Space

Science

How the James Webb Space Telescope transformed astronomy this year

5:00am December 25, 2022

One year ago, on Christmas Day, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched. Since it began collecting data, it has captured - in stunning detail - previously unobservable stars, planets and galaxies.

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.

How does time work, anyway? Turns out, it isn't the absolute measurement you may think it is. Time stretches and bends. The version of time we shape our lives around is a social construct.

Science

Researchers say time is an illusion. So why are we all obsessed with it?

6:07am December 16, 2022

by Geoff Brumfiel

Even guardians of America's atomic clocks say time doesn't work the way we think it does.

A man watches a meteor during the Geminid meteor shower over Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire.

Science

A spectacular meteor shower called the Geminids will peak on Tuesday evening

10:41am December 13, 2022

by Roshan Fernandez

The Geminids meteor shower, one of the best and most reliable of the year, will peak on Tuesday night.

Eight artists are chosen for a trip around the moon

4:37pm December 12, 2022

Eight artists have been chosen for a trip around the moon on a SpaceX flight called the "dearMoon project."

Artemis I returns from the moon with hopes to get astronauts back there soon

5:00am December 12, 2022

by Brendan Byrne

NASA's Artemis mission came to an end on Sunday when the Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. It ended a monthlong uncrewed mission to lunar orbit and back.

NASA's Orion Capsule splashes down after a successful uncrewed Artemis I Moon Mission on Sunday, seen from aboard the USS Portland in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.

National

NASA's Artemis I returns from the moon with hopes to get astronauts back there soon

6:33pm December 11, 2022

by Ashley Ahn

The successful splashdown of the spacecraft with no humans aboard keeps NASA's Artemis mission on track to put the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface by 2025.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with a payload including two lunar rovers from Japan and the United Arab Emirates, lifts off from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022.

A Japanese company has fired a rocket carrying a lunar rover to the moon

5:51am December 11, 2022

by The Associated Press

A Tokyo company aimed for the moon with its own private lander Sunday, blasting off atop a SpaceX rocket with the United Arab Emirates' first lunar rover and a toylike robot from Japan.

It's been 50 years since the Apollo 17 mission put humans on the moon

6:13pm December 07, 2022

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 17 mission — the last one that put humans on the moon. NPR takes a look at the mission and what it means for future travel to our lunar companion.

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Orion's maximum distance from Earth was achieved on flight day 13, when it was 268,563 miles away. That's farther than any other spacecraft built for people--but only mannequins were on board.

Science

50 years since the last Apollo astronauts went to the moon, NASA is finally going back

3:54pm December 07, 2022

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

December 7, 1972 was the launch of the final mission in NASA's Apollo moon program. Fifty years later, NASA finally seems poised to return people to the lunar surface.