Gravity assist

Fresh off of its first asteroid encounter that revealed a bonus space rock, Lucy is now ready for the big leagues. The NASA spacecraft began maneuvering its way to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, traveling to a farther orbit in deep space in order to reach the Jovian system.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewOn Wednesday, Lucy fired its main engine for the first time in space as the first step in a series of maneuvers to change the velocity of the spacecraft so that it can reach the…

New mission, who dis? The spacecraft formerly known as OSIRIS-REx had an impromptu close encounter with the Sun as it follows a newly crafted route to a second asteroid, using one of its solar arrays for shade.Let’s Eat a Chocolate Xbox ControllerYou may remember NASA’s diligent spacecraft that snagged a sample from an asteroid and dropped it off in the Utah desert in September 2023. That same spacecraft is on a bonus mission to a different asteroid, but in order to get there, it’ll need to fly 25 million miles closer to…

On October 1, 2021, a pair of small spacecraft got their first good look at the closest planet to the Sun, revealing the strange process through which Mercury produces its own auroras.Threads Needs These Five Missing Features to Be a Twitter KillerBepiColombo, a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), launched in October 2018 and is still on its way to enter Mercury’s orbit in 2025. Until then, the spacecraft duo has been conducting a series of six flybys of…

A probe is familiarizing itselfwith the closest planet to the Sun, gearing up to explore Mercury’s heavily cratered surface. The BepiColombo mission recently captured stunning new images of Mercury during a close flyby, which resulted in the naming of an impact crater after a pioneering Jamaican artist.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewBepiColombo, a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), made its closest approach to…

An illustration of the Lucy spacecraft flying past one of the Trojan asteroids. Illustration: NASAIt’s been a year since NASA launched its Lucy spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. On Sunday, Lucy will wave hello to Earth for the first time during a brief, but potentially dangerous, rendezvous. In the unlikely event of a collision, the mission team has prepared maneuvers to protect the spacecraft from satellites and space junk. Lucy’s first flyby of Earth will place the spacecraft a mere 220 miles (350…

Lucy is equipped with a pair of 22-feet-wide solar arrays on either side.Photo: NASAJust a few hours into its 12-year journey to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, the Lucy spacecraft ran into a problem. One of its solar arrays refused to fully open and mission controllers have been working on the problem ever since. There’s good news to report, however, as the team appears to have made a breakthrough.Since Lucy’s launch in October 2021, NASA engineers have been attempting to fully open and latch the spacecraft’s stubborn…

The Lucy spacecraft will be the first to visit the Trojan asteroids. Illustration: NASAFor nearly eight months, Lucy has been sailing its way to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids while NASA engineers on the ground have been working to fix a pesky solar array that refuses to unfurl. The good news is that there now appears to be some progress.The solar array failed to open shortly after the spacecraft launched in October 2021. Ground controllers with the NASA project sent commands to the Lucy spacecraft on four separate occasions…