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LADEE

  • Artist concept of commercial Mars satellites providing communications (Image: ASA/JPL)
    Space
    NASA seeks commercial satellites to talk to Mars
    NASA has issued a Request for Information (RFI) as the space agency looks into the feasibility of using private satellites to provide communications into the 2020s between Earth and the fleet of exploration probes operating on and around Mars.
  • Artist's depiction of LADEE approaching lunar orbit (Image: NASA Ames/Dana Berry)
    Space
    LADEE probe hits the Moon at 3,600 mph
    In space, no one can hear you hit the Moon at near-hypersonic speed. Today, NASA announced that the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) made a controlled impact on the far side of the Moon some time between 9:30 and 10:30 pm on Thursday.
  • LADEE will continue operations until impact around April 21 (Image: NASA)
    Space
    NASA's LADEE spacecraft to impact Moon
    On Thursday, NASA held a press conference to discuss the final weeks of the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission before the spacecraft makes a controlled impact on the far side of the Moon on or before April 21.
  • Artist's concept of the LLCD transmitting to Earth (Image: NASA)
    Space
    NASA's LLCD tests confirm laser communication capabilities in space
    NASA says the results of its Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration’s (LLCD) 30-day test prove that laser communications are practical for space applications at a distance of a quarter of a million miles and that such a system could perform as well, if not better, than any NASA radio system.
  • Artist's concept of LADEE entering lunar orbit (Image: NASA)
    Space
    LADEE sets data transmission record from lunar orbit
    NASA’s Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) experiment made history yesterday as it beamed data back to Earth from lunar orbit at the unprecedented speed for a space mission of 622 megabits per second (Mbps).
  • LADEE suffered a minor malfunction shortly after launch (Image: NASA)
    Space
    LADEE probe heads Moonward despite early malfunction
    On Friday, NASA made a historic launch that sent the unmanned the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) probe to the Moon to study something you could be forgiven for thinking doesn't exist: the Moon's atmosphere.