Rosetta safe mode 5 km from comet

Over the weekend, Rosetta experienced a ‘safe mode’ event 5 km from the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Contact with the spacecraft has since been recovered and the mission teams are working to resume normal operations.

“We lost contact with the spacecraft on Saturday evening for nearly 24 hours,” says Patrick Martin, ESA’s Rosetta mission manager. “Preliminary analysis by our flight dynamics team suggests that the star trackers locked on to a false star – that is, they were confused by comet dust close to the comet, as has been experienced before in the mission.”

Credits: ESA-C.Carreau

This led to spacecraft pointing errors, which triggered the safe mode. Unfortunately the star trackers then got hung in a particular sub mode requiring specific action from Earth to recover the spacecraft.

“It was an extremely dramatic weekend,” says Sylvain Lodiot, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft operations manager.

“After we lost contact, we sent commands ‘in the blind’, which successfully tackled the hung star tracker issue and brought the spacecraft back into three-axis stabilised safe mode, and we now have contact with the spacecraft again. However, we are still trying to confirm the spacecraft’s exact position along its orbit around the comet – we only received images for navigation this morning, the first since Saturday.”

As is normal during an event like this, extra ground tracking station time was requested to provide additional support for recovering the spacecraft. The regularly scheduled Rosetta tracking slot using ESA's New Norcia deep space station in Australia on Sunday was extended, with time reallocated from Mars Express operations. The blind commanding was done from New Norcia, and later, ESA's Cebreros deep space station in Spain was also used to support the recovery.

Rosetta's star trackers are marked here in red (above Philae in this pre-seperation artist impression). Part of the high gain antenna can be seen in the background. Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab.

Star tracker recap
The spacecraft’s star trackers are used to navigate, and help control the attitude of the spacecraft. By using an autonomous star pattern recognition function, they provide input to the onboard Attitude and Orbit Control and Measurement Subsystem used to maintain the spacecraft’s orientation with respect to the stars. This allows the spacecraft to know its orientation with respect to the Sun and Earth. In turn, this ensures the spacecraft can correctly orient its high gain antenna, used to send and receive signals to and from ground stations on Earth.

Correct attitude is maintained when the star trackers are properly tracking stars. If this is interrupted, the spacecraft’s antenna can drift away from Earth and communication with the spacecraft potentially lost. When the star trackers are not tracking, the attitude is propagated on gyro measurements. But the attitude can drift, especially if the spacecraft is slewing a lot.

Operating close to the comet means that the spacecraft is surrounded by a lot of dust. Even though the comet’s activity has diminished significantly since passing through its closest point to the Sun along its orbit last August, the environment is still dusty enough that the star trackers can occasionally mistake comet debris in its field of view for stars.

OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken in the morning of 28 May 2016 (many hours before the safe mode) when Rosetta was 7.05 km from the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The scale is 0.13 m/pixel. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

What happens next?
As usual with a safe mode, the science instruments are automatically switched off, allowing the spacecraft operators to take the necessary steps to fully recover the spacecraft before resuming science operations. Prior to the safe mode, the plan for this week was to move into 30 km orbits around the comet on Wednesday 1 June. The team still hopes to meet this target and be able to resume normal operations by then.

The dramatic events of the weekend are a stark reminder of the dangers associated with flying close to the comet, and highlights the risks the spacecraft will face during the final few weeks of the mission as it descends even closer to the comet.

“The last six weeks of the mission will be far more challenging for flight dynamics than deploying Philae to the surface was in November 2014, and it is always possible that we could get another safe mode when flying close to the comet like this,” says Sylvain.

“Although we will take more risks nearer to the end of the mission, we’ll always put the spacecraft safety first.

“However,  the very final sequence where Rosetta makes a controlled impact on the surface of the comet should not be affected by such star tracker issues as we plan to take them out of the attitude and orbit control system loop.”

The team will also consider taking the star trackers out of the loop when required in the last weeks of the mission.

Details of Rosetta’s final descent will be provided soon. The provisional plan is to target the small lobe close to Philae’s original planned landing site at Agilkia, most likely on 30 September.

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NASA to Televise Expansion Operations for Bigelow Expandable Activity Module

NASA and Bigelow Aerospace will make a second attempt at 9 a.m. EDT Saturday, May 28, to expand the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), currently attached to the International Space Station. NASA Television coverage will begin at 8:45 a.m.

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Rosetta’s comet contains ingredients for life

This story is mirrored from the ESA Web Portal

Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two years.

They include the amino acid glycine, which is commonly found in proteins, and phosphorus, a key component of DNA and cell membranes.

