Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Solar System Missions update 2024-10

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of October 1st 2024.

NASA's Europa Clipper will launch to Jupiter, with gravity assist flybys of Earth and Mars en route. Also launchibg will be ESA's Hera to asteroid Didimos. ESCAPADE and all other Mars mission are cancelled for this launch window to Mars.

Juno has its 66th perijove at Jupiter.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Solar System Missions update 2024-09

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of September 1st 2024.

Juno has it's 64th perijove at Jupiter, Parker Solar Probe performs the 21st Perihelion at a distance of 0.0528 AU, and Solar Orbiter is also at perihelion at a distance of 0.29 AU, both on the 30th of this Month.

NASA's Europa Clipper and ESA's Hera are getting ready for launch to Jupiter and asteroid Didimos respectively. The ESCAPADE Mars mission is also probably launching, depending on the readyness of the New Glenn rocket.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Thursday, August 1, 2024

Solar System Missions update 2024-08

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of August 1st 2024.

So NASA's VIPER lunar rover mission has been cancelled, but the fight to save it is going on. Meanwhile, the JUICE Jupiter mission will performe unique consecutive Earth and Moon flybys this Month. NASA's Europa Clipper and ESA's Hera are getting ready for launch to Jupiter and asteroid Didimos respectively.

NASA's Juno has it's 64th perijove at Jupiter. Starliner may return to Earth.

I'm still waiting for news from the Japanese Akatsuki Venus mission, which has problems since April.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Monday, July 1, 2024

Solar System Missions update 2024-07

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of July 1st 2024.

The Chinese Chang'e 6 lunar farside sample return mission has delivered the sample probe with the first lunar farside samples back to Earth. what the bus will ddo next we will see...

NASA's Juno has it's 63th perijove at Jupiter. Starliner may return to Earth.

I'm still waiting for news from zhe Japanese Akatsuki Venus mission, which has problems since April, as well as from Bepi Colombo.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Friday, May 31, 2024

Solar System Missions update 2024-06

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of June 1st 2024.

The Japanese SLIM lander has not woken up on the lastest sunrise, but JAXA hasn't given up yet. Neither have they done that with the Akatsuki Venus mission, which seems to have problems since April.

The Chinese Chang'e 6 lunar farside sample return mission touches down on the Moon this month, and if everything works return the sample probe at the end of June. The Chang'e 5 bus has left the lunar NRO orbit to a heliocentric one, heading to only CNSA knows, so I put it on 'somewhere beyond the Earth/Moon system'.

NASA's Juno has it's 62th perijove at Jupiter. Parker Solar Probe performs the 20th perihelions at a distance of 0.0528 AU. In other NASA news, the Starliner spacecraft may perform the first crewed mission to the ISS this Month.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Solar System Missions update 2024-05

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of May 1st 2024.

The Japanese SLIM lander has woken up again after the 3rd lunar night.Go JAXA! The Chinese Chang'e 6 lunar farside sample return mission will launch early in May.

NASA's Juno has its 61th perijove at Jupiter. In other NASA news, the Starliner spacecraft may perform the first crewed mission to the ISS this Month.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.

Sunday, March 31, 2024

Solar System Missions update 2024-04

Here's my map of all active and planned Solar System Missions and their destinations as of April 1st 2024.

The Japanese SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) lander has woken up again after the 2nd lunar night.Go JAXA! New arrival in lunar orbit are the Chinese Queqiao 2 communication relay for the lunar farside and the Tiandu 1/2 navigation sattelites. The Chang'e 6 lunar farside sample return mission will follow in May.

NASA's Juno has its 60th perijove at Jupiter. In other NASA news, due to budget constraints many mission are in danger of delay or cancellation, including Mars sample return missions. Pending further news i've left the scheduled dates intact for the time being.

Data, images and documentation are available on my space exploration history GitHub repository and the associated website.