Space News

See what's up in the night sky for June 2015, including stargazing events and the moon's phases, in this Space.com gallery courtesy of Starry Night Software.

The June and July summary of upcoming astronomy, space and geophysics events. Highlights this time include three major astronomy and space conferences and the New Horizons encounter with Pluto.   22-26 June: European We...

Is the sun trying to send a message? A pair of giant filaments on the face of the sun have formed what appears to be an enormous arrow pointing to the right. If straightened out, each filament would be about as long as t...

Outer space might be the toughest environment for life, but some hearty microbes have been able to survive in it for surprising amounts of time. How long they can do so and why they are able to withstand the difficulties...

The restoration of America's ability to launch American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) from American soil in 2017 took a major step forward when NASA ordered the first ever commercial human spaceflig...

New Horizons' hunt for new moons, rings and other potential hazards near Pluto has turned up nothing so far.

Europe's Ariane 5 rocket on May 27 successfully delivered two direct-broadcast television satellites into transfer orbit for DirecTV in the vehicle's 65th consecutive success and the second of six missions planned for 20...

On Sunday, May 31, the Cassini spacecraft will perform its last close pass of Hyperion, Saturn’s curiously spongelike moon. At approximately 9:36 a.m. EDT (13:36 UTC) it will zip past Hyperion at a distance of about 21...

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station....

Virgin Galactic's second SpaceShipTwo passenger ship is coming together, with the commercial spaceliner lowering its landing gear for the first time last week.

Astrophotographer Giuseppe Petricca took this image of the ISS, the Moon, Venus, Mars, Mercury and the Leaning Tower of Pisa from Pisa, Tuscany, Italy.

NASA engineers talk about the specialized tools they developed to keep Hubble running for a quarter of a decade.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been wowing space fans with amazing cosmic views for 25 years, but only because of repairs and upgrades by visiting astronauts. See the tools astronauts used to fix and repair the Hubble Sp...

At a traditional stone-laying ceremony outside La Serena, Chile on April 14th, construction officially began of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). This ambitious international astrophysics project is slated to s...

On June 3, 1965, NASA astronaut Ed White became the first American to walk in space. NASA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United States' first extravehicular activity (EVA) -- better known as a spacewalk -- th...

@AstroSamantha: Good night from #space 22 May 2015...

Super-sharp observations with the telescope Alma have revealed what seems to be a gigantic flare on the surface of Mira, one of the closest and most famous red giant stars in the sky....

The journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) encourages authors to prepare their papers using the LaTeX document preparation software. MNRAS provides a LaTeX package (called 'mnras') which allows...

The Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) has been reopened at its new location on the forward port of the Tranquility module. Commander Terry Virts and Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti worked on completing ...

Airbus Safran Launchers, which is building Europe's next-generation Ariane 6 rocket, on May 29 said it had agreed to contribute 400 million euros ($440 million) to the development contract it expects to sign with the Eur...

@AstroSamantha: Hallo #Chile! Look at those snow-capped volcano tops "casually dropped" to contour the Salar of Atacama...

NASA has selected prime contractor Jacobs Technology, Inc., of Tullahoma, Tennessee, to provide facilities maintenance support services at the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. This procurement ...