Space

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment lunar mission looks like it's back on track after a day of suspense as NASA and contractor Advanced Space re-establish radio contact with the CubeSat probe.

In a development that's thrown a spanner in the works of its US$37.2-million Artemis moon mission, NASA has lost radio contact with its Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) CubeSat space probe.

Virgin Orbit has ticked off another milestone in its fledgling launch business, successfully carrying out its first night-time mission over the weekend and deploying satellites into low-Earth orbit for the US Space Force.

When NASA's high-altitude balloon lifts off from Antarctica in December 2023 at the start of its up to four week voyage over the South Pole, it will carry one of the largest mirrors ever to fly on such a high-tech gas bag.

Subsurface oceans on moons are some of the most promising places to look for life beyond Earth. NASA is now funding a project to develop a swarm of small swimming robots that would explore these alien oceans for signs of extraterrestrial life.

NASA took its first step today in establishing its Gateway orbital lunar outpost with the launch of its CAPSTONE CubeSat that will be used to test a new lunar orbit slated for the future space station.

NASA has put a patchy few months behind it to officially conclude the testing campaign for its Space Launch System (SLS) and begin preparations for its maiden flight later this year, all going to plan.

The United States now has the ability to control the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) without Russian cooperation after a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft successfully boosted the space lab into a higher orbit.

NASA has confirmed the Moon is a bit messier and a mystery has deepened after its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft discovered the double impact crater of a rocket booster that collided with the lunar surface on March 4, 2022.

NASA's InSight Mars lander is trading less life for more science after the space agency decided to let the spacecraft's remaining science instrument run until the lander's solar power system fails completely sometime in August or September.

NASA is turning to nuclear power will keep the lights on in tomorrow's Moon bases. The space agency has awarded US$15 million in contracts to three preliminary designs for 40-kW nuclear fission reactors to be tested on the lunar surface by 2030.

Scientists debate whether or not there’s life on Venus. A new Cambridge study has analyzed the Venusian atmosphere and found no sign of the chemical fingerprints microbes would be expected to produce – but it doesn’t rule out life on similar planets.

Astronomers have discovered bizarre “blue blobs” in space. These blobs are clusters of young, blue stars that are isolated from any parent galaxy, suggesting they formed from a galactic “belly flop.”

The most comprehensive picture of the Milky Way just got more detailed. Gaia's third data release covers almost 2 billion stars, including their makeup and movements, plus new catalogs of starquakes, binary systems, variable stars and other objects.

A six-year round trip to an asteroid has yielded unprecedented insights into the formation of the solar system. Scientists have analyzed samples returned from asteroid Ryugu, finding a detailed history starting with the oldest material ever found.