Space News

If you were Captain of the first USS Enterprise, where would you go!? Humanity is on the cusp of reaching out among the stars, maybe not just yet, nor in our lifetimes but it is just around the corner... cosmologically speaking. A new paper explores the new technology that could make it a reality but …

LMS instrument aboard the Blue Ghost Lander heading to Mare Crisium in mid-January As part of its Artemis campaign, NASA is developing a series of increasingly complex lunar deliveries and missions to... ultimately build a sustained human presence at the Moon for decades to come. Through the agency's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative, commercial […]

February 29, 2024 caused quite a stir for a giant satellite provider.

On Jan. 10, 2025, NASA astronaut Don Pettit posted two images of the Los Angeles fires from the International Space Station. Multiple destructive fires broke out in the hills of Los Angeles County in... early January 2025, fueled by a dry landscape and winds that gusted up to 100 miles per hour. See satellite imagery of […]

Visiting Antarctica -- and, in particular, Ukraine's Vernadsky Research Base on the continent's peninsula -- was a lifelong dream for two Ukrainian soldiers.

Scientists conducted largest ever genetic analysis of geologically and ecologically diverse group of chimpanzees.

From new perspectives on the early universe to illuminating the extreme environment near a black hole, discoveries from NASA missions will be highlighted at the 245th meeting of the American... Astronomical Society (AAS). The meeting will take place Jan. 12-16 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Press conferences highlighting

Mars will be at perigee, its closest point to Earth, on Sunday, Jan. 12, appearing bigger and brighter in the sky. Here's how to view the Red Planet at its best for 2025.

NASA selected 15 visionary ideas for its NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) program which develops concepts to transform future missions for the benefit of all. Chosen from companies and... institutions across the United States, the 2025 Phase I awardees represent a wide range of aerospace concepts. The NIAC program nurtures innovation by funding early-stage technology concept studies […]

LignoSat's six-month mission will demonstrate whether wood could help reduce the environmental impact of spaceflight in the future.

Carrying NASA science and technology to the Moon as part of the agency's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 is targeting... launch Wednesday, Jan. 15. The mission will lift off on a SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center […]

Phase I Phillip AnsellHydrogen Hybrid Power for Aviation Sustainable Systems (Hy2PASS)University of IllinoisUrbana, IL 61801-29572025 Phase I Ryan BensonConstruction Assembly DestinationThinkOrbital... Inc.Boulder, CO 80303-00012025 Phase I Martin BermudezLunar Glass Structure (LUNGS): Enabling Construction of Monolithic Habitats in Low-Gravity EnvironmentSkyeports LLCSacramento, CA 95811-00012025 Phase I Christine GreggDynamically Stable Large Space Structures via Architected MetamaterialsNASA Ames Research […]

Justin YimUniversity of Illinois We propose Legged Exploration Across the Plume (LEAP), based on the Salto jumping robot as a novel multi-jet robotic sampling concept for Enceladus to be deployed from... Enceladus Orbilander. If successful, LEAP will enable collection of pristine, ocean-derived material directly from Enceladus’s jets and measurement of particle properties across multiple jets […]

Ryan WeedHelicity Space LLC This proposal aims to revolutionize space exploration by developing a constellation of spacecraft powered by the Helicity Drive, a compact and scalable fusion propulsion... system. This innovative technology will enable rapid, multi-directional exploration of the heliosphere and beyond, providing unprecedented insights into the Sun’s vast influence on our solar system and […]

Kimberly WeaverNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Some of the most enigmatic objects in the Universe are giant supermassive black holes (SMBH). Yet after 30 years of study, we don’t know precisely... how these objects produce their power. This requires observations at X-ray wavelengths. The state-of-the-art for X-ray images is Chandra (~0.5-1 arcsecond resolution) but this […]

Saurabh VilekarPrecision Combustion Precision Combustion, Inc. (PCI) proposes to develop a uniquely compact, lightweight, low-power, and durable Microlith® Thermo-Photo-Catalytic (TPC) Reactor... for crewed Mars transit spacecraft O2 supply. As crewed space exploration mission destinations move from low Earth orbit to sustained lunar surface habitation toward Mars exploration, the need becomes more intense to supplant heritage […]

Selim ShahriarNorthwestern University, Evanston Progress in physics has largely been driven by the development and verification of new theories that unify different fundamental forces of nature. For... example, Maxwell revolutionized physics with his unified theory of electricity and magnetism, and the Standard Model of particle physics provides a consistent description of all fundamental forces (electromagnetic, […]

Marco QuadrelliNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory There is a strong coupling mechanism between the lithosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere, atmosphere, and the plasmasphere of many planetary bodies. For... example, the ionosphere has been shown to respond to space weather events induced by Solar activity, as well as to atmospheric events, and events in the surface and interior of […]

John MatherNASA Goddard Space Flight Center We will design the first family of ISEE’s (Inflatable Starshade for Earthlike Exoplanets) with sizes from 35 to 100 m diameter. A starshade would... enable any telescope to observe exoplanets, a top priority for astronomy worldwide. Compared with other starshade concepts, we aim for a lower mass, cost and […]

Scientists want to know if a tidal disruption event that exploded twice is the result of a star abandoning its binary partner, allowing it to be devoured by a supermassive black hole.

Week in images: 06-10 January 2025 Discover our week through the lens

The Panasonic Lumix GH7 is Panasonic's flagship G-series camera with features and functionality covering both professional photo and video capture.

A whitish, gray patch that sometimes appears in the night sky alongside the northern lights has been explained for the first time by researchers at the University of Calgary.

Astronomers have been battling threats to their clear skies on all fronts lately. One of the most notable battles, which we have reported on repeatedly, is the one against Starlink and other... mega-constellations of satellites, which, while they offer high-speed internet in the most far-flung places, also disrupt observations by sensitive telescopes due to their …

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 21 Starlink satellites from Florida today (Jan. 10). It was the 25th mission for the rocket's first stage, a new record.