Space News & Blog Articles

This map shows the ground track of the Long March 5B core stage during the two-hour re-entry window as of Saturday morning. The re-entry and debris footprint could occur anywhere along the track. Credit: Aerospace Corp.

The 22-ton core stage of a Chinese rocket is expected to fall back to Earth some time Saturday, the third time in two years China has allowed such a large booster to re-enter the atmosphere uncontrolled. The unguided re-entry poses a low but avoidable risk to the world’s population, space debris experts said.

NASA has completed the next steps in the Artemis 1 mission — installing the data-gathering mannequin Commander Moonikin Campos inside the Orion spacecraft.

Mars will begin to approach Uranus early Sunday morning (July 31). The pair will be close enough to share the same field of view as seen through binoculars.

Jupiter always shines, even when seen sideways in unprocessed data.

The core stage of a Chinese Long March 5B rocket is set to tumble uncontrollably back to Earth today in a reentry that China is tracking closely.

A prototype vertical takeoff/vertical landing demonstrator undergoing testing at Masten Space Systems. Credit: Masten Space Systems

Masten Space Systems, a private California company focused on developing lunar and planetary landing vehicles, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday after recent layoffs and funding problems.

Two asteroids, 2016 CZ31 and 2013 CU83, are headed toward Earth for back-to-back flybys this weekend.

An illustration of Draper’s SERIES-2 lunar lander, which will deliver science and technology payloads to the moon for NASA in 2025. Credit: Draper

NASA has awarded Draper a $73 million contract to deliver science instruments to the far side of the moon on a commercial robotic lander in 2025, the eighth award through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Officials with the companies flying the first two CLPS missions, Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, said recently their commercial landers are scheduled to launch late this year or early next year.

What happens when stellar couples break their embrace? New research reveals details of an important life event in the existence of binary stars.

Astronomers have created the largest ever 3D map of 1 million distant galaxies otherwise obscured by the Milky Way's dwarf galaxy neighbors, the Magellanic Clouds.

Night-shining or noctilucent clouds are popping up farther from the poles, in part due to more rocket launches taking place from Earth.

The most extensive inventory of atmospheric optical illusions created in 5 millennia of observation reveals lingering mysteries.

Since the 1960s, researchers have been searching for a 3D model of coronal loops of bright plasma seen on the sun. New research is causing scientists to rethink this phenomenon.

Blue Origin is targeting Thursday (Aug. 4) for the next crewed mission of its New Shepard vehicle, which will send six people to suborbital space and back.

A parsec is a standard astronomical measurement that is often misunderstood.

This weekend might have three meteor showers active at the same time, combining to provide a celestial firework display almost all through the night.

An unusual galaxy merger boasts multiple interwoven arms in a newly released Hubble Space Telescope image.

The peak shooting star season has arrived with six meteor showers expected to pepper Earth in the upcoming weeks as the planet hurtles through fields of cometary debris.