NEAR team members found evidence of geologic phenomena that could have originated on a much larger parent body from which Eros was derived; they obtained the first ever laser range returns from an asteroid and the first ever X-ray detection of an asteroid.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Md., has created its first start-up company, Syntonics LLC, under an initiative to commercialize some of its inventions and space research and test facilities.
The Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics spacecraft was transported today to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., from The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., where it was designed and built.
On August 12 a 2-minute hydrazine engine burn put the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft, on a direct path to intercept asteroid 433 Eros early next year.
Four researchers from The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., were honored by the International Astronomical Union last night by having asteroids named for them in recognition of their work in the field of space science.
The MESSENGER mission to investigate the planet Mercury -- led by a Carnegie Institution of Washington Principal Investigator and managed by The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory -- has been selected by NASA as a new Discovery mission.
The TIMED spacecraft, designed to conduct a global study of a critical region in Earth's atmosphere, is taking shape at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Asteroid 433 Eros is slightly smaller than predicted, with at least two medium-sized craters, a long surface ridge, and a density comparable to the Earth's crust, according to measurements from NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft.
The Auroral Multiscale Midex Mission, a proposal submitted by a team of institutions led by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, has been selected as one of five candidates for NASA's medium-class Explorer Program.
As reported in the May 28, 1998, cover story of Nature, scientists from The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) have made a surprising discovery that contradicts long-held beliefs about the sun's relationship to the aurora.
The Comet Nucleus (CONTOUR) mission to study comets -- a joint project between The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and Cornell University -- has been selected by NASA as one of two new Discovery Program flights.
A 25-minute flyby of the asteroid Mathilde by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft took place June 27. This resulted in spectacular images of a dark, crater-battered little world assumed to date from the b eginning of the solar system.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Md., has received a Defense Certificate of Recognition for Acquisition Innovation for its achievements in the Transit Navy Navigation Satellite Program. The award was one of two given out in a community of more than 41,000 eligible organizations.
The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) -- a Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) satellite launched last April to gather data for future space- and ground-based missile defense systems -- has tracked two medium-range missiles, known as Low Cost Launch Vehicles (LCLV). Part of the Combined Experiments Program, these LCLV flights were designed to demonstrate the ability of space-based optical sensors, on MSX, to perform key missile defense functions -- acquisition, tracking and discrimination in the mid-course phase of missile flight -- on realistic targets against realistic backgrounds.
The first experiments of a collaborative U.S./Russian space science program were successfully launched recently aboard two Russian Meteorological MR-12 sounding rockets from Kapustin Yar, near Volgograd, Russia, a test range similar to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.