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Archived posts are listed in reverse chronological order.


  • Aug. 1, 2011 | 21:58 PDT | Aug. 2 04:58 UTC
    Fabulous Dawn Vesta images and rotation movie!!
    Even as I write this there is a press briefing taking place where the Dawn team is unveiling a whole new world. Now that Dawn's close enough, we're seeing absolutely spectacular detail, and Vesta's been revealed to have tremendous diversity across... More»
  • Aug. 1, 2011 | 19:34 PDT | Aug. 2 02:34 UTC
    Jupiter's southern belt is coming back
    In a story that I've been following for quite a while, Jupiter's southern equatorial belt, having faded to white in 2009, is now well on its way back to its former red glory. As usual, I find Christopher Go's website to be great for checking in on... More»
  • Jul. 31, 2011 | 20:11 PDT | Aug. 1 03:11 UTC
    Mountains rising for Opportunity
    The views from Opportunity of Endeavour's near and distant rim peaks are getting ever more vertical as Opportunity approaches Cape York. Here is a terrific video summarizing the last four months of driving:Journey to EndeavourThe Mars Exploration... More»
  • Jul. 30, 2011 | 03:05 PDT | 10:05 UTC
    What's up in the solar system in August 2011
    August is supposed to be a lazy summer vacation month, but there's quite a lot going on in the solar system. Opportunity has left the Meridiani dunes behind and is now just a few hundred meters away from making "landfall" at Cape York, part of the... More»
  • Jul. 30, 2011 | 00:20 PDT | 07:20 UTC
    Phobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1 have completed thermal vacuum testing
    If you're ever looking for information on the status of a Russian mission, the place to go is Anatoly Zak's russianspaceweb.com. Browsing there this morning I was very happy to see that the Russian Phobos sample return mission, Phobos-Grunt, has... More»
  • Jul. 29, 2011 | 10:30 PDT | 17:30 UTC
    A different face of Vesta (oh, *there's* the craters!)
    Here's the latest image release from Dawn at Vesta, taken from an altitude about twice as high as that of their first mapping orbit. This is the first view that they've shown us that hasn't contained the enormous central-peaked crater that... More»
  • Jul. 29, 2011 | 03:31 PDT | 10:31 UTC
    Guest post: Jason Davis: What's Up in Human Spaceflight
    It's been hardly a week since the space shuttle Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center, retiring the prevailing symbol of human spaceflight. With only Russia's Soyuz capsules currently available to ferry crews to the International Space... More»
  • Jul. 27, 2011 | 20:03 PDT | Jul. 28 03:03 UTC
    Juno's getting real! Launch NET August 5 15:34 UTC
    EDIT: Gah, I forgot there was another prelaunch briefing today at 10:00 PDT / 17:00 UTC. I won't be watching live (gotta take a kid to a doctor) but you can watch live and chat here. It's been fun to keep an eye on the Kennedy Media Gallery album... More»
  • Jul. 26, 2011 | 22:32 PDT | Jul. 27 05:32 UTC
    Guest Post: Frank Trixler: Origins 2011 conference, part 2
    Following is the second half of Frank Trixler's report from the Origins 2011 conference -- my apologies to him for not posting it more quickly, as it's been sitting in my inbox for two weeks. Here is the first half. Trixler leads a research group... More»
  • Jul. 26, 2011 | 21:55 PDT | Jul. 27 04:55 UTC
    Dawn Journal: Dawn has arrived!
    In my excitement about Vesta images from Dawn I completely forgot to post the latest Dawn Journal from Marc Rayman, which is now a week old. Better late than never! --ESLClick to enlarge >Marc RaymanBy Marc Rayman Dear Residawnts of Vesta, Dawn... More»