WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Astronomers have determined the cause of the dramatic dimming observed last year and earlier this year of one of the brightest stars in the night sky, a colossus called Betelgeuse that appears to be on its way toward a violent death. Bas... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is an “ocean world” with a big reservoir of salty water under its frigid surface, scientists said in findings that raise interest in this dwarf planet as a possible... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, home two days from a landmark mission as NASA’s first crew to fly a privately built vehicle into orbit, recounted on Tuesday the loud, jarring ride they experienced through Earth’s atmosphere before a sa... More »
(Reuters) – Billionaire Richard Branson will fly into space on a Virgin Galactic rocketship early next year, the space tourism company he founded said on Monday, adding that it would raise new funds with a share offering. Branson’s trip to space hinges on the ... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who flew to the International Space Station in SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon, splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday after a two-month voyage that was NASA’s first crewed mission from home soil in nine... More »
(Reuters) – The two NASA astronauts who rode to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon are heading home for a Sunday splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, capping a two-month voyage in space that marked NASA’s first crewed mission from hom... More »
(This July 30 story refiles to add details on previous NASA rovers, landers) By Joey Roulette (Reuters) – NASA’s next-generation Mars rover Perseverance blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Thursday atop an Atlas 5 rocket on a $2.4 billion mission to s... More »
(Reuters) – NASA is set to launch an ambitious mission to Mars on Thursday with the liftoff of its next-generation Perseverance rover, a six-wheeled robot tasked with deploying a mini helicopter, testing out equipment for future human missions and searching fo... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have identified 37 volcanic structures on Venus that appear to be recently active – and probably still are today – painting the picture of a geologically dynamic planet and not a dormant world as long thought. The research foc... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates launched its first mission to Mars on Monday as it strives to develop its scientific and technological capabilities and reduce its reliance on oil. The Hope Probe blasted off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center at 1... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The NASA astronauts who traveled to the International Space Station in SpaceX’s first crewed flight in May are expected to return to Earth on Aug. 2 after spending two months in orbit, a NASA spokesman said on Friday. U.S. astronauts Bob... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates said on Friday it would launch its mission to Mars on July 20, depending on weather conditions at the launch site in Japan, Dubai’s media office said on Twitter. The launch of the UAE’s Hope Probe from Japan’s Tanegas... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A solar probe built by the European Space Agency and NASA has delivered the closest photos ever taken of the sun’s surface, revealing a landscape rife with thousands of tiny solar flares that scientists dubbed “campfires” and offering cl... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates has rescheduled the launch of its mission to Mars to a preliminary window between July 20 and July 22, depending on weather conditions at the launch site in Japan, the government’s communications office said on Thursd... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates has postponed the launch of its mission to Mars for a second time due to weather conditions at the launch site in Japan, the government’s communications office said on Wednesday. A new launch date in July will be anno... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said Tuesday he still expected support from Russia’s space corporation in its Artemis moon program despite Moscow’s space chief slamming the U.S.-led lunar effort. Bridenstine said in an interview with ... More »
(Reuters) – A rocket from small-satellite launch firm Rocket Lab failed to reach orbit minutes after a successful liftoff from New Zealand on Saturday, the company said, losing its payload of seven small satellites it had intended to carry to space. “An issue ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A rocky planet 39 times as massive as Earth has been spotted orbiting a distant star at breakneck speed, with astronomers concluding it may be the surviving core of a planet once perhaps larger than Jupiter that was stripped of its gaseo... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Up to three planets – potentially rocky like Earth – have been spotted around a star located relatively near our solar system – a planetary system offering astronomers intriguing possibilities in the search for signs of extraterrestrial ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have figured out how the subsurface ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa may have formed and determined that this vast expanse of water may have been able to support microbial life in the past. Europa, with an ocean hidden beneath a... More »