Scientists have long debated the important possibility that water and organic molecules were brought by asteroids and comets to the young Earth after it cooled following its formation, providing some of the key building blocks for the emergence of life.

While some comets and asteroids are already known to have water with a composition like that of Earth’s oceans, Rosetta found a significant difference at its comet – fuelling the debate on their role in the origin of Earth’s water.

But new results reveal that comets nevertheless had the potential to deliver ingredients critical to establish life as we know it.

Amino acids are biologically important organic compounds containing carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, and form the basis of proteins.

Hints of the simplest amino acid, glycine, were found in samples returned to Earth in 2006 from Comet Wild-2 by NASA’s Stardust mission. However, possible terrestrial contamination of the dust samples made the analysis extremely difficult.

Now, Rosetta has made direct, repeated detections of glycine in the fuzzy atmosphere or ‘coma’ of its comet.

“This is the first unambiguous detection of glycine at a comet,” says Kathrin Altwegg, principal investigator of the ROSINA instrument that made the measurements, and lead author of the paper published in Science Advances today.

“At the same time, we also detected certain other organic molecules that can be precursors to glycine, hinting at the possible ways in which it may have formed.”

The measurements were made before the comet reached its closest point to the Sun – perihelion – in August 2015 in its 6.5 year orbit.

The first detection was made in October 2014 while Rosetta was just 10 km from the comet. The next occasion was during a flyby in March 2015, when it was 30–15 km from the nucleus.

Glycine was also seen on other occasions associated with outbursts from the comet in the month leading up to perihelion, when Rosetta was more than 200 km from the nucleus but surrounded by a lot of dust.

“We see a strong link between glycine and dust, suggesting that it is probably released perhaps with other volatiles from the icy mantles of the dust grains once they have warmed up in the coma,” says Kathrin.

Glycine turns into gas only when it reaches temperatures just below 150°C, meaning that usually little is released from the comet’s surface or subsurface because of the low temperatures. This accounts for the fact that Rosetta does not always detect it.

 

“Glycine is the only amino acid that is known to be able to form without liquid water, and the fact we see it with the precursor molecules and dust suggests it is formed within interstellar icy dust grains or by the ultraviolet irradiation of ice, before becoming bound up and conserved in the comet for billions of years,” adds Kathrin.

Another exciting detection made by Rosetta and described in the paper is of phosphorus, a key element in all known living organisms. For example, it is found in the structural framework of DNA and in cell membranes, and it is used in transporting chemical energy within cells for metabolism.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding the chemistry on early Earth and there is of course a huge evolutionary gap to fill between the delivery of these ingredients via cometary impacts and life taking hold,” says co-author Hervé Cottin.

“But the important point is that comets have not really changed in 4.5 billion years: they grant us direct access to some of the ingredients that likely ended up in the prebiotic soup that eventually resulted in the origin of life on Earth.”

“The multitude of organic molecules already identified by Rosetta, now joined by the exciting confirmation of fundamental ingredients like glycine and phosphorous, confirms our idea that comets have the potential to deliver key molecules for prebiotic chemistry,” says Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist.

“Demonstrating that comets are reservoirs of primitive material in the Solar System and vessels that could have transported these vital ingredients to Earth, is one of the key goals of the Rosetta mission, and we are delighted with this result.”

 

“Prebiotic chemicals – amino acid and phosphorus – in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko”, by K. Altwegg et al is published in the journal Science Advances.

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NASA Updates Time for Today’s Media Briefing on Status of Bigelow Expandable Activity Module

NASA has rescheduled today’s media teleconference, originally scheduled for noon EDT, to 2 p.m. for a discussion on the status of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) installed on the International Space Station. The teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website.

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CometWatch 19 May

This week's CometWatch entry is an image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken with Rosetta's NAVCAM on 19 May 2016, when the spacecraft was 7.6 km from the centre of the comet nucleus and about 5.6 km from the surface.

Enhanced NAVCAM image of Comet 67P/C-G taken on 19 May 2016, 7.6 km from the nucleus centre. The average scale is 0.65 m/pixel and the image measures about 660 m across. The faint vertical striping effect, especially visible in the lower part of this view, is an image artifact. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

This close-up view shows a portion of the comet's southern hemisphere, on the large lobe, around the Bes region. The image reveals the diverse appearance of the surface on this portion of the nucleus, with rugged and smooth patches, several cross-cutting fracture lines and a multitude of boulders of various sizes.

Also released this week was an impressive view captured by Rosetta's OSIRIS wide-angle camera of the nearby Imhotep region, also on the large comet lobe. The image, taken only 7 km from the nucleus centre (about 5 km from the surface) on 25 May, is dominated by boulders.

