There Is an Issue with One of America's Newest Asteroid Explorers...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / ASU

NASA’s Psyche Mission Looking Into Propulsion System (News Release - April 29)

Engineers with NASA’s Psyche mission are working to determine what caused a recent decrease in fuel pressure in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. The spacecraft relies on solar electric propulsion, a system that uses energy to generate power for four electric thrusters. The thrusters then propel the spacecraft by expelling charged atoms, or ions, of the neutral gas xenon.

Psyche began firing its thrusters in May 2024. On April 1, the spacecraft detected a pressure drop in the line that feeds the xenon gas to the thrusters, going from 36 pounds per square inch (psi) to about 26 psi. As designed, the orbiter powered off the thrusters in response to the decrease.

The mission team has chosen to defer thrusting while engineers work to understand the pressure decrease. The mission design supports a pause in thrusting until at least mid-June before the spacecraft would see an effect on its trajectory. The electric propulsion system has two identical fuel lines, and the team may decide to switch to the backup fuel line to resume thrusting.

Psyche launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 13, 2023, and is now about 148 million miles (238 million kilometers) from Earth. In spring 2026, the spacecraft’s trajectory will bring it back towards Mars so that it can use the planet’s gravity to slingshot towards the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The probe will begin orbiting the asteroid Psyche in 2029.

Source: NASA.Gov

On This Day in 2013: Remembering My HALO Jump!

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
-Leonardo da Vinci



So today marks 12 years since I flew to Tennessee to do a HALO jump!

According to my jumpmaster on that flight (who's also the owner of Halojumper.com, the website that I booked this jump through), I was apparently the first Filipino ever to do a civilian HALO tandem skydive! Pretty cool...if true.

I found out in 2022 (through one of my brothers, who also told me about the Tennessee-based HALO jump back in 2006) that I can travel up to Northern California to leap out of a plane from 30,000 feet in the air! (I live in Los Angeles County.)

This comes courtesy of SkyDance Skydiving...which is based in the NorCal city of Davis.

Unfortunately, the SkyDance Skydiving website doesn't mention the price of a HALO tandem jump—but I'm guessing it might be in the 4-figure dollar range like my skydive in Tennessee! If it is, then it's all good if I don't end up doing it; my goal was to jump from the altitude that passenger jets cruise in on their flights at least once.

I have other activities remaining on my bucket list to achieve! Anyways, here are photos from my high-altitude, low-opening skydive in 2013...

LINK: Click here for more images from my HALO tandem skydive















"Sometimes you have to go up so high to realize just how small you really are."
-Felix Baumgartner (October 14, 2012)

A Six-Wheeled Robot Continues to Explore Gale Crater on Mars...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / University of Arizona

NASA Orbiter Spots Curiosity Rover Making Tracks to Next Science Stop (News Release - April 24)

The image marks what may be the first time that one of the agency’s Mars orbiters has captured the rover driving.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has never been camera shy, having been seen in selfies and images taken from space. But on February 28 — the 4,466th Martian day, or sol, of the mission — Curiosity was captured in what is believed to be the first orbital image of the rover mid-drive across the Red Planet.

Taken by the HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the image shows Curiosity as a dark speck at the front of a long trail of rover tracks. Likely to last for months before being erased by wind, the tracks span about 1,050 feet (320 meters). They represent roughly 11 drives starting on February 2 as Curiosity trucked along at a top speed of 0.1 mph (0.16 kph) from Gediz Vallis channel on the journey to its next science stop: a region with potential boxwork formations, possibly made by groundwater billions of years ago.

How quickly the rover reaches the area depends on a number of factors, including how its software navigates the surface and how challenging the terrain is to climb. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads Curiosity’s mission, work with scientists to plan each day’s trek.

“By comparing the time HiRISE took the image to the rover’s commands for the day, we can see it was nearly done with a 69-foot drive,” said Doug Ellison, Curiosity’s planning team chief at JPL.

