines from the Space Launch System rocket slated to send four astronauts on a voyage around the Moon next year.

A new workspace after the drive.

Telescopes, including Hubble, have monitored the Eta Carinae star system for more than two decades. It has been prone to violent outbursts, including an episode in the 1840s during which ejected material formed the bipolar bubbles seen here.

Equipment: - Samyang 135mm @f2.8 - Fuji X-T5 (unmodified) - dual narrowband clip in filter - Star Adventurer 2i

For those unaware, Perseverance and Curiosity are both armed, like the good patriotic American rovers they are - equipped with lasers which have a definite scientific function, but which also (let's be honest) serve to dissuade any Martian critters they come across from getting too close...

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image looking directly west and showing a first ground view of the boxwork structures the rover is driving toward. The boxwork structures are visible in the distance as smoother terrain criss-crossed by ridges, just below the hilltops. Curiosity acquired this image using its Left Navigation Camera on April 30, 2025 – Sol 4526, or Martian day 4,526 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission – at 14:10:41 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech