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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
It's Official: LightSail Test Flight Scheduled for May 2015
This May, the first of The Planetary Society's two member-funded LightSail spacecraft is slated to hitch a ride to space for a test flight aboard an Atlas V rocket.
Addressing some common questions about Comet Lovejoy
Lowell Observatory's Matthew Knight addresses several points of confusion that have repeatedly come up in the coverage of Comet Lovejoy.
Fountains of Water Vapor and Ice
Deepak Dhingra shares some of the latest research on Enceladus' geysers presented at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco last month.
Field Report from Mars: Sol 3902 - January 15, 2015
Larry Crumpler gives an update on the status of Opportunity's traverse toward Marathon Valley.
The President's 2016 Budget Is Coming
The 2016 budget cycle for NASA kicks off on Feb 2nd, when the White House releases the President's Budget Request. Here's what to look for.
Curiosity update, sols 814-863: Pahrump Hills Walkabout, part 2
Curiosity has spent the last two months completing a second circuit of the Pahrump Hills field site, gathering APXS and MAHLI data. The work has been hampered by the loss of the ChemCam focusing laser, but the team is developing a workaround. Over the holidays, the rover downlinked many Gigabits of image data. The rover is now preparing for a drilling campaign.
New Dawn images of Ceres: comparable to Hubble
Dawn has captured a series of photos of a rotating Ceres whose resolution is very close to Hubble's, and they show tantalizing surface details.
Pretty Picture: Comet Lovejoy
Astrophotgrapher Adam Block shares an image of Comet Lovejoy, which is currently visible with binoculars.
The Moon, In Depth
Explore a new collection of 3D lunar landscapes.
Beagle 2 found?
What happened to Beagle 2? It's been a mystery for 11 years. That mystery appears to have been solved.
Watch the Incredible 'Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly' of SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rocket
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has released four images of the company's Falcon 9 rocket impacting its drone ship landing pad in the Atlantic Ocean.
Sky survey grant helps lead to a space science career
Quan-Zhi Ye was an 18 year-old college student and the principal investigator of the Lulin Sky Survey when he won a 2007 Shoemaker NEO grant. He's now a Ph.D. candidate and provides an update on his work in meteor studies.
Ten years after the Huygens landing: The story of its images
The landing of Huygens on Titan was a significant moment for planetary science and a great accomplishment for Europe. But the Huygens landing also stimulated the development of the international community of amateur image processors that does such great work with space images today. I was in the midst of it all at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt.
Year of the 'Dwarves': Ceres and Pluto Get Their Due
This year we achieve the first exploration of these curious but fascinating objects. Paul Schenk explains what we may learn about them.
Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Overlooked
Astrophotographer Adam Block showcases some stunning images of lesser-known galaxies and nebulae.
JUICE at Europa
Europe's JUICE spacecraft will provide us with a detailed regional study of this icy moon of Jupiter.
Reconstructing What Happened at Sea, as Dragon Arrives at Station
Following a routine two-day voyage, SpaceX's Dragon capsule pulled in to port at the International Space Station. Meanwhile, tweets from CEO Elon Musk give clues on what happened at sea.
Tracking a Ghost Mission 238 Million Km Away
Daniel Scuka describes the impending demise of the Venus Express spacecraft.
Dragon Reaches Orbit, but Falcon Stage Crashes on Recovery Ship
SpaceX’s ambitious attempt to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on an autonomous ocean platform was
NASA Completes First Test Firing of SLS Core Stage Engine (Updated)
NASA completed a 500-second test firing of the RS-25 engine, which will power the core stage of the Space Launch System.