OSIRIS wide-angle camera image taken on 25 May 2016, when Rosetta was 7.0 km from the centre of Comet 67P/C-G. The scale is 0.69 m/pixel. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Two large boulders can be seen in the top right, embedded in the smooth environment of Imhotep where surface changes have been observed since mid-2015 (see our earlier post: "Comet surface changes before Rosetta’s eyes"). Many more boulders of different sizes are also visible towards the lower left part of the image.

Meanwhile, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan recently released a ground-based image of Comet 67P/C-G, taken with the Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope on 8 March 2016.

Image taken with the Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope on 8 March 2016 (top right). The image is centered on the compact group of galaxies HCG 59, while Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is visible in the bottom right. Zoomed-in views of HCG 59 and of the comet are shown, respectively, on the upper left and at the bottom. Credit: Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)

While the comet was not the main goal of this observation, which was aimed at the Hickson Compact Group 59 (or HCG 59), a group of galaxies about 190 million light-years away from us, the very large field of view of this camera enabled 67P/C-G to be captured in full glory, with its coma, long tails, and a faint but clearly visible dust trail. Read more about it on the Subaru Telescope webpage.

The original NAVCAM image is provided below.

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Mark Zuckerberg to Connect with Space Station Astronauts via Facebook Live

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and chief executive officer, will speak with three astronauts currently living and working aboard the International Space Station at 12:55 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 1. The Earth-to-space call will be seen live on NASA’s Facebook page.

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NASA to Brief Media on Status of Bigelow Expandable Activity Module

NASA will host a media teleconference at noon EDT Friday, May 27 to provide an update on the expansion operations for the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) installed on the International Space Station. The teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website.

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NASA Selects Contractor for Safety, Mission Assurance Services

NASA has selected Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc. of Columbia, Maryland, to provide safety and mission assurance, audits and assessments support services for the agency’s Safety Center in Cleveland.

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NASA Awards Financial and Business Management Services Contract

NASA has selected Logical Innovations, Inc., of Houston to provide financial and business management services for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of Procurement and other entities at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins Available for Interviews Before Space Station Launch

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins will be available for live satellite interviews from Moscow on Wednesday, June 1, before her launch to the International Space Station. She will answer questions about her upcoming mission aboard the world’s only orbiting laboratory from 9-10 a.m. EDT, airing live on NASA Television and streaming on the agency’s website.

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NASA Telescopes Find Clues For How Giant Black Holes Formed So Quickly

Using data from NASA’s Great Observatories, astronomers have found the best evidence yet for cosmic seeds in the early universe that should grow into supermassive black holes.

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Next SpaceX Commercial Cargo Launch Targeted for Mid-July, NASA Opens Media Accreditation

Media accreditation now is open for the next SpaceX commercial cargo resupply services mission to the International Space Station, targeted for launch no earlier than approximately 1:32 a.m. EDT Saturday, July 16.

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NASA Televises, Hosts Events for Deployment of First Expandable Habitat on International Space Station

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) will be deployed to its full size Thursday, May 26, and begin its two-year technology demonstration attached to the International Space Station. NASA Television will provide coverage of the expansion beginning at 5:30 a.m. EDT.

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NASA Televises, Hosts Events for Deployment of First Expandable Habitat on International Space Station

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) will be deployed to its full size Thursday, May 26, and begin its two-year technology demonstration attached to the International Space Station. NASA Television will provide coverage of the expansion beginning at 5:30 a.m. EDT.

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Launch of First U.S. Spacecraft to Sample Asteroid Set for September, NASA Media Accreditation Open

NASA has opened accreditation for media to attend the September launch of the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid. NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security - Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will travel to and collect surface material from the asteroid Bennu, and return it to Earth for study.

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CometWatch 15 May

This week’s CometWatch entry from Rosetta’s NAVCAM was taken on 15 May 2016 when the spacecraft was 9.88 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Enhanced NAVCAM image of Comet 67P/C-G taken on 15 May 2016, 9.88 km from the nucleus. The scale is 0.84 m/pixel and the image measures 862 m across. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

This impressive close-up captures the relatively flat regions of Aker and Khepry on the comet’s small lobe. These regions are characterised by distinctive layers and in places cross-cutting fracture lines – these are particularly visible in the exposed faces at the top left. A number of large boulders can also be seen sitting within an island of smoother terrain towards the top of the view.

The large comet lobe lies to the bottom left of this view with the ridge-like feature separating Sobek (foreground) from Bastet (behind and out of view). A small portion of boulder-strewn Hapi can also be seen at the foothill of Aker. The largely shadowed region to the lower right marks the transition to Anhur.

