NASA

Artist's concept of the Kepler space telescope with some of the systems it observed (Image NASA)

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NASA announced the end of its Kepler space telescope’s mission after it ran out of the fuel it needs to aim it towards the various areas of the sky to be observed. This event isn’t a surprise because in August 2018 problems with its thrusters had already started due to the scarcity of hydrazine used as fuel. Now it’s been “parked” in its heliocentric orbit in which it orbits the Sun and being a stable orbit it will keep on doing so for a very long time.

The Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft blasting off (Image NASA TV)

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A little while ago the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with two new crew members to be transported to the International Space Station. Unfortunately, a problem with one of the Soyuz rocket’s boosters forced to abort the flight and an emergency landing. The rescued parties immediately left for the landing zone and came into contact with the crew of the spacecraft, who are fine.

Graphics showing heliosphere with the Voyager probes' positions (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA announced that its Voyager 2 space probe could be close to interstellar space. Approximately 17.7 billion kilometers (almost 11 billion miles) from the Sun, it detected an increase in cosmic rays coming from outside the solar system, one of the criteria already used in the past to assess whether its twin Voyager 1 had reached interstellar space, an event confirmed in September 2013. The route of the two probes is different and is the reason why one of the two probes is farther than the other and the heliosphere doesn’t have a fixed size so NASA’s monitoring is continuing but there are no certainties yet.

NASA's 60th anniversary logo (Image NASA)

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On October 1, 1958, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) began its activity. Officially created on July 29, 1958 following the National Aeronautic and Space Act signed by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, it replaced NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), which was created to develop military projects. NASA was created as a civilian agency to carry out development in the aeronautical and, above all, space sector with peaceful goals.