Designed to ensure the best spatial resolution, HiRISE takes an image with the majority of the scene in black and white and a strip of color down the middle. While the camera has captured Curiosity in color before, this time the rover happened to fall within the black-and-white part of the image.

In the new image, Curiosity’s tracks lead to the base of a steep slope. The rover has ascended that slope since then, and it is expected to reach its new science location within a month or so.

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

America's Next Saturn-bound Robotic Explorer Is Now Ready to be Built!

NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Steve Gribben

NASA’s Dragonfly Passes Critical Design Review (News Release - April 24)

NASA’s Dragonfly, the first rotorcraft designed for science exploration on another planet, has passed its Critical Design Review. The mission to Saturn’s icy moon Titan will investigate prebiotic chemical processes and complex organic compounds that, on Earth, are the building blocks of life. Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly’s mission design, fabrication, integration and test plans are all approved, and the mission can now turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft itself.

The Dragonfly mission will launch no earlier than July 2028 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After an almost seven-year journey to the surface of Titan, the Dragonfly rotorcraft will spend over three years investigating multiple landing sites across the moon’s diverse surface.

Dragonfly is being designed and built under the direction of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, which manages the mission for NASA. Elizabeth Turtle of APL is the principal investigator. The team includes key partners at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado; NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California; NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; Penn State University in State College; Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego; Honeybee Robotics in Pasadena, California; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; Embry Riddle in Daytona Beach, Florida; CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) in Paris; the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, Germany; and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in Tokyo.

Dragonfly is the fourth mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Steve Gribben

A 2022 illustration of Dragonfly compared to the latest image released by NASA yesterday.

Can't wait till we see photos of this Titan-bound quadcopter begin to be put together at JHUAPL!#DragonflyMission pic.twitter.com/55zsRC3yKx

— Rich Par (@AstroPnoy) April 25, 2025

Marking 35 Years Since the First 'Great Observatory' Launched into Space...

NASA

Hubble Space Telescope Reaches Orbit (News Release)

On April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard space shuttle Discovery on the STS-31 mission. The mission featured the deployment of Hubble, the first of NASA's Great Observatories to reach orbit. STS-31 was the tenth launch of the orbiter Discovery.

On board were astronauts Charles F. Bolden (pilot and former NASA Administrator), Steven A. Hawley (mission specialist), Loren J. Shriver (commander), Bruce McCandless (mission specialist) and Kathryn D. Sullivan (mission specialist and former NOAA Administrator).

In this April 25, 1990 photograph (below) taken with a handheld Hasselblad camera, most of the giant Hubble Space Telescope can be seen as it is suspended in space by Discovery's Remote Manipulator System (RMS) following the deployment of part of its solar panels and antennae. This was among the first photos that NASA released on April 30 from the five-day STS-31 mission.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA

A Trojan Asteroid-bound Explorer Made Its Latest Celestial Flyby on Easter Sunday...

NASA / Goddard / SwRI / Johns Hopkins APL

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Images Asteroid Donaldjohanson (News Release)

In its second asteroid encounter, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft obtained a close look at a uniquely-shaped fragment of an asteroid that formed about 150 million years ago. The spacecraft has begun returning images that were collected as it flew approximately 600 miles (960 km) from the asteroid Donaldjohanson on April 20, 2025.

The asteroid was previously observed to have large brightness variations over a 10-day period, so some of Lucy team members’ expectations were confirmed when the first images showed what appeared to be an elongated contact binary (an object formed when two smaller bodies collide). However, the team was surprised by the odd shape of the narrow neck connecting the two lobes, which looks like two nested ice cream cones.

“Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology,” says Hal Levison, principal investigator for Lucy at Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our Solar System.”

From a preliminary analysis of the first available images collected by the spacecraft's L’LORRI imager, the asteroid appears to be larger than originally estimated, about 5 miles (8 km) long and 2 miles (3.5 km) wide at the widest point. In this first set of high-resolution images returned from the spacecraft, the full asteroid is not visible as the asteroid is larger than the imager’s field of view. It will take up to a week for the team to downlink the remainder of the encounter data from the spacecraft; this dataset will give a more complete picture of the asteroid’s overall shape.

