ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – A NASA explorer is on track to reach the solar system’s outermost region by early Tuesday morning, when scientists expect it to fly by a space rock 20 miles long and billions of miles from Earth, the most distant close encounter of it... More »
(Reuters) – A SpaceX rocket carrying a U.S. military navigation satellite blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Sunday, marking the space transportation company’s first national security space mission for the United States. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying ... More »
(Reuters) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX scrapped Saturday’s launch of a long-delayed navigation satellite for the U.S. military due to strong upper level winds. The next launch attempt will be on Sunday at 8:51 a.m. EST/ 13:51 UTC, according to Space X officials. The l... More »
(Reuters) – Thunderstorms forced Elon Musk’s SpaceX to postpone Thursday’s launch of a navigation satellite for the U.S. military, which was poised to be the rocket company’s first national security space mission for the United States. SpaceX said its Falcon 9... More »
(Reuters) – Three members of the International Space Station’s crew returned safely to Earth on Thursday, landing in Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz craft, NASA reported. It was the first return from the space station since October, when U.S. astronaut Nick Hagu... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Spacex said on Thursday that poor weather conditions forced the cancellation of a scheduled morning launch of its Falcon 9 rocket that was to carry a global positioning system (GPS) satellite into space for the U.S. Air Force. The company ... More »
(Reuters) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX halted on Wednesday the long-delayed launch of a navigation satellite for the U.S. military, failing to complete its first designated national security mission for the United States due to a technical issue with its rocket. Space... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have discovered the most distant object known in our solar system, so remote and unusual they chose the nickname “Farout” for the slow-moving, icy, pinkish dwarf planet about 120 to 130 times further from the sun than Earth. A... More »
(This story corrects to delete incorrect information that rocket carried a University of Illinois satellite) By Joey Roulette (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from California on Monday carrying 64 small satellites into low orbit around... More »
(Reuters) – NASA’s deep space explorer Osiris-Rex flew on Monday to within a dozen miles of its destination, a skyscraper-sized asteroid believed to hold organic compounds fundamental to life as well as the potential to collide with Earth in about 150 years. L... More »
BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Reuters) – A Russian-made Soyuz rocket blasted a three-man crew into orbit on Monday, beginning the first manned voyage to the International Space Station since a mission in October was aborted in midair because of a rocket mal... More »
ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – NASA on Thursday named nine U.S. companies, including Lockheed Martin Corp, that will compete for funding under the space agency’s renewed long-term moon program, a private-public undertaking to develop technology that will explore th... More »
(Reuters) – Three fragments of rocks retrieved from the moon by a Soviet space mission in 1970 were sold for $855,000 at a New York auction on Thursday. Sotheby’s auction house said the “moon rocks” are the only known documented lunar matter in private hands. ... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India fired a rocket carrying 31 satellites into space on Thursday, including its own advanced earth observation satellite among the other smaller ones launched for eight countries. The rocket launched from the southern state of Andhra Pr... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – A team of international scientists observing a star in the Milky Way have for the first time confirmed Einstein’s predictions of what happens to the motion of a star passing close to a supermassive black hole. Einstein’s 100-year-old general... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Using a radar instrument on an orbiting spacecraft, scientists have spotted what they said on Wednesday appears to be a sizable salt-laden lake under ice on the southern polar plain of Mars, a body of water they called a possible habitat... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Europe launched four more Galileo satellites on Wednesday, taking the number in orbit to 26 and moving a step closer to having its own navigation system, just as the programme has become the latest flashpoint in Brexit negotiations. The s... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) – NASA is preparing to send a probe closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft has ventured, enduring wicked heat while zooming through the solar corona to study this outermost part of the stellar atmosphere that gives rise to th... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Astronomers on Tuesday announced the discovery of 10 more moons of Jupiter, bringing to 79 the number known to be circling the giant gas planet, including one “wrong-way driver” that appears destined to crash into other moons sharing its... More »
