Space

National

What's next for SpaceX's (very expensive) Starship program?

5:26pm May 04, 2023

by Geoff Brumfiel

Elon Musk is promising that SpaceX's newest rocket will one day take humans to Mars, but it's costing the company billions of dollars to develop. Can SpaceX afford to see the program through?

An artist's impression of an aging star swelling up and beginning to engulf a planet, much like the Sun will do in about 5 billion years.

Science

This star ate its own planet. Earth may share the same fate

4:04pm May 03, 2023

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

For the first time, astronomers have caught a star in the act of swallowing a planet, providing a glimpse into how the sun may eventually eat up Earth.

World News

Our view of constellations has changed since they were first mapped

4:44pm May 02, 2023

by Regina G. Barber

The Zodiac can be a gateway into the graceful movements of the night sky. And it turns out our view of those constellations has changed since they were first mapped thousands of years ago.

Artist's concept of NASA's Voyager spacecraft. After the Voyager 1 and its replica Voyager 2 launched in 1977, their power sources are slowly dying.

Science

NASA is keeping Voyager 2 going until at least 2026 by tapping into backup power

5:00am April 30, 2023

by Emma Bowman

Engineers have bought the spacecraft's interstellar mission more time by using backup power from a safety mechanism. It means NASA no longer has to shut down one of its five scientific instruments.

SpaceX is grounded after rocket explosion caused extensive environmental damage

4:33pm April 26, 2023

by Gaige Davila | TPR

The failed launch of SpaceX's Starship rocket from Boca Chica, Texas, last week did more than explode the world's largest ever rocket. It caused more environmental damage than expected.

This illustration provided by ispace in April 2023 depicts the Hakuto spacecraft on the surface of the moon with the Earth in the background.

World News

Contact is lost with a Japanese spacecraft attempting to land on the moon

2:14pm April 25, 2023

by The Associated Press

A Japanese company lost contact with its unmanned Hakuto spacecraft moments before touchdown on the moon Wednesday, saying the mission had apparently failed.

Storytellers at a Los Angeles planetarium join the union representing Broadway actors

5:07am April 25, 2023

by Andrea Hsu

The planetarium lecturers at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles have unionized. They hope that doing so will help preserve their longstanding tradition of live storytelling.

Spectators watch from South Padre Island, Texas, as the SpaceX Starship launches on Thursday. It exploded several minutes later.

National

Why SpaceX staff cheered when the Starship rocket exploded

11:34am April 21, 2023

by Rachel Treisman

Experts say Thursday's flight wasn't supposed to have gone off without a hitch, and still offers SpaceX valuable data. A space industry analyst explains why it was so significant.

Queue Listen Now

National

Four minutes into SpaceX's new Starship test flight, it tumbled and exploded

4:28pm April 20, 2023

by Brendan Byrne

SpaceX's new Starship launched from Texas on a test flight. Four minutes into the mission, it tumbled and exploded. No one was on board the rocket, which is the largest and most powerful ever built.

From 'Short Wave': magnetosphere music, Jupiter's icy moons and a runaway black hole

4:28pm April 20, 2023

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Short Wave hosts Regina Barber and Emily Kwong about the music of Earth's magnetosphere, a mission to Jupiter's icy moons, and a potential runaway supermassive black hole.