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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the secret Zuma spacecraft for the U.S. government launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Jan. 7, 2018. The U.S. government’s hush-hush Zuma satellite may have run into some serious problems during or shortly after its Sunday launch (Jan. 7), according to media reports. Zuma lifted […]

The James Webb Space Telescope sits in NASA’s immense Chamber A at Johnson Space Center after completing its final series of tests in the frigid, airless room. Any way you slice it, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is one of the boldest, highest-stakes gambles in the space agency’s storied history. Just building and testing […]

An Earth-bound Jeep is outfitted with a tire built from a “shape memory alloy,” or a metal that springs back into its original shape after being deformed. The design could find its way onto a future Mars rover. A good tire means a lot when the nearest roadside assistance is 34 million miles (55 million […]

Alan B. Shepard Jr. Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., commander of the Apollo 14 lunar-landing mission, shown here participating in lunar-surface training at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Shepard is adjusting a camera mounted to the modular equipment transporter (MET). The MET, nicknamed the “Rickshaw,” served as a portable workbench with a place […]

This moveable, make-at-home Moon Phases Calendar and Calculator can help you get out and observe the moon in 2018. Make a New Year’s resolution to get out and look at the moon more often, with help from a free, do-it-yourself Moon Phases Calendar and Calculator from NASA .  We love this NASA Moon Phases Calendar […]

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently completed thermal vacuum testing at the Johnson Space Center for a launch now planned for the spring of 2019, a delay from October 2018. WASHINGTON — Scientists gathering this week for the country’s largest astronomy meeting will discuss plans for future space telescopes , while raising questions about the status […]

John Young, the ninth man to walk on the moon, flew on three NASA programs: Gemini, Apollo and the space shuttle. John Young was NASA’s longest-serving astronaut. He first became an astronaut when the agency was flying two-man space capsules. He left when the agency was flying the space shuttle. In between, he flew six […]

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed . Finding past or present microbial life on Mars would without doubt be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. And in just two years’ time, there’s a big opportunity to do so, with two […]

SpaceX lofted the super-secret Zuma spacecraft for the U.S. government tonight (Jan. 8), successfully executing a mission that also featured yet another landing by the first stage of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 8 p.m. EST (0100 GMT on Jan. 9) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, on Florida’s […]

The supernova remnant Cassiopeia A shines in this stunning image from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Thousands of astronomers,astrophysicist and space policy officials will meet this week in Washington, D.C. this week at the 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Astronomers, astrophysicists and other space scientists from around the U.S. are gathering in Washington, D.C., […]

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the secretive Zuma spacecraft is seen at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in mid-November 2017. The mission is now scheduled to launch on Jan. 7, 2018. SpaceX plans to launch the secret Zuma payload for the U.S. government this evening (Jan. 7), after […]

WASHINGTON — Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announced Jan. 5 that NASA has confirmed that the company’s Dream Chaser vehicle passed a key milestone during its November free flight test . In a statement, SNC said that NASA concluded that the Nov. 11 free flight of the Dream Chaser engineering test article, at Edwards Air Force Base in […]

An artist’s concept of a hot Jupiter, a cloudy Jupiter-like planet orbiting very close to its star. A group of astronomers is using a new method to search for hard to spot alien planets : By measuring the difference between the amount of light coming from the planets’ daysides and nightsides, astronomers have spotted 60 […]