(This July 11 story in the final paragraph corrects the time period of launches, how far in advance seats are booked on Soyuz spacecraft and the number of launchpads in Kazakhstan.) By Joey Roulette ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) – Plans to launch the first NASA astr... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – A science fiction-inspired robot hardwired to assist astronauts launched from Florida early Friday to become the first personal, artificial intelligence-powered companion in space. The Crew Interactive Mobile Companion, or CIMO... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Complex organic molecules have been discovered originating from one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, adding to its potential to support life, researchers said on Wednesday. The Cassini spacecraft first flew close to the ice-covered moon in 2005... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The reddish cigar-shaped object called ‘Oumuamua spotted last year tumbling through space is a comet, scientists said on Wednesday, solving the mystery over how to classify the first interstellar object found passing through our solar sy... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese space probe named after a falcon arrived at an asteroid 300 million kilometers from Earth on Wednesday after a three-and-a half year journey on a mission to seek the origins of life. The Hayabusa 2 blasted off in December 2014 for ... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – Feel like the world is going to the dogs? Want to get away from it all? Here’s a solution: become a citizen of the nation of Asgardia and hope it makes good on its promise to colonize the moon. Asgardia was founded just 20 months ago, and it... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he was ordering the creation of a sixth branch of the military to focus on space, a move critics said could harm the Air Force. “It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An immense dust storm that may soon encircle Mars is threatening one of NASA’s rovers on the planet’s surface, with the vehicle becoming dormant and unresponsive at a site called Perseverance Valley, U.S. space agency officials said on W... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A NASA rover has detected a bonanza of organic compounds on the surface of Mars and seasonal fluctuations of atmospheric methane in findings released on Thursday that mark some of the strongest evidence ever that Earth’s neighbor may hav... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have detected another exotic feature on one of the solar system’s most wondrous worlds, a large field of dunes on the surface of the distant, frigid dwarf planet Pluto apparently composed of wind-swept, sand-sized grains of fr... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An “alien asteroid” that circles the sun in the giant gas planet Jupiter’s orbital path, but hurtling in the opposite direction, is the first-known permanent resident of our solar system that astronomers have concluded originated in anot... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China launched a relay satellite early on Monday designed to establish a communication link between earth and a planned lunar probe that will explore the dark side of the moon, the official Xinhua news agency said. Citing the China Nationa... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China launched its first privately developed rocket from a launchpad in northwestern China on Thursday, state media said, the latest milestone in the country’s ambitious space exploration program. Since coming to office in 2012, Chinese Pre... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After detecting a whiff of oxygen, astronomers have determined that stars in a faraway galaxy formed 250 million years after the Big Bang — a rather short time in cosmic terms — in a finding that sheds light on conditions in the early un... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A new look at old data is giving scientists a fresh reason to view Europa, a moon of Jupiter, as a leading candidate in the search for life beyond Earth, with evidence of water plumes shooting into space. A bend in Europa’s magnetic fiel... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – An updated version of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, tailored for eventual crewed missions for NASA, made its debut launch on Friday from Florida’s Cape Canaveral carrying a communications satellite for Bangladesh into orbit. The ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – NASA said on Friday it will send a small helicopter to Mars as part of the U.S. space agency’s 2020 mission to place a next-generation rover on the Martian surface, marking the first time such an aircraft will be used on another world. T... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – A last-minute technical glitch prompted SpaceX on Thursday to postpone for at least 24 hours the first commercial flight of its updated Falcon 9 rocket, a launch vehicle tailored for eventual crewed missions into orbit. The roc... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – SpaceX on Thursday aborted the launch of its planned first commercial flight of an updated Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on a mission to carry a satellite into orbit for the government of Bangladesh.... More »
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (Reuters) – An Atlas 5 rocket soared into space early on Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying NASA’s first robotic lander designed for exploring the deep interior of another planet on its voyage to M... More »
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (Reuters) – A powerful Atlas 5 rocket was poised for liftoff early on Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying to Mars the first robotic NASA lander designed entirely for exploring the deep interior of t... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – After decades exploring the surface of Mars, NASA is set for the weekend launch of its first robotic lander dedicated to studying the red planet’s deep interior, with instruments to detect planetary seismic rumblings never measured anyw... More »