(This June 22 story corrects Fahrenheit conversion of surface temperature in parapagrah 6) By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pluto, a frigid little world inhabiting the solar system’s outer reaches, may have been born as a warmer place sheltering a subsurf... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China indefinitely postponed on Tuesday the launch of the final satellite of its Beidou navigation network because of technical problems in the rocket meant to launch it into orbit. The official website for the Beidou network said in a stat... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese Beidou navigation network will be complete this month when its final satellite goes into orbit, giving China greater independence from U.S.-owned GPS and heating up competition in a sector long dominated by the United States. Th... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Americans should show more respect for Russia’s space program after relying on it for nine years as the only way to send U.S. astronauts into orbit, the head of Russia’s space agency said. The United States launched the first astronauts from... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA on Friday set the stage for a global debate over the basic principles governing how humans will live and work on the moon, as it released the main tenets of an international pact for moon exploration called the Artemis Accords. The ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Astronomers have spotted the closest black hole to Earth ever discovered and are surprised about its living arrangements – residing harmoniously with two stars in a remarkable celestial marriage that may end in a nasty breakup. The black... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two NASA astronauts gearing up to ride SpaceX’s new space taxi will now be on a mission planned to last more than a month, instead of a week, to help the short-handed crew aboard the International Space Station, the U.S. space agency sai... More »
((This April 30 story has been corrected to say Starship can carry more than 100 metric tonnes of cargo, not 100 pounds in paragraph 9. The error occurred in a previous version as well.)) By Joey Rouelette (Reuters) – NASA on Thursday selected space firms Spac... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The sun appears to be far less active than similar stars in terms of brightness variations caused by sunspots and other phenomena – a “boring” personality, according to scientists, that may not be a bad thing for us Earthlings. Researche... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s space agency on Friday unveiled the name of its first Mars exploration mission, coinciding with China’s annual Space Day and the 50th anniversary of the launch of its first satellite. The Mars mission has been named Tianwen-1, the o... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have observed what appears to be the aftermath of a violent collision between two planetary building blocks orbiting a large and luminous star, a glimpse of the type of carnage that may have been commonplace early in our solar... More »
(Reuters) – NASA on Friday set a launch date of May 27 for its first astronaut mission from U.S. soil in nearly 10 years. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s space company, SpaceX, will send two NASA astronauts ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have discovered that a comet called 2I/Borisov – only the second interstellar object ever detected passing through the solar system – is surprisingly different in its composition from comets hailing from our celestial neighbor... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have observed the biggest supernova – stellar explosion – ever detected, the violent death of a huge star up to 100 times more massive than our sun in a faraway galaxy. The supernova, releasing twice as much energy as any othe... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A reddish-colored cigar-shaped interstellar object called ‘Oumuamua that is tumbling through our solar system may be wreckage from a planet ripped apart when it roamed too close to the faraway star it once orbited, according to researche... More »
(Reuters) – Boeing Co said on Monday it would send its Starliner astronaut spacecraft on another unmanned mission to the International Space Station, months after its last flight was cut short because of a software bug. During the December test, a series of so... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have detected a mid-size black hole – considered the “missing link” in the understanding of these celestial brutes – eviscerating an unfortunate star that strayed too close. Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope and two X... More »
(Reuters) – NASA on Friday picked a new space capsule from Elon Musk’s SpaceX to ferry cargo and supplies to the agency’s planned lunar space station, a crucial building block to its plans to build a permanent post on the moon and mount future missions to Mars... More »
