Space Shuttle

It was set to be the world's first flight test for an aerospike rocket engine, but the MIRA I prototype crashed on takeoff before the most innovative part of its propulsion system could fire. Undeterred, Polaris is building two bigger prototypes.

2023 turned out to be a busy year in space and the general vicinity. New Atlas looks back at everything from rocket launches and cosmic tsunamis to asteroid samples and the latest astronaut fashions.

The Alexeyev/Sukhoi Albatros launch system, proposed in 1974, would have launched a Soviet space shuttle on the back of a carrier spaceplane, launched off the back of a hydrofoiling barge. It never happened, but here's what it would've looked like.

Engineers have mated the fourth and final Space Shuttle-era engine to the core stage of NASA’s first Space Launch System Moon rocket. NASA hopes to use the super heavy launch vehicle to return astronauts to the Moon before striking out for Mars.

​On this day ten years ago, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Columbus laboratory was launched into orbit, safely nestled in the mammoth cargo bay of the space shuttle Atlantis.

America's most experienced astronaut has passed away at the age of 87. In a statement, acting NASA said that Captain John Young (US Navy, retired) died on January 5 due to complications from pneumonia. He was the only astronaut to command three different kinds of spacecraft.

The first astronaut to fly in space untethered died on Thursday at the age of 80. According to NASA, Captain Bruce McCandless II (US Navy, retired) passed away at his home in California from undisclosed causes.

India today entered the ranks of spacefaring nations with reusable spacecraft as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) conducted the first flight of its unmanned, scale hypersonic Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) spaceplane.

April 24 will mark a significant milestone in the life of one of mankind's greatest scientific instruments – the 25-year anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. Join us as we celebrate the history and achievements of the telescope that inspired a generation.

In 1965, a pair of gigantic crawlers were built to move the Saturn V moon rockets to the launch pad. Half a century later, they are still in service. To celebrate, the 6 million-lb Crawler-Transporter 2 (CT-2) made a less than one mph rollout for a visitor and media day.

NASA test fired the RS-25 engine that will power the SLS on Friday. The first of eight hot tests, it took place at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

The dawn of manned commercial spaceflight received a major boost as NASA announced in a news conference today that Boeing and SpaceX have been chosen to ferry US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).