Space News & Blog Articles

Tune into the SpaceZE News Network to stay updated on industry news from around the world.

Polaris Dawn astronauts discuss training for historic commercial spacewalk

Polaris Dawn Commander Jared Isaacman (left) and Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet alongside a SpaceX render of the spacewalk that will be performed during their mission. Photoillustration: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

Amid a flurry of astronaut missions scheduled for 2024, a commercial flight is aiming to mark a historic first: a non-governmental spacewalk.

Continue reading

'Starfield' spacesuit contest: ESA and Xbox will build the winner their own custom design (video)

Design your own spacesuit and enter for a chance to win a real-life replica of it in this new fan contest from Microsoft and the European Space Agency.

Live coverage: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to launch Cygnus cargo ship to space station

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft for the first time on the NG-20 mission. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is gearing up for its second launch bound for the International Space Station this month. But unlike all previous missions targeting the orbiting outpost, this flight doesn’t feature a Dragon spacecraft.

Continue reading

The Seeming Impossibility of Life

The number of near misses, false starts, and legitimate disasters that have befallen our species since the day we took our first upright steps all those generations ago is too large to count and could honestly take up this entire book. I’ll give us humans this much, though: we’re survivors, through and through.

Continue reading

Water Vapor Found in the Atmosphere of a Small Exoplanet

A recent study published in The Astrophysucal Journal Letters discusses the detection of water within the atmosphere of GJ 9827 d, which is a Neptune-like exoplanet located approximately 97 light-years from Earth, using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and is the smallest exoplanet to date where water has been detected in its atmosphere. This study was conducted by an international team of researchers and holds the potential to identify exoplanets throughout the Milky Way Galaxy which possess water within their atmospheres, along with highlighting the most accurate methods to identify the water, as well.

Continue reading

NASA Ends Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Mission

NASA’s ground-breaking Ingenuity helicopter, part of the Perseverance mission, comes to a rest on the Red Planet.

Continue reading

Webb reveals structure in 19 spiral galaxies

A new treasure trove of images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope showcases near- and mid-infrared portraits of 19 face-on spiral galaxies. This new set of exquisite images show stars, gas, and dust on the smallest scales ever observed beyond our own galaxy.

Continue reading

Second Falcon 9 of the night carries Starlink satellites from West Coast

A Falcon 9 liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California carrying 22 Starlink satellites. Image: SpaceX.

SpaceX launched its second Falcon 9 launch of the night with the Starlink 7-12 mission soaring skyward from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) on Sunday, Jan. 28, at 9:57 p.m. PST (12:57 a.m. EST, 0557 UTC).

Continue reading

SpaceX launches first of planned back-to-back Falcon 9 Starlink missions

A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center carrying 23 Starlink satellites into space. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

Update 8:40 p.m.: The first Falcon 9 of the night lifted off at 8:10 p.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center.

Continue reading

Asteroid 2024 BX1: From a Dot of Light to Fireball to Rocks on the Ground

The asteroid 2024 BX1 went from a moving dot of light to rocks on the ground in mere hours — and amateur astronomers were critical to both discovery and recovery.

Continue reading

Despite engine malfunction, powered-down Japanese moon lander achieves major goals

A camera aboard a small micro rover deployed from Japan’s SLIM lunar lander captured an image of the probe resting on one side a few feet away after an engine malfunction during the final stages of descent Jan. 19. Image: JAXA.

One of two engines powering a Japanese moon lander during its descent to the surface Jan. 19 suffered a malfunction of some sort just 160 feet above the lunar surface that sharply reduced its power, the Japanese space agency said Thursday.

Continue reading

U.S. Government awards NOAA millions for wildfire response research

Millions of dollars invested in NOAA's Fire Weather research efforts will support wildfire preparedness and response across the United States.

What Could the Extremely Large Telescope See at Proxima Centauri's Planet?

Proxima Centauri B is the closest exoplanet to Earth. It is an Earth-mass world right in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star just 4 light-years from Earth. It receives about 65% of the energy Earth gets from the Sun, and depending on its evolutionary history could have oceans of water and an atmosphere rich with oxygen. Our closest neighbor could harbor life, or it could be a dry rock, but is an excellent target in the search for alien life. There’s just one catch. Our usual methods for detecting biosignatures won’t work with Proxima Centauri B.

Continue reading

Virgin Galactic may launch 6th commercial spaceflight this week

Virgin Galactic's sixth commercial spaceflight may be just around the corner. The launch window for the Galactic 06 mission opens on Friday (Jan. 26).

NASA finally opens OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample canister after freeing stuck lid

After months of anticipation, NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission team has successfully accessed the treasure trove of asteroid material the probe collected during its billion-mile journey.

Mystery Objects Uncovered in Globular Clusters

Astronomers have found two different star clusters with an enigmatic source inside. Are these objects neutron stars or black holes?

Continue reading

You can pay to have your ashes buried on the moon. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should

The question of sending your ashes to the moon is less a "can I?" one and more of a "should I?"

Futuristic vertical-takeoff air taxi could fly by 2028

The aircraft can cruise at 120 mph at an altitude of up to 1,500 feet — and it's much quieter than a helicopter.

Blue Origin joins 2 stages of New Glenn rocket for the 1st time (photo)

Blue Origin mated the two stages of its powerful New Glenn rocket for the first time recently, in preparation for the heavy lifter's debut later this year.

A massive cluster is born

Image:

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features an H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. This nebula, known as N79, is a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionised, captured here by Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI).

Continue reading

Watch balloon-like space station module explode (on purpose) during 1st full-scale burst test

Sierra Space's latest deliberate explosion saw a futuristic space module prototype blow to pieces. The burst test is meant to assure safety for a space station that may fly in 2030.


SpaceZE.com