Like Lucy’s first asteroid flyby target, Dinkinesh, Donaldjohanson is not a primary science target of the Lucy mission. As planned, the Dinkinesh flyby was a system’s test for the mission, while this encounter was a full dress rehearsal, in which the team conducted a series of dense observations to maximize data collection. Data collected by Lucy’s other scientific instruments, the L’Ralph color imager and infrared spectrometer and the L’TES thermal infrared spectrometer, will be retrieved and analyzed over the next few weeks.

The Lucy spacecraft will spend most of the remainder of 2025 travelling through the main asteroid belt. Lucy will encounter the mission’s first main target, the Jupiter Trojan asteroid Eurybates, in August 2027.

“These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery,” said Tom Statler, program scientist for the Lucy mission at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The potential to really open a new window into the history of our Solar System when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense.”

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Goddard / SwRI / Johns Hopkins APL / NOIRLab

Preps Continue for the First Flight of America's Newest X-Plane...

NASA / Jim Ross

NASA Calibrates Second Shock-Sensing Probe for X-59 Testing (News Release)

When you’re testing a cutting-edge NASA aircraft, you need specialized tools to conduct tests and capture data – but if those tools need maintenance, you need to wait until they’re fixed. Unless you have a backup. That’s why NASA recently calibrated a new shock-sensing probe to capture shock wave data when the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft begins its test flights.

When an aircraft flies faster than the speed of sound, it produces shock waves that travel through the air, creating loud sonic booms. The X-59 will divert those shock waves, producing just a quiet supersonic thump. Over the past few weeks, NASA completed calibration flights on a new near-field shock-sensing probe, a cone-shaped device that will capture data on the shock waves that the X-59 will generate.

This shock-sensing probe is mounted to an F-15D research aircraft that will fly very close behind the X-59 to collect the data NASA needs. The new unit will serve as NASA’s primary near-field probe, with an identical model that NASA developed last year acting as a backup mounted to an additional F-15B.

The two units mean that the X-59 team has a ready alternative if the primary probe needs maintenance or repairs. For flight tests like the X-59’s – where data gathering is crucial and operations revolve around tight timelines, weather conditions and other variables – backups for critical equipment help to ensure continuity, maintain schedule and preserve efficiency of operations.

“If something happens to the probe, like a sensor failing, it’s not a quick fix,” said Mike Frederick, principal investigator for the probe at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. “The other factor is the aircraft itself. If one needs maintenance, we don’t want to delay X-59 flights.”

To calibrate the new probe, the team measured the shock waves of a NASA F/A-18 research aircraft. Preliminary results indicated that the probe successfully captured pressure changes associated with shock waves, consistent with the team’s expectations. Frederick and his team are now reviewing the data to confirm that it aligns with ground mathematical models and meets the precision standards required for X-59 flights.

Researchers at NASA Armstrong are preparing for additional flights with both the primary and backup probes on their F-15s. Each aircraft will fly supersonic and gather shock wave data from the other. The team is working to validate both the primary and backup probes to confirm full redundancy – in other words, making sure that they have a reliable backup ready to go.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Jim Ross

LOS ANGELES 2028 Update: An Olympic Sports Venue Will Be Located About 4 Miles from my House!

ICC Welcomes Announcement of Cricket Venue for LA28 (News Release)

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has welcomed the announcement of Fairgrounds in Pomona, Southern California, as the venue for cricket at the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 (LA28).

The cricket competition at LA28 will feature six teams each in the men’s and women’s competition as the sport makes a return to the Games after 128 years.

The ICC Chair, Mr. Jay Shah, has welcomed the confirmation of the venue and is looking forward to working in partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ensure cricket’s success at the Games.

ICC Chair, Mr. Jay Shah: “We welcome the announcement of the venue for cricket at Los Angeles 2028 as it is a significant step towards the preparation for our sport’s return to the Olympics.

