OSIRIS-REx, a NASA spacecraft tasked with collecting rocks and dust from a nearby asteroid named Bennu, is coming back home after almost five years away. The spacecraft, officially named Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, officially fired its engines to begin its Earthward journey on May 10. Its return trip will take two Read more about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Is Racing Back to Earth With a Scoop of Asteroid Bennu[…]

China today launched the main module of its new space station into low Earth orbit. The ambitious project is set to be China’s answer to the International Space Station, which has never included China in its membership. The 55-foot core module is called Tianhe, or Harmony of the Heavens. It blasted off from the Wenchang Read more about China’s Space Station Is Closer to Reality With Launch of Core Module[…]

Humans have explored and exploited near-earth space for more than six decades. More recently, the past two decades have seen the start of a New Space Era, characterized by more spacefaring nations and companies and a growing risk of collisions and conflict. Yet the basic treaties and mechanisms that were crafted 50 years ago to Read more about Responsible Space Behavior for the New Space Era: Preserving the Province of Humanity[…]

A band of dust that follows Venus along its entire orbital path has finally been viewed in full, thanks to a series of fortuitous maneuvers involving NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. Astronomers suspected it was there, but now we know it’s real: a band of particles distributed along Venus’s orbital path around the Sun. […] A Read more about Parker Solar Probe Captures View of Venus’s Orbital Dust Ring[…]

Stuff in Space is a realtime 3D map of objects in Earth orbit, visualized using WebGL. The website updates daily with orbit data from Space-Track.org and uses the excellent satellite.js Javascript library to calculate satellite positions. About the author Contact: info@stuffin.space See Stuff in Space on GitHub Source: Stuff in Space

In recent days, NASA published three aerial photos taken by Ingenuity. These aren’t the first photos taken by the rover. It has previously sent back images of its shadows taken with its downward-facing navigation camera. And let’s not forget its watchful and proud surrogate parent, the Perseverance rover, which snaps magnificent photos of the helicopter Read more about These Are Ingenuity’s First Color In-Flight Photos of Mars[…]

The drone, called Ingenuity, was airborne for less than a minute, but Nasa is celebrating what represents the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft on another world. Confirmation came via a satellite at Mars which relayed the chopper’s data back to Earth. The space agency is promising more adventurous flights in the days ahead. Read more about Nasa successfully flies small helicopter on Mars – first powered flight on another planet[…]

Two satellites from the fast-growing constellations of OneWeb and SpaceX’s Starlink dodged a dangerously close approach with one another in orbit last weekend, representatives from the US Space Force and OneWeb said. It’s the first known collision avoidance event for the two rival companies as they race to expand their new broadband-beaming networks in space. Read more about OneWeb, SpaceX satellites dodged a potential collision in orbit[…]

[…] NASA has chosen Elon Musk‘s SpaceX to build the spacecraft that take the first woman and next man to the moon. The American space agency made the official announcement Friday, which includes SpaceX’s  $2.9 billion contract to build the lunar lander that is reportedly much lower than what competitors bid. The Washington Post shared the news Read more about NASA decides to blow up first woman going to the moon by choosing Elon Musk’s SpaceX to try to bring her there on basis of supercheap contract[…]

[…] To speed up the pace of NTP tech development, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected a trio of companies to build and demonstrate a nuclear-based propulsion system on a spacecraft above low-Earth orbit by 2025. The prime contractors include Jeff Bezos’ private space project Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, and General Read more about DARPA picks Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin to build nuclear spacecraft[…]

Blue Origin has successfully completed a test launch and landing of its reuseable New Shepard rocket with an advanced capsule design, bringing the outfit one step closer to eventually sending up paying passengers. The test flight, codenamed NS-15 as it’s the 15th to date, was conducted at 1651 UTC (1151 CDT) at a Blue Origin Read more about Blue Origin launches and lands space rockets without exploding. Unlike SpaceX.[…]

Intelsat’s IS-10-02 communications satellite was running low on fuel — it’s been in orbit since 2004, after all, and has already exceeded its original mission lifespan by five years. Thanks to Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle-2 (MEV-2), however, it gained another five years of life and will stay operational instead of being decommissioned. MEV-2 launched Read more about Northrop’s servicing robot extends the life of an orbiting satellite by five years[…]

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has unveiled plans for an enormous inflatable space station tended by cargo and crew carrying versions of its Dream Chaser spaceplane. “There is no scalable space travel industry without a spaceplane,” said SNC chair and owner Eren Ozmen. That’s handy, because with the retirement of the Space Shuttle, the Dream Chaser Read more about Sierra Nevada Corporation resurrects plans for crewed Dream Chaser spaceplane, inflatable space station[…]

