Space News & Blog Articles

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How CADRE Passed Its Autonomy Testing

Getting missions to land successfully on the Moon has been difficult. Recent missions, such as IM-1 and IM-2, which the private company Intuitive Machines completed, have been qualified successes at best, with both landers settling at unintended angles and breaking parts of them off along the way. Such experiences offer excellent learning opportunities, though, and NASA is confident that a third time might be a charm for a flawless mission. There will be a lot riding on IM-3, the third Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission, including a set of rovers and ground station for a NASA experiment called the Cooperative Autonomous Distribution Robotic Exploration (CADRE), which recently passed its Verification and Validation (V&V) test for one of it's most essential parts. This software architecture handles tasks for each rover and binds them into a cohesive whole.

NASA engineer Ed Smylie, who led carbon dioxide fix on Apollo 13, dies at 95

It was about one in the morning, four hours after an explosion tore through the Apollo 13 spacecraft, when Ed Smylie realized they had to do something about the carbon dioxide.

Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket fails during launch, falls into the sea near Antarctica

Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket suffered an anomaly during its sixth-ever launch today (April 29), resulting in the loss of its payload, a Lockheed Martin technology demonstration.

SpaceX's next private astronaut mission to ISS, Ax-4, to launch May 29 for Axiom Space

Houston company Axiom Space announced on Tuesday (April 29) that it's targeting May 29 for the launch of its fourth astronaut mission to the International Space Station.

New record! 6 rockets launch in less than 24 hours

Six different rockets launched toward orbit during an approximately 17.5-hour stretch, topping by two the previous record for most liftoffs in a 24-hour span.

Amateur astronomer captures detailed photos of Croc's Eye and Whirlpool galaxies from backyard observatory

Amateur astrophotographer Dr. Michele Hernandez Baylisshas captured incredible views of the Croc's Eye and Whirlpool galaxies from her Vermont-based backyard observatory.

Astronomers Get A Rare Chance to Study Uranus During an Occultation

A rare stellar occultation, which happens only once every 30 years, allowed astronomers to observe Uranus and learn more about the composition of its atmosphere and rings.

Watch Trump's pick for NASA chief Jared Isaacman return to Capitol Hill for Senate vote on April 30

Jared Isaacman faces a vote by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to forward his confirmation as the new NASA administrator.

Biomass launch highlights

Video: 00:02:59

ESA’s state-of-the-art Biomass satellite launched aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 29 April 2025 at 11:15 CEST (06:15 local time).

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Tank for 1st Artemis touchdown on the moon | Space photo of the day for April 29, 2025

At NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, the liquid hydrogen tank for the Artemis 3 Space Launch System rocket was moved into the factory's final assembly area on April 22, 2025.

US Army launches hypersonic missile from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

The U.S. Army launched its new hypersonic missile from Cape Canaveral Space Force station last week, just days after naming it the "Dark Eagle."

Vesta: Not Quite a Planet, Not Quite an Asteroid

As the second-largest object in the main asteroid belt, Vesta attracts a healthy amount of scientific interest. While smaller asteroids in the belt are considered fragments of collisions, scientists think Vesta and the other three large objects in the belt are likely primordial and have survived for billions of years. They believe that Vesta was on its way to becoming a planet and that the Solar System's rocky planets likely began as protoplanets just like it. But new research is casting doubt on that conclusion.

AI designs 50 gravitational wave detectors that could outperform human-made ones

Artificial intelligence could offer a powerful pathway to supercharge our ability to "hear" the universe, according to new research.

The pursuit of truths: A letter on the boy who cried aliens (op-ed)

As scientists, we must not forget our collective direction: the pursuit of truths and our responsibility to share these truths — and only these truths — with humanity.

Biomass launched to count forest carbon

ESA’s groundbreaking Biomass satellite, designed to provide unprecedented insights into the world’s forests and their crucial role in Earth’s carbon cycle, has been launched. The satellite lifted off aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 29 April at 11:15 CEST (06:15 local time).

See a wafer-thin crescent moon leapfrog Jupiter this week

The crescent moon will seemingly jump over the planet Jupiter between the nights of April 29 and April 30.

ESA’s Biomass mission launches on Vega-C

Video: 00:02:01

ESA’s state-of-the-art Biomass satellite has launched aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 29 April 2025 at 11:15 CEST (06:15 local time).

Continue reading

40-year-old spy satellite photos are helping find forgotten land mines in Cambodia

Long-forgotten mine fields in Cambodia are being revealed in decades-old, recently declassified images from U.S. military satellites.

Environmental Factors for Humans Standing on Titan

What will a human experience while standing on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, even with the protection of a pressurized spacesuit? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as William O’Hara, who is the Executive Director of Explore Titan investigated what physical attributes a human will experience when standing on Titan’s surface. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, mission planners, and the public better understand the risks associated with sending humans to far-off worlds for long periods of time and how to develop technologies to mitigate these risks.


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