The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, featuring the renowned Curiosity rover, was designed to assess the planet's past and present habitability. Equipped with an array of advanced scientific instruments, including a drill and a sample analysis unit, Curiosity explored the Gale Crater, a site believed to contain evidence of ancient Martian environments. It delivered groundbreaking discoveries, including the detection of organic molecules and the confirmation of an ancient, potentially habitable lake bed.
Atlas V with 5m Fairing, 4 SRB, 1 Centaur upper stage engine.
See DetailsUnited Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. ULA launches from both coasts of the US. They launch their Atlas V vehicle from LC-41 in Cape Canaveral and LC-3E at Vandeberg. Their Delta IV launches from LC-37 at Cape Canaveral and LC-6 at Vandenberg.
INFO WIKIWritten by Abigail Fraeman, Deputy Project Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology Earth planning date: Friday, July 24, 2026 Curiosity spent the week continuing to climb her way up through the layers of Mo…
As NASA’s Curiosity rover recently began climbing up a Martian valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures, each one about 1.5 to…
Description NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this 360-degree view of an expanse of terrain covered in surface features called polygons on June 19 and 20, 2026, the 4,930th and 4,931st Martian days, or sols, of the mission. The rover ha…
Description NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this sand-capped butte, nicknamed “Miraflores,” estimated to be about 20 feet (6 meters) tall, with its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on June 11, 2026, the 4,923rd Martian day, or sol, of the mis…
Written by Lucy Thompson, Senior Research Scientist, University of New Brunswick, Canada Earth planning date: Friday, July 27, 2026 As an APXS uplink lead and strategic planner, I have the privilege of working with the rover engineers most…
QZSS (Quasi Zenith Satellite System) is a Japanese satellite navigation system operating from inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits to achieve o…
Chinese communication geostationary satellite for unknown purposes.
A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.
AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, requi…
2 hyper-spectral Earth observation satellites from Chinese company STAR.VISION. Both satellites are built in corporation with foreign customers: *…
A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…
A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.
Classified payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office.