What's New in Lunar & Planetary Science
The Phoenix lander will touch down on the polar plains of Mars on Sunday, May 25 at about 23:53 UT Earth received time (7:53 p.m. EDT). A timeline of landing events and a press release from the 13 May media briefing have more detail.
NASA has announced plans for a Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) satellite and two small landers to be launched to the Moon by 2014 and an outer solar system mission to Europa, Ganymede, or Titan to launch in 2016 or 2017.
The Deep Impact / EPOXI mission has started the EPOCh (Extrasolar Planets Observation and Characterization) portion of its campaign. It will continue observing extrasolar planets until 28 May and then await its encounter with Comet Hartley 2 on 11 October 2010.
This Day in Planetary and Lunar Exploration History
May 16
- 1866
- Ninth largest asteroid, 87 Sylvia, discovered by N.R. Pogson.
- 1969
- Venera 5 enters Venus atmosphere, descends by parachute, returns data.
Flight Mission Information
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- NASA Official: Dr. Ed Grayzeck
- Curator: Dr. David R. Williams
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- Last updated: 26 December 2007