(Reuters) – Private rocket company SpaceX had an incident during parachute testing for its Crew Dragon capsule, in which the simulated spacecraft being tested became unstable and was dropped early, according to a tweet from a CNBC reporter. No one was injured ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have detected an exotic planet in another solar system where the weather forecast is always dire – a 100 percent chance of the most outrageous rain imaginable, with droplets of scaldingly hot liquid iron. The researchers said ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A new probe built by NASA and the European Space Agency set off on a blazing hot journey to the sun on Sunday to take the first close-up look at the star’s polar regions, a mission expected to yield insight into how solar radiant energy ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A new spacecraft built jointly by U.S. and European space agencies is ready for a blazing journey to the sun to capture an unprecedented view of its two poles, an angle that could help researchers understand how the star’s vast bubble of... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The UK firm OneWeb launched 34 satellites from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early on Friday as part of its effort to provide global high-speed internet access using satellite communications by 2021. The Russian Soyuz rocket left Baikonu... More »
(Reuters) – Boeing narrowly missed a “catastrophic failure” during its December flight test of an unmanned space taxi that was cut short by an unrelated problem, a NASA safety review panel said Thursday, recommending that the agency examine Boeing’s software v... More »
(Reuters) – A capsule carrying a crew of three from the International Space Station, including record-setting United States astronaut Christina Koch, landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday, a live feed by Russian space agency Roscosmos showed. The touchdown on a sno... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX simulated a dramatic emergency landing on Sunday to test a crucial abort system on an unmanned astronaut capsule, the company’s final milestone test before flying NASA astronauts from U.S. soil.A Crew Dragon astron... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL (Reuters) – Bad weather forced Elon Musk’s SpaceX to delay until Sunday a test in which it will destroy one of its own rockets in a trial of a crucial emergency abort system on an unmanned astronaut capsule. The test, the company’s final milesto... More »
(Reuters) – NASA is opening an independent investigation with Boeing over a software glitch that prevented its unmanned astronaut capsule from reaching the International Space Station in December, the agency said on Tuesday. Boeing Co’s (BA.N) CST-100 Starline... More »
BENGALURU (Reuters) – India has approved its third lunar mission months after its last one failed to successfully land on the moon, its space agency said on Wednesday, the latest effort in its ambitions to become a low-cost space power. The Chandrayaan-3 missi... More »
PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) – A NASA robotic rover is nearing completion ahead of a journey next year to search for evidence of past life on Mars and lay the groundwork for the space agency’s mission to send humans into deep space. The U.S. space agency on Frid... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing Co’s Starliner astronaut spacecraft landed in the New Mexico desert on Sunday, the company said, after faulty software forced officials to cut short an unmanned mission aimed at taking it to the International Space Station. The 7:... More »
(Reuters) – The Boeing Co Starliner spacecraft that failed to hit the right orbit to reach the International Space Station is healthy, in a stable orbit and expected to land in New Mexico on Sunday morning, NASA said. Boeing’s (BA.N) CST-100 Starliner astronau... More »
SEATTLE/CAPE CANAVERAL (Reuters) – Boeing Co’s (BA.N) stunted Friday debut of its astronaut capsule threatens to dent the U.S. aerospace incumbent’s self-declared competitive advantage of mission reliability against the price and innovation strengths of “new s... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – Boeing Co (BA.N) is set to launch its new astronaut capsule on Friday on its first unmanned journey to the International Space Station, a milestone test for the U.S. aerospace firm that is vying with SpaceX to revive NASA’s hum... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An intelligent robot equipped with emotion-sensing voice detectors was headed to the International Space Station after launching from Florida on Thursday, becoming the latest artificial intelligence-powered astronaut workmate in orbit. T... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Troves of new data from a NASA probe’s close encounters with the sun are giving scientists unique insight about the solar wind and space weather more generally as the spacecraft zooms through the outermost part of the star’s atmosphere. ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing’s multibillion dollar contract to build U.S. astronaut capsules received an “unnecessary” extension from NASA, a watchdog report said on Thursday, the latest management blunders in the agency’s program to restart domestic human sp... More »
HUAILAI, China (Reuters) – China on Thursday successfully completed a crucial landing test in northern Hebei province ahead of a historic unmanned exploration mission to Mars next year. China is on track to launch its Mars mission, Zhang Kejian, head of the Ch... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – A satellite mission to measure global methane emissions from oil and gas facilities will be based in New Zealand, the government said on Wednesday, in a collaboration with a U.S. environmental group. The MethaneSAT, due to be launched in... More »
(The Nov 4 story corrects speed of cosmic rays in paragraph 10.) By Joey Roulette WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The journey of NASA’s dauntless Voyager 2 spacecraft through our solar system’s farthest reaches has given scientists new insight into a poorly understood ... More »
