They're not serving sushi on the Moon – yet – but if or when they do, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and DASSAI want sake on the table. To attain this quaffable goal, the companies are sending a rice fermentation experiment to the International Space Station (ISS). Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Drink, Japan, JAXA, Mitsubishi, International Space Station| New Atlas - New Technology & Science News
It seems China's Chang'E-5 robotic Moon mission has discovered more than water on the lunar surface. Scientists have confirmed the discovery of a new mineral, a transparent crystal named Changesite-(Y), as well as a promising potential fusion fuel.| New Atlas
In a contract worth up to US$843 million, NASA has selected SpaceX to design the "US Deorbit Vehicle." The spacecraft will bring the $150 billion International Space Station out of orbit to safely and burn up in our atmosphere at 3,000 ºF (1,649 ºC).| New Atlas
NASA has released its updated plans that outline the International Space Station's (ISS) final years leading up to its eventual disposal in 2030, when it will plunge into the Earth's atmosphere and burn up somewhere over the South Pacific Ocean.| New Atlas
Sierra Space and NASA have renegotiated their contract for the Dream Chaser spaceplane that will allow the spacecraft to make its first orbital flight next year as a free flier instead of visiting the International Space Station (ISS).| New Atlas
It’s hard to think of a more challenging environment for an automotive battery than the surface of the Moon, and preparations for NASA’s Artemis program give us a chance to contrast the pioneering technology of the 1970s with where we are 50 years later. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Rover, Lunar, artemis, NASA, General Motors, Electric Vehicles, Space exploration, Spacecraft| Space
Your body's blood-making stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), are like factory managers who work best when calm and rested. But when stress hits, like infection or injury, they spring into action, churning out immune cells to defend you. Over time, too much stress wears them down, making them age faster and lose their spark. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:interstellar space, Astronauts, Stem Cells| Space
Over four years since it landed on Mars, NASA's Perseverance Rover might have made serious headway in its mission to find signs of ancient microbial life on the planet. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Mars, NASA, perseverance, JPL| Space
How do you control a nuclear space propulsion system? Very carefully. To help with this, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has built a simulated nuclear reactor test bed to develop the engines that could send astronauts to Mars and beyond. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:ORNL, NASA, Nuclear Rocket| Space
CPR is a technique that has saved countless lives since the modern version was developed in the 1960s. However, it turns out it doesn't work very well in zero gravity, so a team of European cardiologists has been testing alternatives for astronauts. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Heart attack, First Aid| Space
Astronomers have discovered a new celestial object, a compact radio beacon located in the galaxy NGS 4945, about 12 million light-years away. Its light is polarized at an almost impossible level that hints at a perfectly aligned magnetic field. The object has been nicknamed "Punctum"; it’s a signal so clean and precise that it stands out like a lighthouse beam cutting through fog. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:ALMA, Telescope| Space
ESA is working on a new system with the unfortunate acronym of Collision Risk Estimation and Automated Mitigation (CREAM) that is designed to automate the labor-intensive process of monitoring, assessing, and responding to possible space debris. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:ESA, Space Junk| Space
Imagine sipping your coffee when suddenly – BOOM! A sonic tremor rattles your home. That’s exactly what happened to one McDonough resident when a meteorite the size of a cherry tomato punched through his roof, shredded his HVAC duct, and embedded itself in his floor with the force of a close-range gunshot. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Meteorite, Earth, Solar System| Space
If Earth needs to borrow a cup of sugar, it's comforting to know that there may be a convenient, possibly habitable, world orbiting Alpha Centauri only 4.34 light years away – at least, if the findings from the James Webb Space Telescope pan out. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:NASA, ESA, James Webb Space Telescope, Exoplanet| Space
As if hard vacuum, intense cosmic radiation, corrosive dust, meteors, and temperatures whiplashing hundreds of degrees between night and day weren't enough, personnel at future Moon bases will be at significant peril from moonquakes. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Moon, Geology, Seismic, University of Maryland| Space
To keep solar power stations from getting lazy, Sandia National Laboratories scientist John Sandusky is looking to give heliostat mirrors a side hustle. At the National Solar Thermal Test Facility he's experimenting with getting them to hunt for asteroids at night. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Sandia Labs, Solar Power, Asteroid| Space
Hoping to push Mars exploration into top gear and do recon for a future crewed landing, AeroVironment has released its concept for a mission consisting of half a dozen autonomous helicopters that would land on the Red Planet under their own power. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:NASA, Mars, Helicopter| Space
Using the thermal equivalent of giving it a sharp whack, NASA repaired the camera of its Jupiter-orbiting Juno probe from 370 million miles (590 million km) away after the instrument was put out of commission by the gas giant's radiation belts. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Juno, NASA, Jupiter| Space