Virgin Galactic took to YouTube to reveal, briefly, its first SpaceShip III, which will start ground tests and “glide flights” later this year. It’s an eye-catching vessel, channeling that Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Naboo starship look in a wonderful way. It’s finished with a mirror-like material that’s meant to reflect its surroundings, whether that’s Read more about Virgin Galactic’s VSS Imagine is its shiny, next-gen spaceship[…]

SpaceX continued its rich tradition of destroying Starship prototypes with SN11 succumbing to an explosive end during a high-altitude flight test. Originally planned for 29 March, the test flight from the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas, had been postponed until this morning because a Federal Aviation Administrator (FAA) had been unable reach the site Read more about Another successful flight for SpaceX’s Starship apart from the landing-in-one-piece thing[…]

[…] Whereas Earth has always been a terrestrial, rocky world, GJ 1132 b began its life as a gaseous, Neptune-like planet. But as new research shows, a nearby red dwarf obliterated its original hydrogen- and helium-rich atmosphere with powerful radiation, so GJ 1132 b, having been stripped down to its rocky core, is now technically Read more about Having Lost Its Original Atmosphere, This Planet Is Now Growing a New One[…]

SpaceX rocket prototype, known as SN10, soared over South Texas during test flight Wednesday before swooping down to a pinpoint landing near its launch site. Approximately three minutes after landing, however, multiple independent video feeds showed the rocket exploding on its landing pad. SpaceX’s SN10, an early prototype of the company’s Starship Mars rocket, took Read more about SpaceX Mars prototype rocket nails landing for the first time – then explodes[…]

Swarm, developer of the world’s lowest-cost live satellite communications network, today announced that the Swarm network is now commercially live and available for customers to begin using. Swarm is the first low-cost satellite provider to offer commercial services to every point in the world, and companies in markets ranging from agriculture, to logistics to maritime Read more about Swarm Announces Commercial Availability of Industry’s Lowest-Cost Global Satellite Data Service[…]

The latest prototype of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, the SN9, burst into flames as the vehicle attempted to land on Earth on Tuesday. All eyes were on the craft after its predecessor, the SN8, exploded during touchdown in December in Boca Chica, Texas. You can watch today’s detonation in the video below. The accident occurs after Read more about Musk see: Watch SpaceX’s latest Starship rocket explode while trying to touch down • The Register[…]

A 70-foot rocket, riding beneath the wing of a retrofitted Boeing 747 aircraft, detached from the plane and fired itself into Earth’s orbit on Sunday — marking the first successful launch for the California-based rocket startup Virgin Orbit. Virgin Orbit’s 747, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off from California around 10:30 am PT with the rocket, Read more about Virgin Orbit launches rocket off a 747 aircraft, puts satellites into orbit[…]

You might think metal satellites burn up on re-entry, but as it turns out, it’s not that simple. “We are very concerned with the fact that all the satellites which re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years,” Takao Doi, an astronaut and Read more about Japanese Researchers Are Working to Create Wooden Satellites[…]

There’s a giant asteroid somewhere out in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth. The evidence for this mystery space rock comes from a diamond-studded meteor that exploded over Sudan in 2008. NASA had spotted the 9-ton (8,200 kilograms), 13-foot (4 meters) meteor heading toward the planet well before impact, and Read more about Mysterious water rich asteroid the size of a dwarf planet is lurking in our solar system[…]

he fledgling U.S. Space Force has announced the name by which its members will be called: Guardians. This is one of the last remaining organizational changes for America’s newest branch to make to give it a distinct from its parent, the U.S. Air Force. The service already has its own unique unit designations, insignias and Read more about Space Force Troops Finally Have A Name: Guardians[…]

For the first time in 44 years, a spacecraft has brought lunar samples to Earth. With the Chang’e 5 mission complete, China now joins a very exclusive club, reinforcing the country’s role as a major player in space exploration. China is now only the third country to collect samples from the Moon and bring them Read more about Lunar Samples Land on Earth, Completing China’s Most Challenging ‘Space Adventure’[…]

Invisible structures generated by gravitational interactions in the Solar System have created a “space superhighway” network, astronomers have discovered. These channels enable the fast travel of objects through space, and could be harnessed for our own space exploration purposes, as well as the study of comets and asteroids. By applying analyses to both observational and Read more about Astronomers Just Found Cosmic ‘Superhighways’ For Fast Travel Through The Solar System[…]