Submit your name and greeting to be transmitted to the New Horizons spacecraft before its flyby of Ultima Thule on New Year's Day!

Deadline is December 21

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Send-Greetings/

Help give JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter an official name, and send your own name and message to Mercury!

http://isas-info.jp/mmo/en/

The deadline is April 9, at 10 AM JST (or 9 PM EDT, and 6 PM PDT on April 8 )

Send your name to Mars aboard the NASA InSight lander:

http://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/insight/

The deadline is September 8 (midnight, ET)

There was a JPL panel about MER and Dawn at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim last Thursday. Of course, they had to make this presentation relevant to the movie series...

On Pluto's Doorstep, NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Awakens for Encounter

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20141206.php

Mission page updated with countdown clock... Very interesting to see the launch date being moved up!

http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/hayabusa2/

Nice!

LightSail Sails through Day-in-the-Life Test

While there is still much work to be done before the team decides whether or not to send LightSail-A on a 2015 shakedown flight, Tuesday’s test sent the spacecraft over a big project hurdle—and gave the team a much-needed morale boost.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis...sails-ditl.html

Thanks to Emily:

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakda...2-complete.html

Supposedly, there should have been a NASA press release about this project during the Neptune flyby anniversary last Monday, but oh well.

The One Earth: New Horizons Message website was updated with more info...can't wait for it to start taking submissions for this project

http://oneearthmessage.org/

https://twitter.com/NewHorizons2015/status/...4711553/photo/1

Getting ever so closer... Pluto-Charon from 400 million km away

Drat.

LightSail-A Has a Blown Radio Amplifier. Now What?

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis...lown-radio.html

"LightSail update: Of booms and pretty pictures"

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis...s-pictures.html

The full Hubble search should be completed in August

Can't wait for the announcement!

"LightSail is Ready for Launch! Join Us as the Countdown Begins"

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/mat-kaplan/...ady-launch.html

Another update by The Planetary Society:

"LightSail update: Three steps forward, one step back"

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis...hree-steps.html

The New Horizons Message Initiative has been approved by NASA!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...horizons-space/

More info about how and what we can submit for the crowd-sourced message will be provided on the website below on August 25 of this year (which marks 25 years since Voyager 2 flew past Neptune and will also be the day that New Horizons crosses the ice giant's orbit before the Big Flyby in July of 2015)

http://www.oneearthmessage.org/

The first 10,000 people who signed the petition should have their names submitted with the message as well

MAVEN is now mated to its Atlas V launch vehicle

http://twitter.com/Maven2Mars

The Wet Dress Rehearsal has been successfully completed

https://twitter.com/NASA_LSP/status/3952655...4880769/photo/1

MAVEN's Atlas V vehicle is ready for its Wet Dress Rehearsal tomorrow...while the DVD containing about 100,000 names plus haikus submitted online is now attached to a solar array

http://www.twitter.com/Maven2Mars

I prefer that your mission team brings this intriguing world out into the limelight!

And the New Horizons Message Initiative is a way to use the spacecraft as a time capsule...nothing more, nothing less. (As if future explorers will stumble upon the DVD that's aboard IKAROS or the marker that Hayabusa left behind on asteroid Itokawa a few years back...)

You can sign the petition for the New Horizons Message Initiative here:

http://www.newhorizonsmessage.com/sign-petition/

First 10,000 people to sign the petition will have their names transmitted with the 'Voyager Record 2.0' message as well

I think this is the first time that names were collected for a Mars orbiter mission and not a lander/rover. I guess MAVEN wasn't getting as much attention in the public as NASA would like.