space exploration

A Long March rocket carrying a crew of Chinese astronauts in a Shenzhou-18 spaceship lifts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China on Thursday.

World News

China launches a new crew to its space station, advancing toward lunar mission

10:50am April 25, 2024

by John Ruwitch

Three astronauts will spend six months on China's space station. Some experts worry China's ambitious space program could pose a threat to U.S. space superiority and military effectiveness.

A new lunar time zone has been pitched for the moon.

NASA has been asked to create a time zone for the moon. Here's how it would work

5:01am April 09, 2024

by Kai McNamee

A new lunar time zone is all about ensuring the success of future, multinational missions to the moon.

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This artist's impression shows one of the Voyager spacecraft moving through the darkness of space.

Science

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is talking nonsense. Its friends on Earth are worried

5:51am March 06, 2024

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Voyager 1 has been traveling through space since 1977, and some scientists hoped it could keep sending back science data for 50 years. But a serious glitch has put that milestone in jeopardy.

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NASA's InSight Mars lander is covered in dust in its final selfie, taken on April 24. The following month its robotic arm was put into resting position, aka "retirement pose."

Goodnight, sweet spacecraft: NASA's InSight lander may have just signed off from Mars

1:54pm December 20, 2022

by Rachel Treisman

InSight's end has long been in sight, with NASA warning that it would likely be inoperative by the end of the year. The lander went quiet this weekend and shared a tweet it said might be its last.

A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifted off in Florida in Feb. 2015, on its way to send the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite into space. But seven years later, part of the rocket left behind in space is hurtling straight toward the moon.

A piece of space junk the size of a school bus is barreling straight toward the moon

4:29pm February 02, 2022

by Deepa Shivaram

Astronomers predict that on March 4th, a piece of a rocket launched in 2015 will crash into the moon. It's believed to be first time something man-made has accidentally crashed into the moon.

This photo, provided by China National Space Administration via Xinhua News Agency, is the first image of the moon's far side ever taken from the surface. A Chinese spacecraft on Thursday made the first landing on the far side of the moon, state media sai

China Becomes First Country To Land On Far Side Of Moon, State Media Announce

3:24pm January 03, 2019

by Matthew S. Schwartz

Lunar lander Chang'e 4 successfully touched down on Thursday morning. China's Xinhua News published a photo it says was taken by the probe "on the never-visible side of the moon."

Neil deGrasse Tyson attends Film Independent at LACMA presents StarTalk — A Conversation with Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, on June 5 in Los Angeles.

'Accessory To War' An Uncomfortable Wake-Up Call For Some

10:47am September 17, 2018

by Marcelo Gleiser

An "unspoken alliance" between scientists and the military had been brewing for millennia prior to Hiroshima. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang excel at detailing this union and its possible future.

Asteroid Ryugu, photographed on June 26 by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, was the Japanese mission's destination. The craft will travel alongside the asteroid for 18 months.

Science

Japan's Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Arrives At Its Asteroid Destination

3:28pm June 27, 2018

by Bill Chappell

The mission includes a plan to bring a sample back to Earth. It's the first time humans have been able to study a C-type asteroid at such a close range for an extended period.

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Science

Our Ancestors, Elon Musk And The First Car In Space

2:09pm February 07, 2018

by Marcelo Gleiser

Musk's successful rocket launch is a step on the ambitious road to Mars; as with our adventurous ancestors, where we might go seems to be limited only by our imagination, says Marcelo Gleiser.

During one "extravehicular activity," members of Crew 177 collected rock specimens for analysis back at the lab.

To Prepare For Mars Settlement, Simulated Missions Explore Utah's Desert

5:25pm July 06, 2017

by Rae Ellen Bichell

NASA plans to send people to the Red Planet in the 2030s. In the meantime, a remote location in southern Utah serves as a non-NASA training ground for the Mars-minded.

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