Space Systems

Earlier this month, the Artemis II astronauts took the ultimate roadtrip: a flyby of the Moon, on which they brought the entire world along. Making the mission more remarkable is how the astronauts squeezed into a small space to get this done.

MIT engineers have tested a thumbnail-sized thruster that runs on a single green fuel to power both chemical and electric propulsion, potentially sending inexpensive CubeSats all the way to Mars, and beyond.

Customizable by sweetness and flavor, "space smoothies" offer emulsified omega-3 fatty acids. On long space missions, astronauts can now weaponize fish oils, fruit acids, coconut fats, and, of course, sugar, against morale-killing food fatigue.

SpaceX has once again set the record for flying the largest and most powerful rocket in history. It's also on the verge of launching more satellites than the rest of the world combined since Sputnik. Are we witnessing the beginning of a new Space Age?

Blue Origin's space ambitions have suffered a major setback as its New Glenn rocket exploded in a fireball on the launch pad at about 7:00 pm EDT at Launch Complex 36 (LC-36), Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida during an engine test.

Asteroid 2022 OB5 appears ideal for mining – except for one problem: new observations an instrument called HiPERCAM reveal it spins at a blistering speed that could throw spacecraft from its surface and back into space.

Flying on Mars isn't just hard, it may be the hardest thing you can do in aerospace engineering – and NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California has just broken through one of its biggest barriers yet.

The US space agency's latest breakthrough in experimental drives passed a major test in February, with experiments showing it was 25 times more powerful than the current king of ion drive technology, Psyche.

Any rubble from a partially-destroyed asteroid could still threaten humanity, so we really need a way to detect killer asteroids on collision-course for Earth while we still have time to stop them.

If an alien in Alpha Centauri were craving pizza, it’d take millennia to deliver it using today’s technology. Researchers may have developed a technology that would one day reduce delivery to a mere 20 years, using nothing but light for propulsion.

On April 23, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched several satellites into low-Earth orbit including a 10-cm (3.9-inch) "origami" cube satellite with a reflectarray antenna that unfurls, origami-like, to 25 times its size when folded.

Humanity took its first step back to the Moon after 53 years as the US Artemis II circumlunar mission lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B in Florida at 6:35 PM EDT with four astronauts aboard.

SpaceX's Starlink communications satellite constellation is doing double duty as the company announces that it's moonlighting as the Stargaze Space Situational Awareness system that can track and manage traffic in low Earth orbit.

China showed off its ambitions for space in the 21st century as its first reusable heavy booster, the ZhuQue-3 (ZQ-3) Y1 from the Landspace company, conducted its first static firing at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

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.