NASA

The Cygnus "Sally Ride" cargo spacecraft blasting off atop an Antares rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft blasted off atop an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on Wallops Island. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and went en route to its destination. This is the mission called NG-18 or CRS NG-18 to transport supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.

The Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft on the ship Megan (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft concluded its Crew-4, or SpaceX Crew-4, mission on behalf of NASA by splashing down without problems. On board were astronauts Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Samantha Cristoforetti, who had reached the International Space Station on April 27 and were part of Expedition 67 and 68. The four of them completed SpaceX’s fourth regular crewed mission in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. The Crew Dragon departed the Station about six hours earlier.

Asteroid Dimorphos and the ejected materials seen by LICIACube (Image ASI/NASA/APL)

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In a press conference, NASA confirmed the success of its DART mission after ascertaining that the orbit of asteroid Dimorphos was changed by the impact of the spacecraft. According to calculations, Dimorphos now orbits the asteroid Didymos in 11 hours and 23 minutes while before the impact, it took 11 hours and 55 minutes for each orbit. The margin of error is approximately 2 minutes, which indicates that the success is far greater than the minimum predicted. The monitoring will continue, especially by the LICIACube mini-probe, to obtain more precise data, also on the materials ejected after the impact, as their characteristics will help to understand the composition of Dimorphos.

Europa seen by the Juno space probe (Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSSImage processing by Björn Jónsson)

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NASA has released images of Europa, one of Jupiter’s so-called Galilean satellites, captured by its Juno space probe during a flyby conducted on September 29. The JunoCam was the main instrument for this task but for the occasion, a close-up shot was also captured by the SRU (Stellar Reference Unit), an instrument generally used to orient Juno by observing the stars. The photos taken by JunoCam were processed by some of the so-called citizen scientists, amateurs who contribute following their personal passion.

The Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft approaching the International Space Station in its Crew-5 mission (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft docked with the Harmony module of the International Space Station completing the first part of its Crew-5 or SpaceX Crew-5 mission that began with its launch about 29 hours earlier. After checking that the pressure was properly balanced, the hatch was opened to allow Koichi Wakata, Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, and Anna Kikina to enter the Station.