Artemis II Cleared For April 1st

🚀 NASA greenlights Artemis II

🛰️ Russia targets 2036 Venus

☄️ NASA satellite crashes to Earth

🌌 CO2 ice found in nebula

🪐 Temperate rocky planet detected

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) officials completed the Artemis II Flight Readiness Review, formally approving the mission to proceed toward its scheduled launch to orbit the Moon with its four-person crew.

The massive SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft are scheduled for rollout to Launch Pad 39B on March 19, preparing for a launch attempt on Wednesday, April 1.

This mission marks humanity's first crewed flight to lunar vicinity in over 50 years, serving as a critical flight test before future landings, according to agency leaders during the press conference.

Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, announced plans to launch the ambitious Venera-D mission to Venus, aiming to reclaim its Soviet-era legacy of successfully landing and operating spacecraft on the planet's surface.

The multi-vehicle mission architecture includes a sophisticated orbiter, a long-duration lander designed to survive 900°F temperatures, and a high-altitude balloon to search for microbial life within the Venusian clouds.

This renewed focus on Venus, a central part of Russia's space ambitions according to First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, signals a strategic pivot toward independent deep-space exploration missions.

NASA confirmed the reentry of its Van Allen Probe A satellite, a spacecraft launched in 2012 to study the dynamic radiation belts surrounding our planet.

The U.S. Space Force confirmed the 1,323-pound (600-kilogram) spacecraft reentered over the eastern Pacific Ocean at 2 degrees south latitude and 255.3 degrees east longitude at 6:37 a.m. EDT.

The probe's earlier-than-expected reentry, originally predicted for 2034, highlights the impact of unexpectedly high solar activity increasing atmospheric drag, a growing concern for all low-Earth orbit satellites, say analysts.

An international team of astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) studied the complex chemistry of the planetary nebula NGC 6302, also known as the Butterfly Nebula.

The telescope's MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) detected the distinct absorption feature of crystalline carbon dioxide ice at a wavelength of 15.2 microns, located within the nebula's dense, dusty toroidal structure.

This discovery provides direct evidence for how carbon and oxygen atoms are sequestered into solid-state materials in post-AGB star environments, impacting models of interstellar dust grain formation, the study concludes.

Astronomers from the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) Follow-up Observing Program announced the discovery of TOI-1080 b, a potentially temperate, rocky exoplanet orbiting a nearby M-dwarf star.

The planet has a radius of 1.2 Earth-radii and a mass of 2.1 Earth-masses, completing a tight orbit every 2.7 days, which results in an equilibrium temperature of approximately 350 Kelvin.

According to the research paper, TOI-1080 b is now a prime target for atmospheric characterization with JWST, offering a rare opportunity to study the atmospheric composition of a temperate super-Earth.