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The Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 became the first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957. Leroy Chiao is the CEO and co-founder of OneOrbit LLC, a motivational, training and education company. He served as a NASA astronaut from 1990 to 2005 and flew four missions into space, as a crewmember aboard three space shuttles and as […]

A Soviet technician works on Sputnik 1 before the satellite’s Oct. 4, 1957, launch. There may actually have been three Sputnik moments. The Soviet Union’s Oct. 4, 1957, launch of the first-ever artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 , created quite a stir, to be sure. It did kick off the space age, after all. But Americans’ […]

Artist’s illustration depicting a hypothetical dust ring orbiting KIC 8462852, also known as Boyajian’s Star or Tabby’s Star. There’s a prosaic explanation for at least some of the weirdness of “Tabby’s star,” it would appear. The bizarre long-term dimming of Tabby’s star — also known as Boyajian’s star, or, more formally, KIC 8462852 — is […]

[embedded content] Update for 5:02 p.m. EDT: Vice President Mike Pence’s first meeting of the revived National Space Council has ended. You can watch a full replay above. Below, you can see brief recaps of Pence’s opening comments for the meeting, as well as those of some industry panelists. Read our full story: The Next Giant Leap: […]

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket moves to the launch pad carrying the classified NROL-52 spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office ahead of a planned launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Oct. 5, 2017. Editor’s note: This story, originally posted Oct. 4, was updated Oct. 6 to reflect the […]

Update for Oct. 18: NASA succeesfully launched the ASPIRE supersonic parachute experiment on Oct. 4. Watch how the small rocket launch went, and see photos from the mission below! A Black Brant IX sounding rocket launches the ASPIRE supersonic parachute prototype from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia on Oct. 4, 2017. Credit: […]

“A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars” (Greenwillow Books, 2017) by Seth Fishman and illustrated by Isabel Greenberg. Carl Sagan was only partly right. For while it’s true that we’re made of star stuff , it would perhaps be more accurate to say that the universe is composed of numbers. And not just any numbers, mind you, […]

Cover for Joe Satriani’s new record “What Happens Next.” Expected to be released on Jan 12, 2018. “Guitar god” Joe Satriani’s upcoming solo album, “What Happens Next,” features Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith and Deep Purple’s Glenn Hughes on bass — and after listening to a preview of the record, the rock ‘n’ […]

Update for Oct. 3, 2017: The historic discovery of gravitational waves of September 2015 has won the Nobel Prize for Physics. Half of the prize goes to physicists Kip Thorne and Barry Barish of Caltech, with half going to Rainer Weiss for their roles in the discovery. First story: Nobel Prize Awarded for Sensational Gravitational […]

Former NASA astronaut Terry Virts with his new book, “View from Above: An Astronaut Photographs the World,” published by National Geographic on Oct. 3, 2017. Editor’s Note: Join Space.com on Facebook  Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) as we talk live with retired NASA astronaut Terry Virts about his new book, the Space […]

A computer simulation showing gravitational waves during a black-hole collision. The discovery has major implications for science. BERLIN—As expected by many, the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics went to three scientists who helped detect gravitational waves, ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein. “This year’s prize is about a discovery that shook the world,” said physicist […]

SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket on Oct. 2, 2017, ahead of a planned launch five days later. The mission will be the second for this Falcon 9’s first stage, which launched for the first time in February 2017. SpaceX test-fired a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket  Monday (Oct. 2) in preparation for a planned […]

NASA astronauts Terry Virts and Mike Fincke pose with actor Scott Bakula on the set of “Star Trek: Enterprise” (upper left); astronaut Mae Jemison appeared with LeVar Burton on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Ensign T. Virts likely won’t be crossing paths with the USS Discovery. Last (and only) seen serving as an engineer aboard […]