In a bit of an oops, Australia's return to space after almost 54 years hasn't exactly gone to plan. On July 30, 2025 at the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in North Queensland, Gilmour Space Technologies' Eris rocket crashed just 14 seconds after launch. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Launch, Rocket, Australia| Space
Radio astronomers like a bit of peace and quiet, so they're sending an historic first radio telescope to the Moon. To block out Earthside radio signals, the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment (LuSEE-Night) will set up shop on the far side of the Moon. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:NASA, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Moon, Radio| Space
Showing that you shouldn't draw conclusions based on too few facts, new NASA research suggests that a decades-old view of Uranus as an unusually cold planet isn't true, but that it does actually generate its own heat as other worlds do. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Uranus, NASA, Voyager| Space
NASA has tested a kind of super-fridge that may hold the key to any future crewed mission to Mars. Without the new cryogenic cooler, a ship to Mars would reach the Red Planet with empty fuel tanks, which would ruin everyone's day. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Mars, NASA, Cryogenics| Space
Most comets, including the well-known Halley's, loop through our solar system like cosmic time capsules that formed alongside our Sun and planets around 4.5 billion years ago. But every now and then, something far stranger streaks across the sky; an interstellar nomad, either forged in alien star systems or eternally drifting unclaimed through the void. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Comets, interstellar space, Cosmic, Universe, Solar System| Space
Proving that you can't keep a good technology down, Reaction Engines' Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) has a new lease on life after a British-led consortium announced Invictus, a new program to build a Mach 5+ spaceplane. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Reaction Engines, Hypersonic, Spaceplane, Aircraft| Space
Northrop Grumman has successfully ground tested the motor that could be used for the historic first orbital rocket launch from another planet. The solid rocket booster is intended to help return the first geological samples from the planet Mars. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Mars, NASA, Rocket, Northrop Grumman| Space
New discoveries by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover may not only explain why the Red Planet is a dry, lifeless desert, but that it may have been on an inevitable path to being a dead world despite being so similar to Earth. And the Sun is to blame. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:University of Chicago, NASA, Curiosity Rover, Mars| Space
If you're hoping that we can avoid the attention of alien civilizations by lying low, it's a bit late now. A new study released by the Royal Astronomical Society indicates that our radar systems are already screaming our location to ET eavesdroppers. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Royal Astronomical Society, SETI, Radar, University of Manchester| Space
NASA's beleaguered Mars Sample Return mission may get a reprieve from an unexpected source. Lockheed Martin has proposed a streamlined, lower-cost alternative that could slash the mission’s price tag by more than half. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Lockheed Martin, NASA, Mars| Space
After more than two decades of planning and building, the world's largest digital camera at the heart of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory on the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile has snapped its first imagery – from test observations spanning a 10-hour window. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Telescope, Observatory, SLAC, Cameras, Astrophotography, Astronomy, Imaging| Space
ESA has found a way to make its own solar eclipses more or less on demand and all it took was a pair of robotic spacecraft flying in a formation precise to within a millimeter of each other thousands of miles from Earth. Simple. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:ESA, Sun, ECLIPSE| Space
What will the orbital spacecraft of tomorrow look like? If Dassault Aviation has its way, it could be similar to its Véhicule Orbital Réutilisable de Transport et d’Exploration (VORTEX) reusable spaceplane unveiled at the recent Paris Air Show. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Spaceplane, France, Dassault Aviation| Space
For years, astronomers have been working to piece together the story of our universe, but the critical early chapters remained largely incomplete. Our telescopes simply haven't been sensitive enough to pick up those faintest traces of light from the farthest reaches of the universe. Until now that is. A new collaborative project dubbed the COSMOS-Web field has compiled the most comprehensive cosmic map ever, including images of the early universe as far back as 13.5 billion years. Continue Re...| Space
Maybe cars, trucks, and motorcycles aren't exciting enough, because Honda is moving into space vehicles. The company has announced that it has successfully flown a reusable rocket to an altitude of almost 300 m (1,000 ft) and then safely landed it. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Honda, Rocket, Test Flights| Space
ESA's Solar Orbiter deep-space probe has made history, returning the first-ever images of the Sun's south pole. It's a world first that sheds a great deal of light on the mysteries of our parent star, but it wasn't easy to achieve. Very far from it. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Solar Orbiter, ESA, Sun, World's First| Space
Dawn Aerospace seems to want to play with the big kids as it announces that it will be selling its spaceplane directly to customers the same way that airliner manufacturers market their aircraft, suggesting a major shift in space launch business models. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Spaceplane, Dawn Aerospace| Space
A US startup is looking to our closest satellite to fill a resources gap here on Earth. Helium-3 is rare on terra firma, but is thought to be abundant in the regolith of the Moon. Interlune has now revealed a full-scale excavator prototype that forms a key component of its lunar Harvester. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Moon, Resources, Helium, Mining| Space
