NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is operating normally en route to the Red Planet after an on-board computer went into safe mode, possibly due to a solar flare.
The spacecraft is now in cruise mode. Two on-board instruments, the Mars radiation environment experiment and gamma ray spectrometer, have been switched on to test the thermal emission imager which has already returned pictures and temperature measurements of the Earth and moon.
Source: Flight International
Orbital launch pioneer SpaceX is being contracted by the American space agency NASA to develop a so-called “US Deorbit Vehicle” that can safely return the International Space Station to Earth via controlled re-entry.
BAE Systems has completed its acquisition of Ball Aerospace, with the move further strengthening its US business presence.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has retired its Mars helicopter Ingenuity after the craft suffered damage upon landing.