“Although cricket is a hugely popular sport, it will be a fantastic opportunity to expand traditional boundaries when it features in the Olympics in the fast-paced, exciting T20 format that should appeal to new audiences.

“On behalf of the ICC, I want to express my gratitude to LA28 and the International Olympic Committee for their support and look forward to collaborating with them and ICC Members in preparing for LA28 and making cricket a huge success there.”

Cricket, which made its only appearance in the Olympics at the Paris Games in 1900, was included in the Los Angeles Olympics after an IOC meeting in Mumbai in October 2023.

Cricket joins five new sports at LA28 – baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash.

The T20 format, which is recognized as the vehicle for the growth of the game by the ICC, has also featured in other multi-sport events in recent years.

The Asian Games in 2010, 2014 and 2023 featured both men’s and women’s T20 competitions while the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games staged a women’s competition.

Source: International Cricket Council

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LA is ready to shine. 🌞 ​

More updates to our venue plan are here, celebrating the very best of Los Angeles while highlighting the breadth and depth of what Southern California has to offer. ​

Head to the link below to read all about the latest updates to the LA28 Olympic… pic.twitter.com/xoPmsQZpcJ

— LA28 (@LA28) April 15, 2025

FAIRPLEX NAMED VENUE FOR 2028 OLYMPICS !!

To learn more, read the full press release by visiting: https://t.co/7jpdO59yO4

“The City of Pomona is proud to partner with the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics,” said Mayor Tim Sandoval.@Fairplex #cityofpomona #fairplex #LA28 pic.twitter.com/jS2hnN8iez

— City of Pomona Ca (@CityofPomona) April 15, 2025

Well done, #Pomona... Well done.

This Olympic sport will be played less than 4 miles from my house!#LA28 #Olympics https://t.co/QxWp5xW8XD

— Richard Par (@RichTPar) April 16, 2025

The DSN's Canberra Complex Is About to Receive a Big Upgrade in its 6th Decade of Service...

NASA

NASA’s Deep Space Network Starts New Dish, Marks 60 Years in Australia (News Release - April 8)

Canberra joined the global network in 1965 and operates four radio antennas. Now, preparations have begun on its fifth as NASA works to increase the network’s capacity.

NASA’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia, celebrated its 60th anniversary on March 19 while also breaking ground on a new radio antenna. The pair of achievements are major milestones for the network, which communicates with spacecraft all over the Solar System using giant dish antennas located at three complexes around the globe.

Canberra’s newest addition, Deep Space Station 33, will be a 112-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) multifrequency beam-waveguide antenna. Buried mostly below ground, a massive concrete pedestal will house cutting-edge electronics and receivers in a climate-controlled room and provide a sturdy base for the reflector dish, which will rotate during operations on a steel platform called an alidade.

“As we look back on 60 years of incredible accomplishments at Canberra, the groundbreaking of a new antenna is a symbol for the next 60 years of scientific discovery,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Building cutting-edge antennas is also a symbol of how the Deep Space Network embraces new technologies to enable the exploration of a growing fleet of space missions.”

When it goes online in 2029, the new Canberra dish will be the last of six parabolic dishes constructed under NASA’s Deep Space Network Aperture Enhancement Program, which is helping to support current and future spacecraft and the increased volume of data they provide. The network’s Madrid facility christened a new dish in 2022, and the Goldstone, California, facility is putting the finishing touches on a new antenna.

Canberra’s Role

The Deep Space Network was officially founded on December 24, 1963, when NASA’s early ground stations, including Goldstone, were connected to the new network control center at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Called the Space Flight Operations Facility, that building remains the center through which data from the three global complexes flows.

The Madrid facility joined in 1964, and Canberra went online in 1965, going on to help support hundreds of missions, including the Apollo Moon landings.

“Canberra has played a crucial part in tracking, communicating and collecting data from some of the most momentous missions in space history,” said Kevin Ferguson, director of the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. “As the network continues to advance and grow, Canberra will continue to play a key role in supporting humanity’s exploration of the cosmos.”

