Back in contact with a spacecraft on a major mission to the Moon…. And our Artemis I Moon rocket and spacecraft are one step closer to launch… some of the stories we have to tell you – This week at NASA! Ready to show the first color images of the Webb Telescope The much-anticipated release of the James Webb Space Telescope’s first color images and spectroscopic data is slated for July 12 at 10:30 a.m. ET. EDT, during a live broadcast from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. This broadcast will be available on NASA TV, the NASA app, the agency’s website and various social media platforms. As each image is published, it will be published simultaneously on social media and on our website at: nasa.gov/webbfirstimages. These first images will show Webb at full power, ready to begin its mission to unfold the infrared universe. The Cislunar Autonomous Navigation System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, is a CubeSat that will fly into a unique orbit around the Moon intended for NASA’s future lunar outpost. Its six-month mission will help usher in a new era of space exploration. Credit: NASA Ames Research Center The CAPSTONE team returns to contact with the spacecraft After experiencing communication problems after the July 4 launch, teams for NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Navigation and Operations Technology Experiment, or CAPSTONE mission, have re-established contact with the spacecraft. The team determined that an improperly formatted command sent to the spacecraft’s radio caused the problems. Data received from the spacecraft indicate that it is in good health and that it operated safely on its own while out of contact with Earth. As originally planned, CAPSTONE is expected to reach lunar orbit later this year, on November 13. The mission will test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit for Gateway, a lunar-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis program. NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, with the Orion capsule on top, in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett Artemis I Moon rocket and spacecraft Return to vehicle assembly building On July 2, the Space Launch System, or SLS rocket, and the Orion spacecraft for our uncrewed Artemis I mission completed the four-mile journey from Launch Pad 39B to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. In the coming weeks, the teams will make repairs and hold fundraisers and activities before SLS and Orion return to the pad. Currently targeted for launch no earlier than August 2022, the Artemis I lunar flight test will allow NASA to test rocket and spacecraft systems before astronauts fly to the moon in Artemis II. Architecture of TEMPO functions. Credit: NASA NASA’s Air Pollution Instrument Completes Satellite Integration Engineers recently completed the first fully integrated test of the Tropospheric Emissions: Pollution Monitor or TEMPO instrument on the Intelsat IS40e satellite. TEMPO is currently aiming to launch in January 2023. From its geostationary orbit, it will take air quality observations at an unprecedented spatial resolution. Its measurements will reach from Puerto Rico and Mexico to northern Canada and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, covering the entire lower 48 US states Side-by-side images from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft of the robotic arm as it descended toward the surface of asteroid Bennu (left) and as it struck it to pick up dust and rock for sample collection (right). OSIRIS-REx touched down on Bennu at 6:08 p.m. EDT on October 20, 2020. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Asteroid Bennu reveals its surface is like a plastic ball pit After analyzing data from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s “TAG event” sample collection on asteroid Bennu in October 2020, scientists were surprised to learn that the spacecraft’s arm sank nearly half a meter into the asteroid. This was much deeper than expected and confirmed that Bennu’s surface is incredibly faint. It turns out that the surface material on Bennu is so loosely packed that stepping on the asteroid can feel like stepping into one of those pits filled with plastic balls you might see on a playground. O-REx collected a handful of material and removed approximately six tons of loose rock during the TAG event. It will return the Bennu sample to Earth in September 2023. That’s what’s happening this week @NASA