On May 31, Voyager 1 will be the guest of honor at what may be the most exclusive concert in history. To mark the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II, ESA will beam a live performance of "By the Beautiful Blue Danube" to NASA's deep space probe. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:NASA, Voyager, ESA, Music Streaming| Space
Satellites could have a longer life and space become a bit tidier if Starfish Space's Otter Pup 2 mission pans out. Scheduled to launch later this year, it aims demonstrate how a small craft can dock with unprepared satellites for service or disposal. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Debris, Satellite, Space Junk| Space
It was race against time as NASA engineers recently raced to fix a thruster problem aboard the vintage Voyager 1 deep space probe. It's hard enough to repair a craft at the edge of the solar system, but this time they faced a potentially deadly deadline. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:NASA, Voyager| Space
A potentially destructive Soviet Venus lander that was lost in space for over half a century has reentered the Earth's atmosphere. Tracked by various space agencies and individuals, the capsule crashed on May 10 somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Venus, Roscosmos, ESA| Space
Given the fact that satellites orbit amongst one another at thousands of miles per hour, it's vitally important to know exactly how fast they're going, in order to avoid collisions. A new device offers an improved way of doing so, and it's appropriately named the Spacecraft Speedometer. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Satellite, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Speed, Spacecraft, US Air Force| Space
The release of NASA's latest budget reveals the Orion spacecraft and Lunar Gateway space station are getting the chop. The US$18.8-billion total figure decreases spending by $6 billion, or 24%, as the space agency increases funding for crewed Moon and Mars missions. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:NASA, Mars, Moon, Orion Spacecraft, Gateway, SLS| Space
The Space Age past may come knocking on the world's door next week as the defunct Soviet Union's Kosmos 482 Venus lander from 1972 makes an unwelcome return home and is predicted to crash into the Earth's atmosphere around May 10. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:USSR, Roscosmos, Venus| Space
It seems too good to be true, but UK-based Pulsar Fusion has revealed its new Sunbird self-contained nuclear rocket tug that uses a fusion propulsion engine that could reduce a trip to Mars to under four months and Pluto to under four years. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Nuclear Fusion, Nuclear Rocket, Rocket| Space
We've deployed so many satellites into space over the last few decades that we now have a massive orbital junk problem. The European Space Agency (ESA) noted in its Annual Space Environment Report that more than 6,600 tons of space junk are currently floating about in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), between 100 - 1,200 miles (160 - 2,000 km) above our planet's surface. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Space Junk, ESA, NASA| Space
If you've ever looked into the living conditions of astronauts in space, you probably know they make do with spartan arrangements, including mostly rehydratable meals. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Food, Astronauts, International Space Station, MIT, Technical University of Denmark| Space
If you've been wondering how long the day on Uranus is, you probably need to get out more. But if you have, you'll be interested to know that observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have shown that it's 28 seconds longer than previously thought. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Hubble, Uranus, Astronomy, ESA, Planet| Space
Looking for life on Saturn's largest moon Titan may be trickier than first thought. New computer simulations suggest that if life exists, there may not be a lot of it about. In fact, the mass probably wouldn't amount to much of anything at all. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:University of Arizona, Titan, Exobiology| Space
Amazon is launching 27 satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) next week, kicking off its years-in-the-making plan to set up a massive constellation and deliver internet access anywhere on the globe – similar to SpaceX's Starlink service. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Amazon, Internet, Starlink, United Launch Alliance| Space
NASA has successfully tested an electric force field on the Moon that protects spacecraft from destructive lunar dust. The Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) was carried aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, whose mission ended on March 16. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:NASA, Moon| Space
One of the most studied space rocks of all time has given scientists another big surprise, with the "mudball meteorite" Aguas Zarcas found to have been in orbit for two million years without crashing into any other objects – or if it did, there was no damage. It challenges conventional thought of the "fragile" carbonaceous chondrite class it belongs to. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Meteorite, Asteroid, Space exploration, Solar System, SETI, University of California Berkeley...| Space
The latest private space mission has launched four astronauts into a sideways orbit that has never been attempted before with a crewed spacecraft. At 9:46 pm EDT, the Fram2 mission lifted off atop a Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Launch, SpaceX, Commercial, Space Tourism| Space
Continental Europe's first attempt at an orbital space launch ended shorter than expected after Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket returned to Earth with a bang 30 seconds after lifting off only to crash and explode in the Norwegian Sea next to the pad. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Norway, Rocket, Launch| Space
