Spacecraft

It appears Virgin Galactic is looking to ramp up its commercial space services, placing orders for two more WhiteKnightTwo motherships from Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Services to support the air launch of Virgin's SpaceShipTwo spaceplane.

NASA has selected a fascinating new project for further development, known as the Diffractive Solar Sail. By bending light before it hits the sail, this device could propel spacecraft more efficiently than conventional propulsion technologies.

Inspired by seashells, scientists at Sandia National Labs have engineered a versatile new material that’s incredibly inexpensive, strong, lightweight, and heat resistant. The material could find use in shielding for spacecraft or fusion facilities.

The James Webb Space Telescope has snapped its first in-focus image. With this milestone, the telescope is now set to meet or even exceed its original science goals. It was also recently spotted by another spacecraft in the area.

Venus should have been Earth’s twin, but clearly that’s not the case today with its thick poisonous atmosphere and barren rocky surface. Now, as part of its Discovery Program, NASA has selected two new missions to Venus to investigate what went wrong.

Virgin Galactic has put a recent setback behind it to reach space for only the third time in its history, and the first time since relocating to its new Spaceport America base in New Mexico last year.

New Horizons currently has a lot of time on its hands as it coasts towards interstellar space. The probe has just passed a new milestone distance, celebrating by taking a snap of its predecessor Voyager 1 – or at least, the patch of sky where it is.

The secrets of the mysterious EmDrive thruster – which stumped both NASA and Chinese research teams by delivering measurable thrust without a propellant – have finally been unlocked. The thrust comes from ... drum roll ... repeated experimental error.

Virgin Galactic has wheeled out the next-generation version of the vehicle designed to carry human tourists into space, showing off a shimmering, mirror-like spaceship named the VSS Imagine that features a modular design.

Using mathematical models, a team of researchers has investigated various configurations of lunar landing spacecraft to determine the best approach for setting down astronauts on the Moon and returning them to an orbiting lunar station.

The United Arab Emirates’ first interplanetary mission has passed a major milestone, successfully placing the Hope spacecraft in orbit around Mars and beaming back its first ever picture of the Red Planet.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft will take a Cassini-like approach to exploring the Jovian system when it begins its latest mission extension in August this year at which point it will make passes of Jupiter’s rings and moons, and explore key surface features.