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WASHINGTON — The inaugural launch on Tuesday of the world’s most powerful rocket sets the stage for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to begin the qualification process to compete for lucrative U.S. government contracts. The U.S. Air Force has already booked the massive rocket for a June launch of a test payload. But the Falcon Heavy may have to […]

The first Dream Chaser orbital mission will be a cargo flight to the International Space Station, now scheduled for late 2020. WASHINGTON — NASA has given Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) formal approval for the company’s first cargo mission to the International Space Station in late 2020. SNC announced Feb. 7 that it had received “authority […]

Heddels and PF Flyers’ Mercury All American sneakers are inspired by NASA’s original astronaut boots. You can now take a walk in NASA’s original astronaut shoes, or at least a pair inspired by them, if you are among the very lucky few. Heddels, an online resource for well-made clothing, has announced the “Mercury All American,” […]

This image illustrates the effect of gravitational lensing. The object in the middle right of the image has a ring of light around it that is created by that object’s gravity bending light from a background object. In some cases gravitational lensing will create nearly identical projections of the background object. With the help of […]

NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Terry Virts conduct Rodent Research investigations within the Microgravity Science Glovebox and the Rodent Habitat Module aboard the International Space Station. Being an astronaut is a tough job. Not only do they work long hours in a confined spot, but their entire body deteriorates in microgravity . Astronauts spend more […]

Viruses ride the particles that circulate during vast dust storms such as this one, which emerged from the Sahara Desert to extend over the Atlantic Ocean on March 29, 2017. You can’t see them or feel them, but millions of airborne viruses are wafting around you each day, and billions more microbial travelers are descending […]

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has arrived in California for final assembly in preparation for launch in 2019.  The two halves of the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) arrived at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems’ Space Park facility in Redondo Beach, California, on Feb. 2, after being transported from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, according […]

A camera shows SpaceX’s Starman mannequin and Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster as they fly above a ROUND Earth after launching on the first Falcon Heavy rocket test flight on Feb. 6, 2018. Yesterday’s successful launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket also sent an unusual payload into space: a cherry-red Tesla Roadster “manned” by a dummy […]

When SpaceX successfully launched its first Falcon Heavy booster Tuesday (Feb. 6) from the same Florida pad used by NASA’s Apollo missions, the company claimed the title for the most powerful rocket. And for some companies, that might be a year-defining feat. But SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk have a lot more coming this […]

A red car for a Red Planet. That’s what Elon Musk was hoping for when he launched his own Tesla Roadster on SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket Tuesday (Feb. 6), headed for an orbit that might have extended out to the orbit of Mars. But his car, it turns out, is taking a detour through […]

The International Space Station, as photographed by crewmembers aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 2010. The International Space Station (ISS) is a multi-nation construction project that is the largest single structure humans ever put into space. Its main construction was completed between 1998 and 2011, although the station continually evolves to include new missions and […]

An illustration shows the seven Earth-size planets of TRAPPIST-1. The image does not show the planets’ orbits to scale, but offers how their surfaces might possibility look. The seven Earth-size planets around the distant star TRAPPIST-1 are “tugging” on each other as they travel around their parent star.By carefully observing those tugs, scientists were able […]

NASA’s IMAGE satellite, before launch in 2000. NASA lost contact with the satellite in 2005, but in January 2018 the satellite once again began transmitting. A long-lost-but-recently-rediscovered NASA satellite appears to have a fully charged battery and is “in good shape” overall, the agency said in an update about the craft yesterday (Feb. 5). On […]