Finding alien life won’t be as dramatic as a flying saucer landing on the White House lawn – it’ll be NASA scientists holding a press conference to excitedly show off a chart that’s incomprehensible to most people. Now, we’re a step closer to that boring but groundbreaking day. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Astronomy, Life, Extraterrestrial, UC Riverside, University of California Riverside, Exoplanet, Planet, James Webb Space Telescope, JWST| Space
Astronomers have detected mysterious X-ray signals coming from a nearby white dwarf star for more than 40 years. We may now know where they’re coming from – the death throes of a planet being torn to shreds and raining down on the star. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Astronomy, X-ray, Planet, Exoplanet, Stars, White dwarf, Supernova, Nebula, NASA| Space
A pair of extraordinary space missions that have been headed out of the solar system for almost half a century are getting a new lease on life as NASA engineers order the Voyager 1 and 2 deep-space probes to shut down two instruments to save power. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:NASA, Voyager, Nuclear| Space
Astrophysicists have done a bit of crime scene investigation on what’s almost a reverse murder mystery. They’ve traced radioactive elements on the seafloor back to the cosmic explosions they might have come from – and potentially linked the event to evolutionary changes in viruses in a lake in Africa. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Supernova, Astronomy, UC Santa Cruz, UCSC, Radiation, Evolution, Iron| Space
The question of whether life once existed on Mars may be answered by a new laser instrument from the University of Bern. The device can be carried by a rover to zap samples of the Red Planet to see if they contain traces of microfossils. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Mars, Exobiology, University of Bern, Laser| Space
Last week, the US Space Force posted a photo online from its uncrewed X-37B space plane's seventh mission, showing the orbital test vehicle above our planet in High Earth Orbit. Now that's a selfie worth sharing. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX, Boeing, X-37B| Space
Asteroid 2024 YR4 has grabbed headlines lately, after NASA calculated a 1-in-32 chance of an impact in 2032 – the highest chance ever for an asteroid of hazardous size. Thankfully, new observations have dropped that probability to almost zero – for Earth, anyway. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:Astronomy, Asteroid, Asteroid Redirect Mission, NASA, ESA| Space
Hydrogel is something that most of us are familiar with from it being used in contact lenses, burn dressings, and hair gel. In future, it might also be used to shield astronauts from the hazard of deadly cosmic radiation on long space voyages. Continue Reading Category:Space, Science Tags:ESA, Ghent University, Radiation| Space
Asteroid Bennu seems to have come from a long-lost world on the fringes of the solar system, where saltwater pooled and dried over thousands of years and life’s basic ingredients were widespread.| New Atlas
NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) unit aboard the Psyche spacecraft has switched on, establishing a super-speed laser data link at a distance of 10 million miles (16 million km), or 40 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.| New Atlas
Who watches the watchmen and who spies on the spy satellites? It turns out it's an optical package called Morning Sparrow made by Scout Space and carried by Dawn Aerospace's Aurora spaceplane to the edge of space to snap low-orbit spysats.| New Atlas
Northrop Grumman has written a new line in the history books, the company's Mission Extension Vehicle 1 (MEV-1) executing the first undocking of two commercial satellites in geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) – heralding a new age of commercial space operations.| New Atlas
In a red-faced turn of events, NASA has announced that the two Starliner astronauts "not stranded" on the International Space Station (ISS) will be returning to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which is only the start of the problems.| New Atlas
The saga of the "not stranded" Starliner astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) has taken an embarrassing turn with NASA admitting that their one-week visit to the orbiting lab could be extended into 2025 and they may come home in a SpaceX Dragon.| New Atlas
A landmark mission to collect rocks and dust from the surface of the Moon is progressing as planned, with China’s Chang’e-5 lander safely touching down on the lunar surface nine days after lift-off. If the next phases of the mission prove equally successful, it will be the first time lunar samples…| New Atlas
Data from China's Chang'E-5 lunar lander analyzed by an international team led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that the robotic spacecraft has, for the first time, detected traces of water in the rocks and regolith on the Moon's surface.| New Atlas
A somewhat scorched Chang'e-6 return craft landed in Inner Mongolia yesterday, bringing with it the first rock and dust samples from the far side of the Moon – and hopes of unlocking some lunar secrets.| New Atlas
NASA says that the astronauts sent to the International Space Station aboard Boeing's malfunctioning Starliner spacecraft are "not stranded in space." However, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams may be staying in orbit for a very long time.| New Atlas
Boeing's Starliner spacecraft can't seem to catch a break. Although it ultimately successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS), five of the capsule's reaction thrusters malfunctioned, delaying docking by over an hour.| New Atlas
It was umpteenth time lucky for Boeing today, as its Starliner spacecraft roared into orbit. At 10:52 am EDT, the capsule carrying astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop an Atlas V rocket.| New Atlas
Boeing's ill-fated Starliner spacecraft has suffered another major setback as NASA announced today that its first crewed launch has been postponed indefinitely. This comes after four launch dates were scrubbed in less than three weeks due to technical issues.| New Atlas
