NASA Archives - Defence Monitor

30 Mar

Artemis II set for April 1 launch as NASA completes final preparations

New Delhi, March 30 (IANS) The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has completed final preparations for the launch of its 'Artemis II' mission -- which is scheduled to lift off as early as April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center. According to NASA, the mission will mark the first crewed flight under its Artemis programme, sending four astronauts on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon. Artemis II will also be the first time humans travel beyond low-Earth orbit since the Apollo era. The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian…

04 Apr

NASA selects 3 firms to develop vehicle to explore Moon’s surface

San Francisco, April 4, The US space agency NASA has selected three companies — Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab — to develop a lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) that Artemis astronauts will use to travel around the Moon’s surface. San Francisco, April 4 (IANS) The US space agency NASA has selected four companies — Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab —to develop a lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) that Artemis astronauts will use to travel around the Moon’s surface. The vehicle will help conduct scientific research during the agency’s Artemis campaign at the Moon and preparing for human missions…

17 Feb

ISRO again skips ‘unlucky’ 13 while numbering its rocket

Chennai, Feb 17, The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has done it again. It has skipped the number '13' -- generally considered "unlucky" -- while numbering its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket, which is set to fly on Saturday evening with the weather satellite INSAT-3DS. The last flight of the GSLV rocket was on May 29, 2023, and the rocket was codenamed 'GSLV-F12'. Logically, the next GSLV rocket should have been numbered as 'GSLV-F13'. But it was not to be. The GSLV rocket set to fly on Saturday evening carrying the 2,274 kg INSAT-3DS has been codenamed 'GSLV-F14'. Curiously,…

29 Jan

Oreo-sized device on Vikram enables NASA to precisely locate target on Moon

Chennai, Jan 28, With Vikram landing safely on the moon last year, one of its instruments is now serving as a location marker on the moon near its South Pole. According to ISRO, the scientific instruments/payloads on Vikram and the moon rover Pragyan have performed well. The Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) on Vikram has begun providing 'fiducial points' (precisely located markers for reference) on the moon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) achieved a laser range measurement using the LRA by successfully detecting signals reflected by it on December 12, 2023. “For the first time…

28 Dec

NASA’s Juno to make closest ever flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io on Saturday

Washington, Dec 30, NASA’s Juno spacecraft is set to make the closest flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io that any spacecraft has made in over 20 years. Juno will pass within roughly 1,500 kilometres from the surface of Io -- the most volcanic world in our solar system -- on Saturday. “By combining data from this flyby with our previous observations, the Juno science team is studying how Io’s volcanoes vary,” said Juno’s principal investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, US. “We are looking for how often they erupt, how bright and hot they are, how the…

25 Oct

NASA building nuclear-powered lander for Saturn’s moon Titan

Washington, Oct 25, NASA is building a nuclear-powered lander for exploring Titan -- Saturn’s largest moon having a dense atmosphere and low gravity Titan is a major target in NASA’s quest to assess habitability and search for potential signs of life beyond Earth on worlds across the solar system. The lander, Dragonfly rotorcraft, is NASA’s only mission to the surface of another ocean world. Titan is also thought to have a subsurface ocean of water. The car-sized drone, built and operated by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, will have four pairs of coaxial rotors (meaning one rotor is stacked…

14 Oct

NASA launches probe to metallic asteroid

Washington, Oct 13, NASA has successfully launched the Psyche mission, which aims to explore an asteroid rich in gold, diamond and platinum, on Friday. The Psyche spacecraft lifted off atop a Falcon Heavy rocket on October 13 at 10:19 AM EDT (7.49 PM IST) from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. “We have liftoff! NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, along with the agency’s DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) technology demonstration,” NASA said in a blogpost. “Liftoff of Falcon Heavy!” SpaceX posted on X, formerly Twitter. Falcon Heavy's two side boosters came back to Earth for a landing at…

02 Oct

NASA postpones probe to explore metal-rich asteroid to Oct 12

Washington, Oct 2, NASA has postponed its Psyche mission, aimed at exploring a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, to October 12, the US space agency said. It was previously scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on October 5. “The change allows the NASA team to complete verifications of the parameters used to control the Psyche spacecraft’s nitrogen cold gas thrusters,” the agency said in a statement. “These thrusters are used to point the vehicle in support of science, power, thermal and…

01 Oct

NASA picks 4 small missions to better understand Sun-Earth connection

Washington, Sep 30, US space agency NASA has selected four small explorer missions to conduct concept studies to expand knowledge of the dynamics of the Sun. These missions will aim to shed light on related phenomena such as coronal mass ejections, aurora, and solar wind to better understand the Sun-Earth connection. “These four mission concept studies were selected because they address compelling science questions and could greatly impact the field of heliophysics,” said Nicky Fox, the associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These mission proposals are exciting because they build upon and complement the science of our…

27 Sep

NASA records 6th lowest Arctic sea ice, low growth in Antarctic ice cover

Washington, Sep 27, Rising global temperatures caused Arctic sea ice to reach its annual minimum extent on September 19, making it the sixth-lowest year in the satellite record, according to researchers at NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The findings, made using satellite data, showed that between March and September, the ice cover in the Arctic shrank from a peak area of 14.62 million square kilometres to 4.23 million square kilometres. That’s roughly 1.99 million square kilometres below the 1981-2010 average minimum of 6.22 million square kilometres. The amount of sea ice lost was enough to…