Starship SN4 became SpaceX’s first full-scale Starship prototype to pass a cryogenic proof test on Sunday evening at SpaceX’s launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. The cryogenic proof is one of the first tests necessary to prove the vehicle’s flight-worthiness. With the successful test, SpaceX teams will now work towards a static fire, and then... Continue Reading →

These two Hubble Space Telescope images of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), taken on April 20 and 23, 2020, provide the sharpest views yet of the breakup of the fragile comet. Hubble identified about 30 fragments on April 20, and 25 pieces on April 23. They are all enveloped in a sunlight-swept tail of cometary dust. "Their... Continue Reading →

A large near-Earth asteroid will safely pass by our planet on Wednesday morning, providing astronomers with an exceptional opportunity to study the 1.5-mile-wide (2-kilometer-wide) object in great detail. The asteroid, called 1998 OR2, will make its closest approach at 5:55 a.m. EDT (2:55 a.m. PDT). While this is known as a "close approach" by astronomers,... Continue Reading →

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps — a branch of the country’s armed forces — launched a small military spacecraft into orbit Wednesday, ending a string of rocket failures in the nascent Iranian satellite program. The small military craft, named Noor, flew into orbit on top of a multi-stage Qased rocket, according to Iranian state... Continue Reading →

An Atlas 5 first stage was raised vertical Thursday inside United Launch Alliance’s Vertical Integration Facility. Credit: United Launch Alliance  United Launch Alliance technicians raised the first stage of the company’s next Atlas 5 rocket onto a mobile launch platform at Cape Canaveral Thursday, kicking off the launch vehicle’s build-up for a mission scheduled for... Continue Reading →

Members of NASA's Perseverance rover mission work remotely from home during the coronavirus outbreak. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech From the moment the mission began in 2013, the women and men working on what would become NASA's Perseverance Mars rover knew they'd encounter unexpected challenges on their way to Mars. After all, no NASA mission to the surface of... Continue Reading →

As astronauts explore the Moon during the Artemis program, they may need to make use of the resources that already exist on the lunar surface. Take water, for instance: Because it's a heavy and therefore expensive resource to launch from Earth, our future explorers might have to seek out ice to mine. Once excavated, it can be... Continue Reading →

By Philip Sloss, https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/ NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program is pursuing ways to accelerate development of the on-again, off-again next evolution of the launch vehicle. The main change from the initial Block 1 vehicle to the Block 1B version of the rocket is the larger, higher performance Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). Delays primarily with Core... Continue Reading →

They’ve worked in the deadly vacuum of outer space, appropriated millions of dollars for astronomical research, peered across billions of light-years to determine the universe’s age, and convinced the United States Congress to support the boldest astronomy endeavor ever undertaken by humans. To commemorate Hubble’s 30th anniversary, we present these profiles of four extraordinarily talented and... Continue Reading →

The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on the passing of the agency’s sixth administrator, James Beggs, on April 23. Mr. Beggs served as NASA administrator from July 1981 to December 1985.   “NASA sends its condolences to the family of James Beggs. Mr. Beggs led the agency during the earliest days... Continue Reading →