landing | Common News Update

Apr22021 by adminNo Comments

NASA plans to wow the public with new moon landing video, images

Science

ORLANDO, Fla., April 2 (UPI) -- NASA has started intense planning to capture public attention with high-definition video, photos and possible live streaming from the moon during upcoming Artemis missions. Grainy delayed footage -- sometimes in black and white only -- was a hallmark of the first Apollo moon landing in 1969. But even that captured 650 million viewers around the globe. Advertisement Artemis moon missions will feature images more like the heart-pounding video of the Mars rover Perseverance parachuting and blasting its way to the Red Planet's surface on Feb. 18, according to Artemis astronaut Scott Tingle. "I hope to be on the moon missions, but if I'm not, I'm going to be glued to my TV and I'm going to be watching almost everything that comes down," Tingle told UPI in an int...

Mar262021 by adminNo Comments

SpaceX will try to stick the landing for new Starship test flight

Business

March 26 (UPI) -- SpaceX plans another attempt to fly and land the company's Starship moon and Mars rocket over sometime over the next four days from Boca Chica, Texas. The rocket company has filed for "no-fly" notices during daylight hours from Friday through Monday around the SpaceX launch facility in the community about 180 miles south of Corpus Christi. Advertisement Previous test flights of the giant, stainless steel rocket ended in fireballs in December, February and March. The tests are part of SpaceX's rapid prototype development methods, which the company used to develop its highly successful Falcon rockets. Starship is one of three spacecraft NASA has chosen as possible means to send astronauts back to the moon this decade. The space agency intends to choose two proposals for th...

Feb222021 by adminNo Comments

Video shows Perseverance rover’s dramatic Mars landing

Science

Nasa has released stunning videos of its Perseverance rover landing on Mars.The movies cover the final minutes of last week's hair-raising descent, up to the point where the robot's wheels make contact with the ground.The sequences show a whirl of dust and grit being kicked up as the vehicle is lowered by its rocket backpack to the floor of Jezero Crater.Perseverance was sent to Mars festooned with cameras, seven of which were dedicated to recording the landing.Their imagery represents vital feedback for engineers as they look to improve still further the technologies used to put probes on the surface of the Red planet.Mike Watkins, the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, which is home to Nasa's Mars mission control, said the spectacular videos were an example of...

Feb212021 by adminNo Comments

Mars landing: Photo shows Perseverance about to touch down

Science

The American space agency has released an astonishing image sent back from Mars by its Perseverance rover.It shows the robot heading down to the ground on Thursday to make its landing. It was acquired by the rocket cradle that placed the vehicle on the surface.Perseverance has a large amount of data in its memory banks which it is gradually offloading to Earth.Among other pictures is a view from a satellite that captures the rover in the parachute phase of its descent.This also represents an immense technical achievement because the satellite - the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - was approximately 700km from Perseverance at the time and traveling at about 3km/s.Nasa is promising more in the next few days.This offering will include short movies shot during the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL)...

Feb202021 by adminNo Comments

Historic new images from Mars show Perseverance rover landing

Science

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- NASA's newest Mars mission sent back the first-ever photos of a rover -- Perseverance -- landing on another planet. NASA released the photos during a news briefing Friday afternoon following the rover's successful arrival at Jezero Crater the day before. One image shows the rover hanging underneath the jetpack device that provides the final descent. Advertisement NASA's team on the project said the images exceeded their expectations. "I mean this is something that we've never seen before. It was stunning and the team was awestruck," said Aaron Stehura, a NASA flight system engineer. "You can see the dust kicked up by the rover's engines, probably about two meters or so above the surface of Mars," said Adam Steltzner, chief engineer for the mission. Other i...