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Astrophysics

Astro-H, also known as Hitomi or "Eye", an X-ray astronomy collaboration between JAXA and NASA, was launched from the Tanegashima launch facility in Japan on 17 February 2016 at 5:45 p.m. Japan Standard Time (08:45 UTC). More...

ESA's Gaia mission launched successfully on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Kourour, French Guiana at 09:12 UT on 19 December 2013. The mission is designed to measure the positions and velocity of roughly 1,000,000,000 stars as well as determine their temperature, composition, and other properties. More...

Heliophysics

On 20 January 2018, the IMAGE spacecraft was re-discovered by an amateur astronomer, and its identity was subsequently confirmed on 30 January. The data from the IMAGE signal will be analyzed over the next few weeks to determine the state of the spacecraft. More...

NASA's launch of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft took place at 7:27 p.m. on 27 June 2013 (02:27 UT, 28 June) about 100 miles from Vandenberg AFB. More...

Voyager 1 has encountered a region of spacecraft at the edge of our solar system that scientists believe is the last region the spacecraft will have to cross prior to entering interstellar space. More...

Lunar and Planetary Science

The NASA InSight mission lands on Mars in the Elysium Planitia region on 26 November at about 20:00 UT (3:00 p.m. EST).

Attempts to contact the Dawn mission failed on 31 October and 1 November, indicating the end of the mission that explored the asteroids Vesta and Ceres. For more, see the NASA Press Release.

The European Space Agency's Bepi-Colombo mission launched on its mission to Mercury at 01:45:28 UT on October 20 from Kourou, French Guiana. For more, see the ESA media release.

The OSIRIS-REx mission successfully made its first asteroid approach maneuver thruster firing on October 1. It will reach its initial position 20 km from Bennu on December 3. More....