It's official: there will be fewer cosmonauts on the International Space Station in 2017
Starting in March 2017, some of the Soyuz rockets that launch to the International Space Station will have just two crew members on board — instead of the typical three. The change is the result of Russia’s desire to reduce the number of...
Stop stressing and stare at the closest supermoon we've seen in 69 years
This Monday, the early morning night sky will be treated to an extra special supermoon. You may be asking yourself "what’s the point?"; It feels like there’s a new supermoon every other month, and there are other bigger things to worry about right...
Watch live as an Atlas V rocket sends an imaging satellite into space
Takeoff is scheduled for 1:30PM ET
Trump's NASA looks good for human space exploration and terrible for Earth science
It’s difficult to predict what a Donald Trump presidency will mean for the future of NASA. The newly elected commander in chief has said very little about his space policy plans throughout the course of his campaign. But Trump’s space advisors...
Why NASA’s Juno mission could last a lot longer than it was supposed to
NASA is preparing for Juno to stick around Jupiter a lot longer than it had originally planned. The probe — which has been orbiting the gas giant since July — is going to stay in its 53-day orbit around the planet for a while, with no definitive...
Elon Musk says SpaceX finally knows what caused the latest rocket failure
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that his company has finally gotten to the bottom of the September 1st Falcon 9 explosion — claiming it was the “toughest puzzle” they’ve ever had to solve. And now that the problem is known, he expects SpaceX to return...
After successful Antares launch, NASA wants Orbital ATK to launch on ULA’s rocket again
NASA has asked commercial partner Orbital ATK to set aside its Antares rocket for the company’s next mission to the International Space Station and instead fly cargo on an Atlas V rocket — the premier vehicle of the United Launch Alliance. The...
SpaceX's plan to fuel rockets with people on board has NASA advisors worried
A panel of expert advisors to NASA have expressed concern about SpaceX’s plans to fuel its Falcon 9 rockets with astronauts on board, The Wall Street Journal reports. At a meeting on Monday, members of NASA’s Space Station Advisory Committee...
NASA’s most powerful space telescope ever is ready for preflight testing
The telescope portion of NASA’s James Webb Telescope is finally complete — marking a major benchmark for the spacecraft that has been in development for the past 20 years. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and other members of the James Webb...
NASA is crowdsourcing ideas to study the surface of the Moon
NASA wants ideas from private companies and the science community about instruments that can be used to explore and study the surface of the Moon. This morning, the space agency put out a formal Request for Information, asking for concepts of...
NASA is great at Halloween because space is genuinely terrifying
Every October, NASA gets into the Halloween spirit by sharing "spooky" pictures of space, such as the creepy jack-o'-lantern sun or this year’s glowing dead star that invokes Slimer from Ghostbusters. I fully applaud NASA for its participation in...
Watch three astronauts return home from the International Space Station tonight
A trio of astronauts will depart the International Space Station this evening, embarking on a three-and-a-half hour journey back to Earth. The exiting crew includes Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace...
SpaceX is still trying to pinpoint what caused its Falcon 9 rocket to explode
SpaceX still doesn’t know exactly what caused its Falcon 9 rocket to explode in September, but the company says it has narrowed down the problem to one of three helium pressure vessels in the upper portion of the rocket. It further confirms what...
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft just sent back the last bit of its Pluto data
NASA now has all the science data that the New Horizons spacecraft gathered of Pluto and its moons over a year ago. Early in the morning on October 25th, the vehicle sent back the last bit of the more than 50 gigabits of information it collected...
Astronomers capture birth of triple-star system
A triple-star system has been captured in the middle of its birth, giving astronomers one of the first direct glimpses into how multiple-star systems come to be. The image of the star trio, taken by the ALMA telescope in Chile, shows two young...