SEATTLE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing Co said on Monday that one of three parachutes failed to deploy during an otherwise successful safety test of its unmanned CST-100 Starliner crew capsule, being developed to ferry astronauts to and from the International S... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA will send a golf cart-sized robot to the moon in 2022 to search for deposits of water below the surface, an effort to evaluate the vital resource ahead of a planned human return to the moon in 2024 to possibly use it for astronauts ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – (This October 22 story has been refiled to correct headline to say software rather than robotics, first paragraph to clarify that the Olis software would run on a Maxar robotic arm, paragraphs 2 and 3 to state that the robotic arm belong... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will launch test flights for the next two space rockets in its Smart Dragon series meant for commercial use in 2020 and 2021, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday, as an expected boom in satellite deployment gathers pace... More »
(Reuters) – Two NASA astronauts made space history on Friday, completing the first spacewalk by an all-woman team when they stepped outside the International Space Station. Christina Koch and Jessica Meir accomplished the much-anticipated milestone for NASA du... More »
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – When astronauts orbit the moon or live on its surface in the decade ahead, they will probably be doing so inside inflatable space lodges now in development. Dozens of NASA officials and veteran astronauts are wrapping up a review of five ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA on Tuesday showed off two new spacesuits tailored for future moonwalking astronauts, signaling development of a crucial component to the space agency’s accelerated drive to return to the moon by 2024. Two NASA engineers strutted on ... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan has decided to participate in a U.S. plan for putting astronauts back on the moon by 2024 and the government will officially inform the United States within this year, the Kyodo News agency reported on Thursday. The decision was made by... More »
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Stratolaunch Systems Corp, the space company founded by late billionaire and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) co-founder Paul Allen, said on Friday it was continuing operations after transitioning ownership, but did not name the new owner. The compa... More »
HAWTHORNE, Calif. (Reuters) – SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon astronaut capsule will be ready for its first manned flight into orbit in the first quarter of next year provided “everything goes according to plan” in upcoming tests, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said on T... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A lunar rover which will explore the moon on foot in 2021 was unveiled in London on Thursday. The new concept, with four legs rather than wheels, will send data back to a larger mothership, which will transmit it back to Earth. UK startup Sp... More »
(Reuters) – Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has unveiled the latest iteration of his space company’s newly assembled Starship, outlining a speedy development timeline for the centerpiece vehicle of SpaceX’s quest to launch humans to the moon and Mars. Musk ... More »
BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Reuters) – A Russian Soyuz spaceship blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan towards the International Space Station on Wednesday carrying a crew of three, including the first astronaut from the United Arab Emira... More »
(Reuters) – A newly discovered comet hurtling toward the orbit of Mars has scientists scurrying to confirm whether it came from outside the solar system, a likely prospect that would make it the second such interstellar object observed in our planetary neighbo... More »
BENGALURU (Reuters) – India has located the spacecraft it was trying to land on the moon but has not been able to establish communication with it yet, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Tuesday. The lander was making a “soft” or controlled l... More »
BENGALURU/MUMBAI (Reuters) – India lost contact with a spacecraft it was trying to land on the moon on Saturday, its space agency said, in a setback for the nation’s ambitious plans to become the first country to probe the unexplored lunar south pole. The land... More »
(Reuters) – SpaceX test-launched an early prototype of the company’s Mars rocket on Tuesday, unnerving residents near the Texas site and clearing another key hurdle in billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s interplanetary ambitions. After the launch, Musk congra... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a humanoid robot docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, TASS news agency reported, citing a live broadcast. The FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research) robot is on a... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a humanoid robot failed to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported, citing a live broadcast. The FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research)... More »
