A rock NASA’s Curiosity rover drilled in 2020 contained “the most diverse collection of organic molecules ever found on the Red Planet,” including seven never previously detected on Mars. The finding published today in Nature was made using its onboard Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory.
Astronauts having very human reactions to witnessing Earthset. “Gone! It’s gone. Oh my god.”
During a press conference on Thursday, astronaut Reid Wiseman said if Artemis II had a lander, “at least three of my crewmates would have been in it trying to land on the Moon.”
“If you had given us the keys to the lander, we would’ve taken it down and landed on that moon.”
The Artemis II crew has successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. They’ve now finished their 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon. It’s been so inspiring to follow.
When the four astronauts aboard Orion return to Earth tonight, they’ll rely on a heat shield that NASA has admitted is flawed. Former astronaut Dr. Charlie Camarda told the New York Times that NASA never should’ve launched Artemis II, guessing there’s a 95 percent chance it will return safely.
CNN explains Artemis II’s “lofted” entry has been adjusted to try to limit the unexpected charring on the Artemis I heat shield, and National Geographic also went in-depth. YouTube, Netflix, and others will broadcast the landing starting at 6:30PM ET.
How the Artemis II spacecraft was designed with (relative) comfort in mind.
You might not be able to fly on an Artemis mission, but you could help them navigate transitions across the gravity on Earth, in transit, and on the Moon. Navy researchers are seeking volunteers to help find out “how the brain and inner ear respond to motion and to space motion sickness mitigation techniques” using an Air Force centrifuge:
Participants will complete up to eight hours of testing across two days, including exposure to three times the force of Earth’s gravity acceleration profile inside the centrifuge, and a series of balance and vision assessments.
On its way to and from visiting the Moon, the 33 engines of the ESA’s European Service Module are keeping Orion on track, as explained in this video. The crew has also tested manual piloting and plans another demonstration tonight at about 10:55PM.
The module’s last correction burn will happen before it separates from the crew capsule ahead of a scheduled splashdown Friday night at 8:07PM ET off the coast of San Diego.
While thousands of smartphones and cameras were trained on the sky on April 1st capturing the historic launch of Artemis II, Redditor Cambot72 recorded it on a Nintendo 3DS XL. The 0.3-megapixel footage has some retro Apollo vibes, and you can download the original version to watch in 3D if you’ve still got a 3DS.
As Artemis II sends back some wallpaper-worthy photos of the Moon and a solar eclipse, it may have given Samsung some inspiration for its next generation of smartphone cameras.
Thegovier:
Hopefully Samsung will add this to their photography AI so we can all take perfect photos next time we’re on the other side of the moon.
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With their historic lunar flyby complete, the crew of Artemis II are officially on their way back to Earth. The Orion spacecraft is expected to splash down off the coast of San Diego around 8PM Eastern on Friday. NASA’s next Artemis mission is currently slated for 2027.
The crew of the Artemis II are now on a return trajectory to Earth, with an expected splash down off the coast of San Diego at approximately 8:07pm local time on Friday, April 10.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen have surpassed Apollo 13’s record for the greatest distance a human mission has traveled away from Earth at over 240,000 miles and counting, and they’ll continue stretching that out until about 7:07PM ET. Right now, they’re beginning to observe the Moon’s surface.
NASA Flight Director Brandon Lloyd, Capsule Communicator Amy Dill, and Command and Handling Data Officer Brandon Borter also marked a lighthearted milestone today by emailing the crew what is now assumed to be the longest person-to-person message ever sent in human history.
The streaming giant missed out on the April 1st launch of Artemis II, but will broadcast today’s historic flight around the Moon.
At 1PM ET, the capsule will fly past the Moon’s far side, which always faces away from the Earth, and it will also stream on NASA’s official YouTube channel. NASA also made a deal with Netflix last year to feature some of its content.
[What's on Netflix]
Check out these incredible photos of our planet taken by Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman. Amazing.
The Orion spacecraft is now on a course to take four astronauts around the moon in four days time.
Even on NASA’s first crewed lunar mission in forever, the live stream captured astronauts having issues with Outlook (New) and Outlook (classic).
While I’m pretty sure the ship’s computers aren’t running on Windows, the crew is equipped with iPhones, tablets, and laptops “to review procedures and load entertainment onto before launch.”
Artemis II sets its eyes on an eventual Moon base, but do NASA’s plans violate international law?
Fincke expressed gratitude to his crewmates and clarified that, while it was determined the best course of action was to return early for medical imaging, it was not an emergency. He said he’s “doing very well” now and going through standard post-flight recovery at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
“On Jan. 7, while aboard the International Space Station, I experienced a medical event that required immediate attention from my incredible crewmates. Thanks to their quick response and the guidance of our NASA flight surgeons, my status quickly stabilized.” - Mike Fincke
Artemis 2, slated to launch four astronauts around the Moon in just a few weeks, has been delayed due to a helium supply issue in the SLS rocket’s upper stage. The mission, originally scheduled for 2023, has now been delayed to April, at the earliest.
Following a successful wet dress rehearsal on Thursday plagued only by ground communications glitches, NASA says March 6th will be the earliest launch date for the long-delayed Artemis II mission that will send four astronauts on an approximately 600,000-mile trip to circle the moon and return to Earth.
That’s the message from NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Thursday as the agency released a 311-page redacted report (pdf) on what went wrong during the Boeing Starliner’s first crewed flight test in 2024.
NASA and Boeing announced that “Investigators identified an interplay of combined hardware failures, qualification gaps, leadership missteps, and cultural breakdowns that created risk conditions inconsistent with NASA’s human spaceflight safety standard.”
NASA’s overnight wet dress rehearsal of the SLS rocket surfaced a liquid hydrogen leak. A second wet dress rehearsal is now needed, pushing the earliest possible launch of the crewed mission around the moon to March.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said in a press conference that “a single crew member on board the [ISS] experienced a medical situation and is now stable,” but NASA is playing it safe and bringing Crew-11 home early.
A spacewalk was postponed on Wednesday due to the same unspecified medical concerns.
“Sentinel-6B will ensure that we continue to collect the high-precision data needed to understand our changing climate,” ESA’s director of earth observation programmes, Simonetta Cheli said in a press release.
The partnership managed to survive the Trump administration’s attempts to stop collecting other environmental data and stymie reports on climate change.
Former Real World cast member and current Transportation Secretary / acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy recently said SpaceX was “behind” on its contract for Artemis III and proposed reopening it. (Elon Musk responded with a predictable slew of insults.)
Now SpaceX has a response, but its blog post is missing one thing: the details of this “simplified” approach.
In response to the latest calls, we’ve shared and are formally assessing a simplified mission architecture and concept of operations that we believe will result in a faster return to the Moon while simultaneously improving crew safety.
November 2nd will mark 25 years of continuous human occupation aboard the International Space Station, and Ars Technica points out this new ISS in Real Time website lets you revisit each and every day.
You can see crew rosters, camera footage, the astronauts’ schedule, and even listen to recorded announcements.
[ISS in Real Time]
The reduction — in the works before the government shutdown — comes from its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Reuters reports is “NASA’s only federally funded research and development center.” The layoffs affect roughly a tenth of the JPL’s workforce, who will find out if they’re affected or not today.
[NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)]
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) hasn’t given it a name yet, but NASA has announced that astronomers discovered a new moon orbiting Uranus using images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared camera last February.
Currently designated S/2025 U1, the tiny moon’s estimated to be around six miles in diameter which is potentially why it wasn’t previously spotted by Voyager 2 or other telescopes. It’s located about 35,000 miles from the center of Uranus in an orbit between Ophelia and Bianca.
