Latest Planetary Missions Program Office News
Scientists from around the world are gathering this week in California to take stock of the state of science from…
Scientists have eagerly awaited the opportunity to dig into the 4.3-ounce (121.6-gram) pristine asteroid Bennu sample collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx…
Infrared imagery from the solar-powered spacecraft heats up the discussion on the inner workings of Jupiter’s hottest moon. New findings…
NASA has selected 12 participating scientists to join ESA’s (European Space Agency) Hera mission, which is scheduled to launch in…
For the benefit of all, NASA released a summary Thursday of the fifth biennial Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise. NASA’s…
Images from the November 2023 flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft show a trough on Dinkinesh where a…
The technology behind the two seismometers that make up NASA’s Farside Seismic Suite was used to detect more than a…
Mission engineers were confident NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification – Apophis Explorer) spacecraft could weather its closest ever…
The spacecraft already is beyond the distance of Mars and is using ion propulsion to accelerate toward a metal-rich asteroid,…
Imagery from the solar-powered spacecraft shows some intriguing features on the ice-encased Jovian moon. Images from the JunoCam visible-light camera…
NASA has selected 40 undergraduate students for the first year of its Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists)…
NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment also interfaced with the Psyche spacecraft’s communication system for the first time, transmitting engineering…
Imagery from the solar-powered spacecraft provides close-ups of intriguing features on the hellish Jovian moon. Scientists on NASA’s Juno mission…
NASA has confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s organic-rich moon Titan. The decision allows the mission to progress to…
Excitement is mounting as the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission gets readied for an October…
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) team received the American Astronomical Society’s Neil Armstrong…
A gantlet of tests prepared the spacecraft for its challenging trip to the Jupiter system, where it will explore the…
NASA and the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission team have won the National…
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx team was selected as the winner of the National Space Club and Foundation’s 2024 Dr. Robert H. Goddard…
After NASA’s historic Double Asteroid Redirection Test, a JPL-led study has shown that the shape of asteroid Dimorphos has changed…
When it launches in October, the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will carry a richly layered dispatch that includes more than…
The Kepler mission enabled the discovery of thousands of exoplanets, revealing a deep truth about our place in the cosmos:…
The ice-covered Jovian moon generates 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours – enough to keep a million humans breathing…
New observations from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft hint that the Kuiper Belt – the vast, distant outer zone of our…
NASA’s Juno spacecraft just made the closest flybys of Jupiter’s moon Io that any spacecraft has carried out in more than 20…
The science performed by the complex suite of instruments recently added to the spacecraft will reveal whether Jupiter’s moon Europa…
< Back to Program Officers List Nicholas (Nick) Lang is an IPA serving as a Discipline Scientist in the Planetary…
< Back to Program Officers List David J. Smith is a scientist in the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters.…
The orbiter has performed 56 flybys of Jupiter and documented close encounters with three of the gas giant’s four largest…
The former OSIRIS-REx spacecraft sets off on a journey to study asteroid Apophis and take advantage of the asteroid’s 2029…
Another jam-packed year is in store for NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the momentum of a busy 2023…
The video, featuring a cat named Taters, was sent back from nearly 19 million miles away by NASA’s laser communications…
It’s been another great year at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. Join us as we review some…
The mission team has celebrated several successes since its launch from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 13. The latest is…
NASA’s Dragonfly mission has been authorized to proceed with work on final mission design and fabrication – known as Phase…
DSOC, an experiment that could transform how spacecraft communicate, has achieved ‘first light,’ sending data via laser to and from…
A new study could explain the ‘missing’ exoplanets between super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. Some exoplanets seem to be losing their atmospheres…
Six weeks remain for you to add your name to a microchip that will ride aboard the spacecraft as it…
The finding offers deeper insights into the long-debated internal structure of the gas giant. Gravity data collected by NASA’s Juno…
NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft took images of asteroid Dinkinesh, discovering that the asteroid has the first-ever contact binary pair orbiting the…
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will be honored with the 2024 Michael Collins Trophy for Current Achievement. For its…
A system of seven sweltering planets has been revealed by continued study of data from NASA’s retired Kepler space telescope:…
Data collected by NASA’s Juno mission indicates a briny past may be bubbling to the surface on Jupiter’s largest moon.…
Researchers have utilized infrared survey data to refine the asteroid’s size and surface brightness in support of the Nov. 1…
As NASA explores, innovates, and inspires through its work, agency inventions aimed at monitoring atmospheric pollution, studying samples from asteroids,…
To explore the mysterious ice-encrusted moon Europa, the mission will need to endure bombardment by radiation and high-energy particles surrounding…
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide one of the deepest-ever views into the heart of our Milky Way…
Dragonfly Team Utilizes Unique NASA Facilities to Shape Its Innovative Titan-bound Rotorcraft With its dense atmosphere and low gravity, Saturn’s…
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is preparing for its first close-up look at an asteroid. On Nov. 1, it will fly by…