Equally important is the emphasis that RVS puts on its own off-the-shelf thermal vacuum systems. Put another way, that means thermal testing at a palatable price-point while also ensuring that ease-of-use is paramount. “In responding to our call for proposals, RVS was competitive on price and delivered versus desired functionality,” notes Manny Montoya, CAAO technical manager, who heads up a diverse team of engineers, technicians and machinists supporting the research of Douglas and other astronomers at Steward Observatory.

Following the successful launch of NASA’s Lucy spacecraft on Oct. 16, 2021, a group of engineers huddled around a long conference table in Titusville, Florida. Lucy was mere hours into its 12-year flight, but an unexpected challenge had surfaced for the first-ever Trojan asteroids mission.

Data indicated that one of Lucy’s solar arrays powering the spacecraft’s systems—designed to unfurl like a hand fan—hadn’t fully opened and latched, and the team was figuring out what to do next.

Teams from NASA and Lucy mission partners quickly came together to troubleshoot. On the phone were team members at Lockheed Martin’s Mission Support Area outside of Denver, who were in direct contact with the spacecraft.

Astronomers just discovered the sneaky asteroid on July 26.

NASA astronomers discovered that a large asteroid will zoom past Earth on Aug. 4, missing our planet by millions of miles.

Renovagen’s rapid roll-out solar system can be deployed to provide power quickly and cheaply in off-grid and disaster-struck locations.

Hubble has taken somewhat of a backseat since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began taking its first high resolution images of deep space last month. The first images shared by NASA from the newest space telescope were truly awe inspiring. But the space agency does not want you to forget one of its predecessors, the Hubble telescope, which has been inducing oohs and ahhs with its photos of space since its launch and deployment by the space shuttle Discovery in 1990.

One of the images that enamored viewers seven years ago, was recently shared by NASA on its Instagram feed once again. The image captured a sweeping bird’s-eye view of the Andromeda galaxy (M31), and is the sharpest large composite ever taken of the Milky Way’s neighbor. Even though Andromeda resides over 2 million light-years away, Hubble showed its photographic prowess to resolve individual stars in a 61,000 light-year-long stretch of the galaxy’s pancake-shaped disk.