A mission to pull back the shroud

Meet the Artemis II crew. This week NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced the astronauts who will fly on the Artemis II mission, which will take them around the Moon in the first crewed lunar mission since the Apollo program. The crew includes (from left to right) NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman (seated), Victor Glover, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Image credit: NASA.

Perseverance is sampling a new area on Mars. The rover, which has been collecting samples from the Martian surface since 2020, has moved on to a new area atop the Jezero Crater delta. The first sample was taken from a rock the science team calls “Berea,” which they believe formed from rock deposits that were carried downstream to this location by an ancient river. If so, this rock could differ from those originating in the delta. Meanwhile, the Ingenuity Mars helicopter that has been accompanying Perseverance broke records this week by flying faster and higher than ever before.

NASA is moving away from naming spacecraft after people. A new policy says that missions should be named after people only when their contributions are "so extraordinary that any other form of recognition by the Agency would be considered inadequate." This decision comes in the wake of critiques about the naming of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Several JAXA missions may be facing delays due to rocket issues. The Japanese H3 rocket failed in its first launch, possibly because of issues with its upper-stage engine. Because that engine is very similar to the one used on the H2-A rocket, launches of that vehicle are also on hold. This could delay the launches of the XRISM X-ray telescope, the SLIM lunar lander, and possibly MMX, a mission to return samples from the Martian moon Phobos.

The VERITAS mission to Venus is worth saving. NASA’s proposed VERITAS mission is crucial to our understanding of Venus, and has the potential to yield insights into Earth’s planetary future. Yet the mission to study Venus from orbit is facing budget cuts that would indefinitely delay it, despite being a top priority of the planetary science community. You can help save this mission by sharing information about why it’s important and, if you live in the United States, by sending a petition to Congress. Pictured: An example of the kind of high-resolution mapping that VERITAS could provide, compared to the surface data we have from NASA’s early 1990s Magellan mission. Image credit: Sue Smrekar.

Get ready for the Juice launch. The European Space Agency’s mission to Jupiter’s icy moons is scheduled to launch on Thursday, April 13. We’ve got your complete guide to what to expect from the launch and the mission as a whole. Plus, Planetary Society members can join our Juice launch watch party in the new rocket launch channel in our online member community.

The Hope mission has exceeded expectations, and it’s not done yet. The United Arab Emirates’ Mars orbiter has been operating for two years now, studying the Martian atmosphere and how the planet’s climate changes over time. Mohsen Al Awadhi, Director of the Space Missions Department at the UAE Space Agency, joins this week’s Planetary Radio to share insights into the mission's journey and tease the next exciting chapter: observing Mars' mysterious moon, Deimos.