LISA pathfinder thrusters operated successfully

While some technologies were created to make spacecraft move billions of miles, the Disturbance Reduction System has the opposite goal: To keep a spacecraft as still as possible.

Cassini plasma spectrometer turns off

(Phys.org) -- The Cassini plasma spectrometer instrument (CAPS) aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft was turned off between Friday, June 1 and Saturday, June 2, when a circuit breaker tripped off after the instrument experienced ...

Four GOES-R instruments ready for integration

Four of the six instruments that will fly on the first Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R) were delivered to Lockheed Martin in Denver for integration onto the spacecraft bus this month. This ...

Image: Cold gas in deep space

This image shows the LISA Pathfinder launch composite (spacecraft plus propulsion module) at the IABG test centre in Ottobrunn, near Munich, Germany, on 31 August 2015, before it was shipped to the launch site.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission will have a map for that

On Sept. 8, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to launch for terra incognita: the unknown surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Like expeditions of old, OSIRIS-REx's mission includes mapping the exotic terrain ...

Just hours after launch, RBSP takes first science steps

(Phys.org)—While the RBSP teams at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station celebrated a job well done following the 4:05 a.m. EDT launch of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes on Thursday, Aug. 30, ...

NASA's Swift temporarily suspends science operations

On March 15, NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory entered into safe mode, temporarily suspending science operations due to degrading performance from one of its three gyroscopes (gyros), which are used to point the observatory ...

Kepler team restarts powered-down photometer

During a scheduled contact with NASA's Kepler space telescope on Thursday, July 28, the team found the photometer—the camera onboard the spacecraft—powered off. The photometer was turned on again and the flight system ...

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