HOUSTON (Reuters) – A crew of veteran U.S. astronauts and aviators are training in Houston for a manned mission to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft, which could also be used to take tourists into space on future missions... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian humanoid robot was making its way on Thursday to the International Space Station after blasting off on a two-week mission to support the crew and test his skills. Known as FEDOR, which stands for Final Experimental Demonstration Ob... More »
(Reuters) – Direct observations from a NASA space telescope have for the first time revealed the atmospheric void of a rocky, Earth-sized world beyond our own solar system orbiting the most common type of star in the galaxy, according to a study released on Mo... More »
SEATTLE (Reuters) – The first American spacecraft expected to land on the moon in nearly 50 years will be an unmanned robotic lander built by closely held Astrobotic Technology Inc and launched in two years by United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, the compan... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese government space agency successfully launched on Saturday its first rocket meant for commercial use, state television CCTV reported, as firms in the country compete to join a commercial satellite boom. Smart Dragon-1 rocket, which... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Friday said Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will anchor the U.S. space agency’s program to build a spacecraft to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024, a boon for the state and a disappoint... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of NASA is set to announce plans on Friday to name the U.S. space agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama as headquarters for its human lunar lander program, signaling progress in its drive to put astronauts back on the... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese startup LinkSpace on Saturday completed its third test of a reusable rocket in five months, stepping up the pace in China’s race to develop a technology key to cheap space launches in an expected global boom in satellite deployment.... More »
(Reuters) – United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp, blasted off into space on Thursday morning, one of the final satellites for the U.S. Air Force’s new secure communications network. The satellite was launched at 6:... More »
(Reuters) – Small-satellite launch firm Rocket Lab announced on Tuesday a plan to recover the core booster of its Electron rocket using a helicopter, a bold cost-saving concept that, if successful, would make it the second company after Elon Musk’s SpaceX to r... More »
ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX is expanding its facilities in Florida to make room for the space company’s forthcoming super heavy-lift launch vehicle dubbed Starship, according to a draft of the plans seen by Reuters on Friday. Starship, a 384-f... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese government space agency is expected to launch its first rocket meant for commercial use in August, putting pressure on other domestic rocket firms to develop their own launch vehicles ahead of an expected commercial satellite boom... More »
(Reuters) – A small crowd-funded satellite promoted by TV host and science educator Bill Nye has been propelled into a higher orbit using only the force of sunlight blowing against its sail in space, a novel propulsion developers say could “democratize” spacef... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Beijing-based startup iSpace is planning up to eight commercial rocket launches next year, after last week becoming China’s first privately funded firm to put a satellite into orbit, its executives told Reuters. iSpace’s success has turned ... More »
SRIHARIKOTA/BENGALURU, India (Reuters) – India launched a rocket into space on Monday in an attempt to safely land a rover on the moon, its most ambitious mission yet in the effort to establish itself as a low-cost space power. If successful, the $146 million ... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – Capping a week of celebrations over the historic Apollo 11 mission, Vice President Mike Pence joined astronaut Buzz Aldrin on Saturday at the launch pad in Florida that sent the moonwalker and his two crew mates to space for hu... More »
BOULDER, Colo. (Reuters) – As the United States races to put humans back on the moon for the first time in 50 years, a NASA-funded lab in Colorado aims to send robots there to deploy telescopes that will look far into our galaxy, remotely operated by orbiting ... More »
(Reuters) – As countries and companies rush to build infrastructure on the moon, some researchers are planning to dig under its rocky soil to unlock mysteries about Earth that have eluded scientists since astronauts first stepped foot on its surface a half cen... More »
BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s space agency said it delayed the launch of its second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, in the early hours of Monday due to a “technical snag” which was observed less than an hour before the scheduled liftoff. “A technical snag was ob... More »
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit on Wednesday released a rocket from the wing of a modified Boeing 747 jetliner in mid-air in a key test of its high-altitude launch system for satellites, the company said. In the penultimate mission before Vi... More »
ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – As NASA scrambles to meet U.S. President Donald Trump’s mandate to return humans to the moon by 2024, two longtime heads of NASA’s human exploration wing were demoted Wednesday in a slew of administrative shakeups, officials said in a... More »
