As promised, and hot off the presses — behold the new images just released from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The first color shot from the HiRISE Instrument:
Note: this is just a quick, tiny crop of the very top of the image, since there’s really no effective way of displaying it on my page. It’s HUGE. Follow the […]

An intriguing possibility addressing planetary formation has been released today thanks to observations of a distant pulsar performed by the Spitzer Telescope:

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC)
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has uncovered new evidence that planets might rise up out of a dead star’s ashes.
The infrared telescope surveyed the scene around a pulsar, the remnant of […]

Side view of the 70m antenna at Goldstone, California. Image credit: NASA/JPL
Part of NASA’s Deep Space Network, the Goldstone antenna celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. These facilities have been instrumental in relaying communications and data back to Earth from a host of missions, manned and robotic, spanning the last four decades.
This week’s JPL podcast […]

The Soyuz spacecraft and booster on the pad and being prepared for launch, March 28th. Image Credit: RSC Energia
Bound for the International Space Station, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams are scheduled for liftoff this evening at 9:30 p.m. EST, departing the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The crew will launch aboard […]

Image Credit: William K. Hartmann; Courtesy of UCLA
Whew!
It appeared the DAWN mission had been officially cancelled back on March 3rd. Several days later, NASA agreed to review that decision, a move apparently made possible via new management procedures implemented by the agency’s Administrator, Michael Griffin. NASA announced today that the mission has been reinstated.
The full […]

The Pegasus rocket carrying ST5 drops away from the L-1011 carrier aircraft known as “Stargazer.” Image credit: NASA
ST5 Launch Status Update
Pegasus is away! At 9:03 a.m. EST, the Pegasus rocket carrying three ST5 micro-satellites dropped from its carrier jet.
All three of the ST5 satellites have deployed from the Pegasus rocket and are orbiting Earth. Next, […]

Artist’s concept of the ST5 spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA
After a mechanical glitch scrubbed the first launch attempt of NASA’s Space Technology 5 mission last week, the stage is all set for the second launch attempt tomorrow morning (March 22nd). NASA TV coverage of the launch begins at 7:15 AM Eastern time (according to the NTV […]