With Rosetta currently at these close distances the OSIRIS cameras are also capturing stunning details of the comet.

OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken on 11 May 2016, when Rosetta was 9.97 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The scale is 0.16 m/pixel. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

 

The image above shows fracture patterns similar to those seen in this week’s NAVCAM entry, but on the comet’s small lobe, in the Wosret region.

Two additional views released this week capture parts of the Imhotep region on the large lobe.

OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken on 17 May 2016, when Rosetta was 9.4 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The scale is 0.89 m/pixel. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

 

The beautiful oblique view (above) shows the wider region – and was imaged by the wide-angle camera – while the close-up (below) was taken by the narrow-angle camera.

OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken on 11 May 2016, when Rosetta was 9.9 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The scale is 0.16 m/pixel. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

 

The close-up captures boulders of a range of sizes, likely associated with erosion from the surrounding slopes. The transition from these eroded regions on the outskirts of Imhotep to the central smoother plains is nicely highlighted in this scene.

The original NAVCAM from today’s release is provided below:

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NASA Invites Media, Social Media to June Deep Space Rocket Booster Test

Media and social media followers are invited to watch as NASA tests the largest, most powerful booster in the world for the agency's new deep space rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), on June 28 at Orbital ATK Aerospace System's test facility in Promontory, Utah. SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft will launch astronauts on missions to explore multi

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Wisconsin Students Make Long-Distance Call to Space Station Astronaut

Students in Winter, Wisconsin, will have the opportunity to speak with a NASA astronaut living and working aboard the International Space Station at 11:15 a.m. EDT Thursday, May 19. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

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From ‘Magnetoshells’ to Growable Habitats, NASA Invests in Next Stage of Visionary Technology Development

NASA has selected eight technology proposals for investment that have the potential to transform future aerospace missions, introduce new capabilities, and significantly improve current approaches to building and operating aerospace systems.

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Artistic tributes to the Rosetta mission

Over the past two years, Rosetta has approached, reached and followed Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, collecting unprecedented images and other scientific data and dropping the Philae lander on to its surface to perform in-situ measurements.

While communicating the mission's milestones, operational activities and scientific results via this blog and other social media channels, we have been pleased with the enormous impact that the mission had – and still has – on the public.

A selection of artworks inspired by the Rosetta mission. Top row: Christine Rueter; Solimán López; Ekaterina Smirnova. Middle row: Edward Blakeley; Stephen Oliver; John Elcock; David Delgado, Dan Goods & Studio KCA. Bottom row: Siobhan Logan; Angelina Yershova & Stefano Giovanardi; Guilherme Pontes. For more details about these and other artworks, visit: http://ift.tt/1WseZkX

Among the many comments, questions and feedback we have received over the months, there were also some special messages: they came from artists across the world, who had been especially impressed and inspired by the incredible adventure of Rosetta and Philae.

They had spontaneously dedicated paintings, poems, songs, symphonies and a variety of other artworks to this unique mission, and wanted to share them with us.

Then we started searching the web, and were astonished to find even more artistic tributes to the mission.

Today, we are sharing this collection online by launching a new web-based platform: the “Rosetta Art Tribute” tumblr, to collect artworks based on different media that have been inspired by ESA's comet-chasing mission.

This repository of artistic tributes expands on a post, “Music of the irregular spheres”, that was published on this blog in late 2014 to celebrate the many musical tributes that had been dedicated to Rosetta, Philae and Comet 67P/C-G around the time of comet landing.

So far, the Rosetta Art Tribute collection includes paintings, silk-prints, sculptures, etchings, drawings, photographs, poems, musical suites, symphonies, songs, live-concerts, performances, installations, a sci-fi film (co-produced by ESA), comics, cartoons, and more.

We are delighted to see that the Rosetta mission has such a strong and long-lasting impact on the imagination and work of many artists. This is a testament to the mutual spirit of quest, research and exploration that is pursued, albeit with different tools, by scientists and artists alike.

We wish to send our warmest thanks to all the artists who chose to dedicate their pieces to Rosetta for their enthusiasm and for having let the mission become part of their artistic process.

This collection is by no means complete, and is maintained on a best-effort basis. We hope that it will grow with time, and if you are an artist (or know one) who has been inspired by the Rosetta mission and would like your work to be featured, please contact us via the tumblr or via this blog.

The Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria. Credit: N. Ferrando & L. Lammerhuber

As a final note, we would like to advertise an artistic residency that ESA has recently launched in partnership with the Austrian institution Ars Electronica to research an interdisciplinary project bridging the domains of art and space science.

