NASA

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Mars Global Surveyor Launched 28 Years Ago, Transforming Mars Exploration

On November 7, 1996, NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor, ending a nearly twenty-year hiatus in Red Planet exploration following the 1975 Viking missions. The spacecraft went on to spend nearly a decade orbiting Mars, fundamentally reshaping scientific understanding of the planet’s environment. During its nine active years, the orbiter transmitted more than 240,000 photographs

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NASA’s Veteran Mars Orbiters Keep Delivering Decades Past Their Design Lifespans

NASA’s Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continue to conduct planetary observations and transmit vital data from the Red Planet, vastly outlasting the multi-year lifespans envisioned at launch. Having arrived in orbit in October 2001 and 2006 respectively, the two aging spacecraft now serve as the indispensable communications link relaying signals between Earth and every

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NASA Overhauls Artemis Architecture and Lunar Lander Flight Plans Ahead of Targeted 2028 Moon Landing

NASA has unveiled major revisions to its Artemis program architecture, restructuring flight profiles for commercial landers developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin as the agency works toward landing astronauts on the Moon by 2028. The updated plan alters rendezvous orbits and introduces new propulsion hardware to simplify operational demands on lunar landers. Under the revised

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NASA Psyche Mission Traverses Asteroid Belt to Explore Metal-Rich World

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is continuing its journey across the main asteroid belt toward asteroid 16 Psyche, a metal-rich body that could offer unique insights into planetary formation. Located in the broad expanse between Mars and Jupiter, the asteroid belt is dominated by rocky and icy bodies. In contrast, Psyche stands out as an unusual metallic

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NASA’s Hubble Lays Groundwork for Roman Space Telescope Gravitational Research

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has helped lay the operational and scientific groundwork for gravitational research planned for the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The observational groundwork is designed to assist Roman in conducting deep-space surveys using gravitational lensing techniques, building directly on data gathered across Hubble’s mission history. Source: phys.org

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NASA Develops CASALS Lidar to Bridge Coverage Gaps in Lunar Mapping

NASA has unveiled CASALS, a next-generation laser altimeter designed to capture ultra-high-resolution 3D elevation maps of the lunar surface and fill long-standing data gaps left by earlier planetary orbiters. Developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the CASALS instrument replaces heavy mechanical steering mechanisms with solid-state beam control. The system pairs a fast-tuning laser with

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