NASA Spaceflight
• Haygen Warren
Teams behind the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes have released new images capturing stellar nurseries, galaxies and gravitational lensing. Webb is jointly operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, with the Canadian Space Agency also participating; both observatories contributed to the latest collection.
Space Exploration & Science Missions
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Teams behind the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes have released new images capturing stellar nurseries, galaxies and gravitational lensing. Webb is jointly operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, with the Canadian Space Agency also participating; both observatories contributed to the latest collection.
NASA launched Apollo 7 on Oct. 11, 1968, carrying astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham into orbit. It was the first Apollo mission with a crew in orbit and marked the American return to spaceflight after the Apollo 1 tragedy.
The newly observed “little red dots” have prompted questions about what they can reveal about the early universe. Scientists do not yet know what the objects are or what they may show, making their identification a key step in assessing their significance for understanding cosmic origins.
The report brings together Artemis II crew photographs, spoken observations, drawings and annotations, creating a scientific record of the mission’s lunar observations. That material is now available to the science community and the public for further study.
A telescope carried beneath a stratospheric balloon has observed the Sun from a gondola-mounted suite of equipment, operating above the clouds. The report describes the flight as enabling solar observations in unprecedented detail, though it provides no further information on the instrument, mission team or results.
L3Harris will design, assemble, integrate and test an all-glass telescope for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), a European Space Agency mission expected to launch in the mid-2030s. NASA selected the company for the work, according to one report; another describes the telescope as part of ESA’s mission.
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Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to study a distant fast radio burst, seeking clues to how these brief, powerful radio signals originate. The observations add evidence from a far-off event to a still-unresolved astrophysical question; the available report provides no further details on the burst or findings.
A nonprofit biotechnology research startup says it has engineered a microbe that may one day help support human settlement on Mars. The article provides no details on the organism’s capabilities, development stage or deployment plans, so its potential remains preliminary.
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