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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk discussed more technical details about the BFR system designed to take people to Mars and on point-to-point trips on Earth, but didn’t discuss financing of the system. WASHINGTON — SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk disclosed additional technical details about his proposed BFR launch system  Oct. 14, although he offered no additional information […]

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 7 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the wide-angle camera on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on June 7, 2017. While the Cassini spacecraft is dead — engineers deliberately plunged it into Saturn’s atmosphere on Sept. 15, ending […]

Blue Origin’s proposed Blue Moon system could land payloads weighing up to several tons on the surface of the moon. COLUMBIA, Md. — As NASA develops a plan to carry out a new administration policy calling for a human return to the moon, companies developing lunar landers and related infrastructure are seeking to play a role […]

An illustration of Moon Express’ MX-1E spacecraft on the surface of the moon. COLUMBIA, Md. — Commercial lunar lander company Moon Express announced an agreement with NanoRacks Oct. 10  to carry commercial payloads to the surface of the moon. Under the agreement, NanoRacks , a company best known for transporting satellites and other payloads to the International […]

The sun is at the heart of the solar system. All of the bodies in the solar system — planets, asteroids, comets, etc. — revolve around it at various distances. Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, gets as close as 29 million miles (47 million kilometers) in its elliptical orbit, while objects in the […]

Cosmology, we have a problem: Two methods that scientists use to measure the expansion of the universe produce different answers, and astronomers aren’t quite sure what’s going on. A recent episode of NASA’s ScienceCasts video series explored this conundrum. Since 1929, scientists have known that the universe is expanding at a rate dictated by the […]

Hinode spacecraft captured this picture of our sun’s chromosphere on Jan. 12, 2007. A huge energy- and light-producing sphere of glowing gases, the sun makes life on Earth possible. The temperature of our nearest star varies tremendously, and not in ways you might realize. At the core of the sun , gravitational attraction produces immense […]

A new study found five pairs of supermassive black holes, each pair preparing to merge. In this illustration, disks of hot gas surround two supermassive black holes located near each other. The black holes will orbit for hundreds of millions of years before finally merging, sending out strong gravitational waves that can be detected on […]

After spending months or years in space during future long-term missions, returning to Earth can be challenging for astronauts — and one set of researchers is finding out just how challenging using a life-size spacecraft model.  Using a mock-up of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, scientists monitored the health and fitness levels of “astronauts” as they performed […]

Spotting the Source Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble/A. Levan/N. Tanvir/A. Fruchter/O. Fox (STScI) On Aug. 17, 2017, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory detected gravitational waves from a neutron star collision. Observatories identified the source of the event in the galaxy NGC 4993 and located the associated stellar flare known as a “kilonova.” Hubble watched that flare of light […]

The Lego Ideas “Women of NASA” set includes minifigures modeled after astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, computer scientist Margaret Hamilton and astronauts Sally Ride and Mae Jemison. Four trailblazing figures from NASA’s history are set to launch as new Lego minifigures on Nov. 1. NASA astronauts Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, astronomer Nancy Grace Roman and […]

An illustration of two merging neutron stars. This stellar collision created heavy elements such as platinum, uranium and gold. An international team of astronomers detected the first gravitational waves from merging neutron stars, and found proof they are the source of the universe’s heavy elements, including gold and platinum. “This is a source we always […]

Surgeons at the University of Saskatchemwan use a 3D printed human brain to plan complex neurosurgical procedures for patients with movement disorders. This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Mission control on earth receives an urgent communication from Mars that an astronaut […]