The residency project can be based on any subject from ESA’s space science programme (including, of course, the Rosetta mission!) and will take place in the second half of 2016. The deadline to apply is 6 June.

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Critical NASA Science Returns to Earth aboard SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft

A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 2:51 p.m. EDT Wednesday, May 11, about 261 miles southwest of Long Beach, California, with more than 3,700 pounds of NASA cargo, science and technology demonstration samples from the International Space Station.

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NASA's Kepler Mission Announces Largest Collection of Planets Ever Discovered

NASA's Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets – the single largest finding of planets to date.

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CometWatch 1 May

This week's CometWatch is an image taken with Rosetta's NAVCAM on 1 May 2016, when the spacecraft was 18.8 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Enhanced NAVCAM image of Comet 67P/C-G taken on 1 May 2016, 18.8 km from the nucleus. The scale is 1.6 m/pixel and the image measures 1.6 km across. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

The view shows a portion of the large comet lobe on the left, while hints of the neck and small lobe are visible in the lower right corner. On the large lobe, the image reveals the striking difference between the Atum region, on the left, and Anubis, on the right.

The irregular terrains of Atum display the complex morphology of this region, with depressions, a wealth of linear features and only a few boulders. The adjacent Anubis, instead, is characterised by smooth terrains punctuated with several boulders.

The sharp boundary separating Anubis and Seth is visible on the right edge, and a small portion of Anuket, on the small lobe, can be see in the lower right.

A different perspective is portrayed in this recent image captured by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 3 May. In this orientation, the Wosret region, on the small comet lobe, is visible on the left, declining towards Sobek, on the neck, and further to the large lobe on the right.

OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken at 05:43 UTC on 3 May 2016, when Rosetta was 18.8 km from Comet 67P/C-G. The scale is 0.33 m/pixel. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Another OSIRIS image, taken with the same camera just a few hours earlier, shows a patch of Imhotep, on the large lobe, in staggering detail, uncovering the smooth deposits and boulders that cover this region.

OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken at 00:22 UTC on 3 May 2016, when Rosetta was 18.8 km from Comet 67P/C-G. The scale is 0.33 m/pixel. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The original NAVCAM image is provided below.

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NASA, Space Station Partners Announce Future Mission Crew Members

NASA and its International Space Station partners have announced the crew members for missions to the orbiting laboratory in 2017. The selection includes first-time space flyer NASA astronaut Scott Tingle and veteran Randy Bresnik.

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NASA TV to Broadcast Dragon Departure from International Space Station

After delivering almost 7,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station, including the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is set to leave the orbital laboratory with valuable science research and return to Earth on Wednesday, May 11. NASA Television will provide live coverage of Dragon's departure

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OSIRIS data release: close orbits and lander delivery

The Rosetta Downlink and Archive group are pleased to announce the release of over 4000 OSIRIS images to the Archive Image Browser and the Planetary Science Archive. An Archive Science Review was successfully held in February resulting the need for some improvements in the data and metadata being delivered by the Rosetta instruments, some of which have been taken into account in this OSIRIS release. The release covers the period 16 September – 19 December 2014 and includes narrow- and wide-angle camera images from Rosetta’s close observation phase when the spacecraft was just 8 km from the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as well as pre- and post-landing imagery. They show the astonishing detail of the comet surface at close range, including images used to help characterise Philae’s landing site at Agilkia. The image set also includes incredible views of Philae drifting across the surface of the comet on 12 November 2014 as it approached Agilkia and then bounced out of view. One example is shown below – can you spot Philae? (Hint: check against the image mosaic of Philae's journey across the surface released after landing here). The new images can be found in the folders labelled MTP007, MTP008, MTP009 and MTP010.  

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NASA to Provide Coverage of May 9 Mercury Transit of the Sun

NASA is inviting media and viewers around the world to see a relatively rare celestial event, with coverage of the Monday, May 9 transit of the sun by the planet Mercury. Media may view the event at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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NASA Welcomes New Director for its Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the selection of Michael Watkins as the new director of the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

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NASA Awards Contract for Aeronautics, Exploration Modeling, Simulation

NASA has selected Science and Technology Corporation of Hampton, Virginia, to provide support services at the agency’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California under the Aeronautics and Exploration Mission Modeling and Simulation (AEMMS) contract.

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NASA Astronauts to Call Chicago Area Students from International Space Station

Students from 11 schools in South Holland, Illinois, will have the opportunity to speak with two NASA astronauts currently living and working aboard the International Space Station at 11:55 a.m. EDT Thursday, May 5. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

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