NASA

The Lucy space probe blasting off atop an Atlas V 401 rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago NASA’s Lucy mission blasted off atop an Atlas V 401 rocket from Cape Canaveral. Almost 58 minutes after launch, the space probe separated regularly from the rocket’s last stage and entered the trajectory that is programmed to lead it towards Jupiter’s orbit, where there are the so-called Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. There, Lucy will begin a series of flybys on a mission that is expected to last approximately 12 years.

The Dragon cargo spacecraft departing the International Space Station to end its CRS-23 mission (Image NASA TV)

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A few hours ago, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft ended its CRS-23 (Cargo Resupply Service 23) mission for NASA splashing down smoothly in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida. The Dragon left the International Space Station a few hours earlier. For SpaceX, this was the third mission of the second contract with NASA to transport resupplies to the Station with the new version of the Dragon cargo spacecraft, which splashes down near the East coast of the USA instead of the Pacific Ocean.

The Rochette rock (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA has published the first results of the examination of the first two rock samples collected in recent days by the Mars Rover Perseverance in the Jezero crater on planet Mars. After last month’s disappointment, with the failure of the first attempt to take a sample of a rock that proved too crumbly, there were two successes. A rock nicknamed Rochette proved suitable and Perseverance was successful in taking a sample nicknamed Montdenier on September 6 and a sample nicknamed Montagnac on September 8. The most interesting indication is that there was water in the area for a long time when the environment was potentially habitable.

The Dragon 2 cargo spacecraft starting its CRS-23 mission blasting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago, the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in its CRS-23 (Cargo Resupply Service 23) mission, also referred to as SPX-23. After almost exactly 12 minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and went en route. This is the 23rd mission, the 3rd for the Dragon 2 version, for the Dragon spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station with various cargoes and then return to Earth, again with various cargoes.