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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
In Pictures: West Virginia from Space
Jason Davis shares five images of his home state, West Virginia, taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
DSCOVR's Halo
The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) has begun sending us fresh, whole-hemisphere images of our own fragile planet. Some sources say that the spacecraft is
Proposals to Explore the Solar System’s Smallest Worlds
Van Kane rounds up some of the latest NASA Discovery mission proposals aiming to explore our solar system's smallest bodies.
Jupiter's changing face, 2009-2015
Damian Peach's photo-documentation of Jupiter helps us monitor the giant planet's ever-changing patterns of belts, zones, storms, and barges, during a time when no orbiting missions are there to take pictures.
Looking back at Pluto
I don't think anyone was prepared for the beauty -- or the instant scientific discoveries -- in this
Help map Mars' south polar region!
The science team of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter wants your help in mapping out the weird and wonderful features of Mars' south polar region!
A New Way to Prepare Samples of Mars for Return to Earth
Mars 2020, NASA’s next and yet-to-be-named Mars rover, will be the first mission to collect and prepare samples of the martian surface for return to Earth. The rover's engineering team has proposed a new sampling caching strategy that differs from previous concepts in some interesting ways.
Summer 2015 edition of The Planetary Report is here
The summer edition of The Planetary Report has printed and will soon be at your door.
Expedition 44 Trio Flies through Solar Panel Glitch, Arrives at Station
A three-person crew is safely aboard the International Space Station following an early morning launch of a Soyuz rocket and spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
What in the world(s) are tholins?
The question “why is Pluto red” has been answered with a word that most people have never heard of and perhaps even fewer people can actually define—“tholins”.
Name Hayabusa2's asteroid target!
Have you ever wanted to name an asteroid? JAXA is offering the opportunity to name Hayabusa2's target asteroid, 1999 JU3 to the public through a contest that runs through August 31.
New Horizons encounter plus one week: Weird and wonderful images from the Pluto system
So many new image goodies from the Pluto system!
Dawn at Ceres: A haze in Occator crater?
While Pluto deservedly stole the headlines last week, Chris Russell’s Dawn update at the Exploration Science Forum at NASA Ames reminded us that the other dwarf planets are also sharing their secrets with eager scientists.
DSCOVR mission releases first EPIC global view of Earth, more to come in September
Five months after its launch, the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission has successfully journeyed to the region of space where Sun and Earth gravitational attraction offset each other. From the vantage point of L1, DSCOVR's EPIC camera has captured its first full-globe view of Earth, and it's well, epic.
Broken Bottle Strut Likely Doomed Falcon 9 Rocket, Says Elon Musk
The demise of an ISS-bound Falcon 9 rocket last month was likely caused by a broken liquid helium bottle strut, according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
New Horizons: Awaiting the data
New Horizons' encounter and data downlinks have been going exactly as planned, but the raw image website has not been updated for many days. What's going on? I found out.
OSIRIS-REx – Testing In Progress
While the OLA, OCAMS, and REXIS instruments on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft continue working towards their deliveries, other hardware onsite at Lockheed is undergoing testing prior to installation. The hardware is put through tests here on Earth prior to launching into space.
Report Finds SLS Cost and Schedule Estimates Tight, but on Track
The GAO says NASA is generally doing a good job with cost and schedule estimates for SLS, its new heavy lift rocket. But NASA is also running short on schedule margin as it works to have SLS ready for flight by November 2018.
Latest New Horizons picture of Charon: oddly familiar
The New Horizons team released one more picture from Tuesday's encounter, one of three high-resolution images from a mosaic that crossed the center of Charon's disk, and it took me a while to figure out what it reminded me of.
LightSail Workshop Recaps Lessons Learned from Test Mission
The LightSail team held a workshop in Pasadena to discuss lessons learned from the test mission and plan for the second flight in 2016.