NASA

Images returned by NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid explorer have confirmed that the spacecraft's sample collector head is slowly leaking some of the material it gathered from the surface of the asteroid Bennu, but it's not all bad news.

A new study has identified 1,004 stars from which aliens could detect signs of life in Earth’s atmosphere by watching as our planet passes across the disk of the Sun. The study could help provide targets for groups searching for alien civilizations.

On Tuesday this week, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touched down on the surface of asteroid Bennu to snatch a sample of the ancient pristine rock, and took off again. And now NASA has released images and video from the robot’s perspective.

In a truly remarkable feat of engineering, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has scooped a sample of soil from the surface of asteroid Bennu, as it hurtles through space some 205 million miles from Earth.

NASA’s plans to return to the Moon involve building the infrastructure to support a long-term lunar base. As part of this vision, the agency has selected Nokia to help it build the first ever cellular network on the natural satellite.

Four-wheeled robotic rovers may be a good choice for the exploration of other planets, but they could conceivably get stuck at the bottom of deep craters. NASA's DuAxel rover is designed with that in mind, as it splits in two for steep descents.

With space exploration becoming more accessible to more countries, cooperation will be key. NASA has outlined the principles for that peaceful future in the Artemis Accords, and now eight nations have signed on as founding members.

Private space company Blue Origin had a doubly successful outing with its New Shepard rocket today, reusing the same booster for a record seventh time and doing so with a particularly important payload onboard.

New findings from NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe of asteroid Bennu's gravity field suggest that the core is less dense than the outside shell, and possibly contains a large void – which could spell its doom in the not-too-distant future.

SpaceX and NASA appeared all set to go ahead with the Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station on October 31. That date has now been pushed back following a mishap on the launchpad during a separate SpaceX mission earlier this month.

Boeing and NASA have announced that astronaut and mission commander Chris Ferguson is stepping down from the first crewed CST-100 Starliner space mission for family reasons. He will be replaced by veteran NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has passed a major milestone, completing its prelaunch environmental testing after being subjected to weeks of acoustic and sine-vibration tests to determine whether it can withstand the rigors of a rocket launch.