WASHINGTON — While out to sea and touring the far west for the past 31 days, there has been a lot going on lately with regard to NASA space missions, so I thought I would bring ²ÝÝ®´«Ã½ readers up to speed.
The biggest news to me is that the (JWST) recently departed ±·´¡³§´¡â€™s in Greenbelt, Md., and is at ±·´¡³§´¡â€™s in Houston, Tx. for testing.
I was privileged to see JWST several times at Goddard .
Goddard is managing the JWST project and the is responsible for science and mission operations, as well as ground station development.
In 2002, NASA selected as the prime contractor to develop the James Webb Space Telescope. Northrop Grumman designed and built the deployable sunshield; it is providing the spacecraft and will integrate the total system.
The (ESA) and the (CSA) have been integral JWST partners to NASA as well.
The telescope will leave Johnson when testing is completed and go to for . Then there will be more testing.
When completed, JWST will be shipped to French Guinea for subsequent launch aboard an ESA Ariane 5 rocket. The launch date is currently set for October 2018.
The Moon is no longer the Rodney Dangerfield of the solar system. A lot is going on.
SpaceX plans to .
NASA is participating in a South Korean mission to the Moon, Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), by flying an instrument designed to gather more .
³Ò´Ç´Ç²µ±ô±ð’s is really heating up with 5 teams announcing .
China has .
±·´¡³§´¡â€™s remains the only active lunar mission at present and is returning data and pictures daily.
At the Asteroid Belt, ±·´¡³§´¡â€™s is in orbit around Ceres.
NASA has announced two new missions, , to further explore asteroids.
At Mars, six NASA missions are currently .
The Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) continues as does ESA’s .
Currently the brightest object in the sky, besides the Moon, is Jupiter. ±·´¡³§´¡â€™s is providing great pictures and data.
±·´¡³§´¡â€™s nearly two decade long Cassini mission to Saturn is in its ‘.’ The intrepid spacecraft has written the book on Saturn and its system of rings and moons.
Cassini is doing a series of daring orbits that take it between Saturn and its rings. This has been an amazing mission with and .
The mission ends Sept. 15, 2017 with Cassini entering Saturn’s atmosphere.
Saturn is visible in the southeast night sky at 11 p.m.
The  spacecraft is currently in hibernation and on its way to a 2019 New Year rendezvous with . The spacecraft remains healthy after 11-plus years in space and traveling over 3 billion miles!
Remember, you can keep up with all of via social media. Just follow them on the mission webpage.
In my next segment, I will share with you the latest on ±·´¡³§´¡â€™s Plans for “Crewed Missions to Mars.”
In the meantime, I hope you will join me at for my fourth season of “”
I will also be appearing May 27, 2017 at the talking about “The Universe and You.”
Follow Greg’s daily blog to keep up with the latest news in astronomy and space exploration. You can email Greg at skyguyinva@gmail.com.
