US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated the founder and CEO of integrated payments and commerce tech company Shift4, Jared Isaacman, to serve as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
After months of uncertainty, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, travelling in the SpaceX Dragon capsule, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday to bring back Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who had been stuck there since June 2024.
The NASA-SpaceX mission safely reached orbit, after it was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission is significant as it marks the first human spaceflight to launch from Space Launch Complex-40.
The statement was signed at the NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, on the occasion of talks held between KASA chief Yoon Young-bin and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in the US capital.
Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams has celebrated her 59th birthday -- the second in space.
"#MarsHelicopter touchdown confirmed! Its 293 million mile (471 million km) journey aboard @NASAPersevere ended with the final drop of 4 inches (10 cm) from the rover's belly to the surface of Mars today," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, tweeted late on Saturday.
"Come fly with us. #MarsHelicopter is preparing to do something that's never been done: controlled, powered flight on another planet. Takeoff is now slated for no earlier than April 11, with data arriving on Earth on April 12,"
"When NASA's Sojourner rover landed on Mars in 1997, it proved that roving the Red Planet was possible and completely redefined our approach to how we explore Mars. Similarly, we want to learn about the potential Ingenuity has for the future of science research,"
NASA last month selected Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX to provide launch services for two major components of the Gateway that will serve as a way station for future Moon missions.
Both NASA and SpaceX benefit from this enhanced interaction by ensuring all parties involved are fully aware of the exact location of spacecraft and debris in orbit.
