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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 European Space Agency's Bepi-Colombo mission is scheduled to launch to Mercury at 01:45 UT on October 20 (9:45 p.m. EDT, October 19) from Kourou, French Guiana. For more, see the ESA media release.

The JAXA Hayabusa 2 mission successfully deployed and landed its MASCOT lander on asteroid 162173 Ryugu on 3 October (JST). The lander returned data from the surface for over 17 hours. More.....

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....

The Parker Solar Probe made the first of seven Venus flybys on 3 October at 8:44 UTC (4:44 a.m. EDT) en route to its first perihelion on 5 November.

12 new moons have been discovered orbiting Jupiter, bringing the total number of Jovian natural satellites to 79. For more on the discoveries, see the Carnegie Science press release.