By being spaced equidistant from one another around the globe, the complexes can provide continual coverage of spacecraft, no matter where they are in the Solar System as Earth rotates. There is an exception, however: Due to Canberra’s location in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the only one that can send commands to, and receive data from, Voyager 2 as it heads south almost 13 billion miles (21 billion kilometers) through interstellar space. More than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away, Voyager 1 sends its data down to the Madrid and Goldstone complexes, but it, too, can only receive commands via Canberra.

New Technologies

In addition to constructing more antennas like Canberra’s Deep Space Station 33, NASA is looking to the future by also experimenting with laser, or optical, communications to enable significantly more data to flow to and from Earth. The Deep Space Network currently relies on radio frequencies to communicate, but laser operates at a higher frequency, allowing more data to be transmitted.

As part of that effort, NASA is flying the laser-based Deep Space Optical Communications experiment with the agency’s Psyche mission. Since the October 2023 launch, it has demonstrated high-data rates over record-breaking distances and downlinked ultra-high definition streaming video from deep space.

“These new technologies have the potential to boost the science and exploration returns of missions traveling throughout the Solar System,” said Amy Smith, deputy project manager for the Deep Space Network at JPL, which manages the network. “Laser and radio communications could even be combined to build hybrid antennas, or dishes that can communicate using both radio and optical frequencies at the same time. That could be a game changer for NASA.”

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Richard T. Par

The Fourth Nova-C Spacecraft Has a Ride to the Moon...

Intuitive Machines

Intuitive Machines Selects SpaceX to Launch its Fourth Lunar Lander Mission and Lunar Data Relay Satellites (Press Release)

Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) (“Intuitive Machines”) (“Company”), a leading space exploration, infrastructure and services company, has recently selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch its fourth lunar delivery mission (IM-4) from Florida. The IM-4 mission is expected to include the launch of two lunar data relay satellites intended to support NASA’s Near Space Network Services (NSNS) contract.

“Lunar surface delivery and data relay satellites are central to our strategy to commercialize the Moon,” said Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus. “In addition to the contracted NSNS service, the satellites are capable of hosting additional payloads and science sensors to serve commercial industry and other government customers. We plan to deploy the first of five lunar data relay satellites on our third mission, which will introduce our pay-by-the-minute service. The two additional satellites on our fourth mission are intended to scale that service, followed by two additional deployments to complete the constellation and fully support NASA and commercial lunar operations.”

As previously announced, the IM-4 surface delivery mission is currently scheduled for 2027 and is set to carry six NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative payloads, including a European Space Agency-led drill suite designed to search for water at the lunar South Pole.

NASA has awarded Intuitive Machines multiple task orders under the agency’s NSNS contract for communication and navigation services. The awards call for Intuitive Machines to provide Direct-to-Earth (DTE) services and a lunar data relay constellation to support NASA’s Artemis campaign.

Source: Intuitive Machines

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SpaceX

A Random Health PSA...

So today marks one week since I went to the hospital to get a routine colonoscopy performed on me. Fortunately, no polyps were found...but I learned that I have this condition known as diverticulosis. Diverticulosis takes place when slight defects in the muscle of the large intestine's wall allow pockets or pouches (also known as diverticula) to form in the intestine, a.k.a. colon.

Diverticulosis is the result of long-standing constipation and thus can lead to hemorrhoids, which were found in small amounts internally and externally on my colon.

According to the report that I received after the medical procedure, nothing significant needs to be done to treat the diverticulosis—except to increase the fiber intake in my diet and perhaps use Metamucil, a fiber health supplement. Other than this, I don't need to get another colonoscopy for the next 10 years. Knock on wood!

So if you're at least the age of 45 (which I turned last October), you should get a colonoscopy too! This painless procedure only lasts around 30 minutes, you're under a slight sedation while the examination is performed, and the liquid diet prep that you do the day before isn't that bad. Going to the restroom every 5 minutes or so for a bowel movement during the night is worth it once you get this very-important procedure completed, and your results hopefully come out clean (pun unintended).

Happy Thursday!