Space
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Latest News
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Rocket Lab nails its first ever booster recovery attempt
Startup Rocket Lab has joined SpaceX and Blue Origin in the world of rocket recovery, today bringing its Electron booster back down to Earth for the first time ever as part of its landmark “Return to Sender” mission. -
Earth's nearest miss on record as small asteroid zips by closer than ISS
Last week, the Earth had its closest shave with an asteroid ever recorded, when a small space rock skimmed just 370 km (230 miles) above the surface. For comparison, that’s closer than the orbit of the International Space Station. -
SpaceX's Crew Dragon delivers four astronauts to the ISS
Following the historic Crew-1 launch, which saw four astronauts lifted into space from US soil on the first ever crewed operational flight of a commercial spacecraft, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has now safely docked with the International Space Station. -
Isotopes suggest solar system formed in under 200,000 years
Based on isotope analysis of meteorites, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have determined that our solar system may have formed much faster than previously thought. -
UK government examining potential for orbital solar power plants by 2050
The British government has commissioned a new study into building an orbital solar power station by 2050. It will look into space-based systems that use giant solar arrays to generate electricity and beam it to Earth in the form of microwaves. -
Asteroid's drifting orbit may impact chance of 2068 collision with Earth
Asteroid Apophis has attracted its share of attention, with several projected close shaves with Earth in the coming decades. While most have been ruled out, a previously-overlooked factor has opened a small window for a possible collision in 2068. -
Crew-1 lifts off on historic International Space Station mission
History was made today as the US, after a nine-year hiatus, returned to regular crewed space flights from American soil to the International Space Station (ISS) with the launch of the SpaceX Crew-1 mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. -
Booster rocket from 1966 Surveyor 2 may have returned to Earth orbit
A relic of the 1960s Space Race may be paying Earth a brief visit with NASA announcing that a rocket booster from the 1966 Surveyor 2 robotic Moon lander mission is suspected to have returned from deep space and taken up temporary orbit around Earth. -
Ariel mission to study exoplanet atmospheres enters implementation phase
ESA has given the go-ahead for its Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (Ariel) mission to progress from the study phase to the implementation phase, with an industrial contractor to build the spacecraft to be chosen in mid-2021. -
Neutron star collision sheds new light on short gamma ray bursts
A short burst of gamma rays 5.47 billion light years from Earth caused by the collision of two neutron stars that put out more energy in a half-second than the Sun could in 10 billion years has revealed the truth about luminous infrared kilonova. -
Radar given telescope-like ability to collect data on space dust
By analyzing data from radar and optical telescopes, scientists have given radar the ability to make observations of meteors that burn up in the Earth's atmosphere that have previously only possible using optical telescopes. -
NASA certifies SpaceX's spacecraft ahead of landmark Crew-1 mission
After a long road featuring uncrewed test flights, launchpad explosions, parachute tests and finally crewed test flights, NASA has now officially certified SpaceX’s spacecraft system for transporting humans to the International Space Station (ISS).