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Water-Tracking SWOT Satellite Encapsulated in Rocket Payload Fairing

The SWOT satellite, or the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, is now encapsulated in its payload fairing in preparation for launch. Technicians at the SpaceX processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California completed the operation and will soon mate the fairing to the top of a Falcon 9 rocket. The fairing protects the satellite from aerodynamic pressure and heating during…
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NASA Press Events at 2022 Fall AGU Meeting

NASA researchers will present findings on Earth and space sciences Dec.12-16 at the American Geophysical Union’s 2022 Fall meeting, being held both virtually and in Chicago this year. Science topics at the meeting range from climate science to planetary defense to studies…
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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Gets the Dirt on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance rover snagged two new samples from the Martian surface on Dec. 2 and 6. But unlike the 15 rock cores collected to date, these newest samples came from a pile of wind-blown sand and dust similar to but smaller than a dune. Now contained in special metal collection tubes, one of these two samples will be considered for deposit on the Martian surface sometime this month as part…
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NASA Sets Coverage for SWOT Water Survey Mission Launch

NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the international Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. The mission is targeted for liftoff at 6:46 a.m. EST (3:46 a.m. PST) Thursday, Dec. 15, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space…
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VP Harris, French President Get First Look at Galactic Get-Together

A merging galaxy pair cavort in this image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). This new Webb image of a pair of galaxies, known to astronomers as II ZW 96, was first previewed for Vice President Kamala Harris and French President Emmanuel Macron during a visit to NASA…
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NASA’s Lunar Flashlight SmallSat Readies for Launch

When NASA’s Lunar Flashlight launches no earlier than Nov. 30, the tiny satellite will begin a three-month journey, with mission navigators guiding the spacecraft far past the Moon. It will then be slowly pulled back by gravity from Earth and the Sun before settling into a…
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NASA’s Europa Clipper Gets Its Wheels for Traveling in Deep Space

Just as NASA’s Mars rovers rely on robust wheels to roam the Red Planet and conduct science, some orbiters rely on wheels, too – in this case, reaction wheels – to stay pointed in the right direction. Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California recently installed four reaction wheels on Europa Clipper, which will rely on them during its journey at…
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