Space

The China National Space Administration is pressing ahead with its trailblazing lunar exploration program, following last year's historic Chang'e-4 touchdown with a new mission to bring Moon rocks back to Earth for study.

With the world continuing to warm and sea levels continuing to rise, NASA and the ESA are eyeing the next decade of climate change and its consequences, launching a new satellite to observe the ocean in greater detail from orbit.

Mars may be incredibly dry and dusty today, but evidence is piling up that it was once a watery world. Now the Curiosity rover has found signs of an ancient flood of biblical proportions, most likely kicked off by a climate-changing asteroid impact.

A research team has discovered a fossil galaxy within the Milky Way. Using infrared data from thousands of stars, the scientists conclude that the galaxy, called Heracles, collided and merged with the Milky Way 10 billion years ago.

Northrop Grumman has announced that its Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module has passed its preliminary design review. Part of NASA's Gateway deep space outpost, it will act as a way station for future missions to the Moon and beyond.

Startup Rocket Lab has joined SpaceX and Blue Origin in the world of rocket recovery, today bringing its Electron booster back down to Earth for the first time ever as part of its landmark “Return to Sender” mission.

Last week, the Earth had its closest shave with an asteroid ever recorded, when a small space rock skimmed just 370 km (230 miles) above the surface. For comparison, that’s closer than the orbit of the International Space Station.

Following the historic Crew-1 launch, which saw four astronauts lifted into space from US soil on the first ever crewed operational flight of a commercial spacecraft, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has now safely docked with the International Space Station.

Based on isotope analysis of meteorites, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have determined that our solar system may have formed much faster than previously thought.

The British government has commissioned a new study into building an orbital solar power station by 2050. It will look into space-based systems that use giant solar arrays to generate electricity and beam it to Earth in the form of microwaves.

Asteroid Apophis has attracted its share of attention, with several projected close shaves with Earth in the coming decades. While most have been ruled out, a previously-overlooked factor has opened a small window for a possible collision in 2068.

History was made today as the US, after a nine-year hiatus, returned to regular crewed space flights from American soil to the International Space Station (ISS) with the launch of the SpaceX Crew-1 mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.