An Electron rocket lifts off from Rocket Lab’s launch site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula carrying the ADRAS-J satellite for Astroscale. Image: Rocket Lab.
A small satellite that will inspect a discarded rocket body in orbit lifted off Sunday/Monday on a mission to develop techniques for removing space debris. The satellite built by Japan-based Astroscale launched atop a Rocket Lab Electron from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand at 3:52 a.m. NZDT (9:52 a.m. EST / 1452 UTC).
High in the Arctic Circle lies Abisko National Park, Sweden. The unique microclimate of the region means clear skies are more likely which is great news for those wishing to see the northern lights.
Rocket Lab will launch an ambitious space-junk inspection mission for the Japanese company Astroscale this morning (Feb. 18), and you can watch the action live.
A recently submitted study to The Astronomical Journal continues to search for the elusive Planet Nine (also called Planet X), which is a hypothetical planet that potentially orbits in the outer reaches of the solar system and well beyond the orbit of the dwarf planet, Pluto. The goal of this study was to narrow down the possible locations of Planet Nine and holds the potential to help researchers better understand the makeup of our solar system, along with its formation and evolutionary processes. So, what was the motivation behind this study regarding narrowing down the location of a potential Planet Nine?
Intuitive Machines' Odysseus moon lander has beamed home its first photos from the final frontier, gorgeous selfies that show its home planet in the background.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has put out a call for international and industry partners to contribute science payloads to its Chang’e-8 lunar lander, set for launch to the Moon in 2028. The mission, which will involve a lander, a rover, and a utility robot, will be China’s first attempt at in-situ resource utilization on the Moon, using lunar regolith to produce brick-like building materials.
During the 1970s, inventor/environmentalist James Lovelock and evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis proposed the Gaia Hypothesis. This theory posits that Earth is a single, self-regulating system where the atmosphere, hydrosphere, all life, and their inorganic surroundings work together to maintain the conditions for life on the planet. This theory was largely inspired by Lovelock’s work with NASA during the 1960s, where the skilled inventor designed instruments for modeling the climate of Mars and other planets in the Solar System.
On Episode 98 of This Week In Space, Tariq and Rod discuss what NASA's up to with the agency's Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.
Uruguay has joined the Artemis Accords, the United States' effort to establish widespread principles to guide space exploration.
NASA just released photos of the Orion spacecraft that will send four astronauts around the moon on the Artemis 2 mission, which will lift off no earlier than September 2025.
Satellites captured Blue Origin's massive New Glenn rocket standing upright at Launch Complex 36 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Voyager 1 hasn't spoken since December of last year. Scientists are trying to fix the historic probe, but they're also preparing to say goodbye.
Here's how to avoid getting stuck in traffic when heading to see the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
Space-based solar power (SBSP) has been in the news recently, with the successful test of a solar power demonstrator in space taking place last summer. While the concept is fundamentally sound, there are plenty of hurdles to overcome if the technology is to be widely adopted – not the least of which is cost. NASA is no stranger to costly projects, though, and they recently commissioned a study from their internal Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy that suggests how NASA could continue to support this budding idea. Most interestingly, if the technological cards are played right, SBSP could be the most carbon-efficient, lowest-cost power source for humanity by 2050.
Japan's new H3 rocket reached orbit for the first time today (Feb. 16), bouncing back from a failure on its debut test flight nearly a year ago.
Get this iconic 2,961-piece Lego Marvel model before it's retired forever.
After months of waiting, NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return container is unlocked — and the space agency has weighed the total Bennu sample.
Fire on a spacecraft can be catastrophic. It can spread quickly in a confined space, and for trapped astronauts, there may be no escape. It’s fading in time now, but Apollo 1, which was to be the first crewed Apollo mission, never got off the ground because of a fire that killed the crew. There’ve been other dangerous spacecraft fires too, like the one onboard the Russian Mir space station in 1997.
Russia's robotic Progress 87 cargo ship will arrive at the International Space Station early Saturday morning (Feb. 17), and you can watch it live.
Canadarm2 berthed a Cygnus cargo spacecraft on the International Space Station on Feb. 1. This is what it looked like, in space and from the orbiting complex.
Join us for a roundup of the week’s space news with reporters covering the big stories. Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith is joined by Chris Davenport of The Washington Post and Gina Sunseri of ABC News. The show goes live at 4 p.m. EST (2100 UTC).
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