Recent News in...

Astrophysics

NASA's SPHEREx mission was successfully launched from Vandenberg launch facility at 03:10 UT 12 March.

JAXA's XRISM mission was successfully launched at 23:42 UT 06 September 2023.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope released its latest deep field image, featuring never-before-seen details in a region of space known as Pandora’s Cluster (Abell 2744). More...

Heliophysics

NASA's PUNCH mission, consisting of four spacecraft to make observations of the sun, was successfully launched at 03:10 UT on 12 March.

The Parker Solar Probe made its 15^th perihelion pass of the Sun, at a distance of 0.06 AU, on 17 March 2023.

ESA's Solar Orbiter reached its 6^th perihelion, at 0.29 AU, on 10 April 2023.

Lunar and Planetary Science

The ispace Resilience lunar lander mission was scheduled to land on the Moon on 05 June 2025 at 19:17 UT (3:17 p.m. EDT, 4:17 a.m. 06 June JST) in Mare Frigoris. Ground controllers lost communication shortly before the landing. It is assumed the spacecraft crashed on the surface. For more, see the ispace news release.

Cosmos 482, a failed Soviet Venus probe launched in 1972 but left stranded in an elliptical Earth orbit that has slowly been decaying, re-entered the atmosphere on 10 May at 6:24 UT. Because the probe was designed to withstand entry into the Venus atmosphere, it may have survived re-entry, but it would have landed in the Indian Ocean.

The Lucy mission flew within about 960 km of asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson on 20 April 2025 with closest approach at 17:51 UT (1:51 p.m. EDT). For images from the flyby and more information, see the Lucy news release.