(Reuters) – A heat shield used in a NASA spacecraft designed to send a six-wheeled rover vehicle to Mars in 2020 suffered an “unexpected” fracture during a structural test this month, causing the space agency to build a replacement, the space agency said. “The... More »
STEVENAGE, England (Reuters) – The European Space Agency’s mission to search for life on Mars has reached an important milestone with its six-wheeled surface rover prototype ready for its “shake and bake”. Built by Airbus Defence and Space just north of London... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Astronomers have detected the early stages of a colossal cosmic collision, observing a pile-up of 14 galaxies 90 percent of the way across the observable universe in a discovery that upends assumptions about the early history of the cosm... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Europe has launched the seventh of its Sentinel Earth observation satellites as part of its multi-billion-euro Copernicus program to help predict weather phenomena such as El Nino and track the progress of global warming. The Sentinel-3B ... More »
LUANDA (Reuters) – Russia’s space agency said on Monday that Angola’s first national telecoms satellite, AngoSat-1, was inoperative and Russia would build another one for launch in 2020. Launched in December from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the sate... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday on SpaceX’s first high-priority science mission for NASA, a planet-hunting orbital telescope designed to detect worlds beyond our solar system that might be capable of har... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – More than 100 parts for U.S. space agency NASA’s deep-space capsule Orion will be made by 3D printers, using technology that experts say will eventually become key to efforts to send humans to Mars. U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin... More »
COLOGNE (Reuters) – Astronaut Alexander Gerst says he aims to be a “nice boss” when he becomes the $100 billion International Space Station’s first German commander later this year. “I’m relatively relaxed because things will be much easier for me now, on my s... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – An 11th-hour technical glitch prompted SpaceX to postpone its planned launch on Monday of a new NASA space telescope designed to detect worlds beyond our solar system, delaying for at least 48 hours a quest to expand astronomer... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – SpaceX postponed a planned launch on Monday of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s latest planet-hunting satellite for 48 hours, citing problems with a guidance-navigation control system, launch team officials said. Blast-off fro... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – A new NASA satellite designed to detect more Earth-like worlds around stars beyond our solar system is due for launch aboard a SpaceX rocket from Florida on Monday, on a quest to expand the known inventory of so-called exoplane... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Black holes are hanging out at the center of our galaxy by the thousands, according to scientists who have detected a bunch of them in the neighborhood of a supermassive black hole already known to reside at the heart of the Milky Way. R... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have detected the most distant star ever viewed, a blue behemoth located more than halfway across the universe and named after the ancient Greek mythological figure Icarus. Researchers said on Monday they used NASA’s Hubble Sp... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Tiangong-1 space station re-entered the earth’s atmosphere and burnt up over the South Pacific on Monday, the Chinese space authority said. The “vast majority” of the craft burnt up on re-entry, at around 8:15 a.m. (0015 GMT), the ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Tiangong-1 space module re-entered the earth’s atmosphere at 8:15 a.m. (0015GMT) on Monday over the South Pacific and mostly burnt up on re-entry, state news agency Xinhua said. Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-space... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Tiangong-1 spacecraft will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at some point on Monday, the country’s space agency said in a statement. The Manned Space Agency did not specify a time when it expects the craft to enter the atmosphere in ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – It is unlikely that any large parts of China’s Tiangong-1 space lab will reach the ground when it falls to Earth, and China has been in close touch with the United Nations about its progress, China’s foreign ministry said on Friday. The cra... More »
(Reuters) – The search for worlds circling stars far beyond our solar system will intensify in the coming weeks with NASA’s launch of a spacecraft scientists hope will enlarge the known catalog of so-called exoplanets believed capable of supporting life. NASA ... More »
DARMSTADT, Germany (Reuters) – Skywatchers will need sharp eyes and a lot of luck to catch a glimpse of China’s Tiangong-1 space lab when it falls to Earth this weekend, a space expert said on Thursday. The craft is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere on S... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Astronomers have detected for the first time a galaxy that is devoid of dark matter, the plentiful but enigmatic material that does not emit light or energy and had been considered a fundamental part of all galaxies including our own Mil... More »
An aerial view shows Brazil’s Alcantara space center in the city of Alcantara, Maranhao state, Brazil May 21, 2013. Brazil Air Force Press Office/Handout via Reuters BRASILIA (Reuters) – U.S. companies eager to tap into the fast-growing market for low-cost sat... More »
An illustration depicting the U.S. space agency’s Juno spacecraft in orbit above Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The interior of Jupiter is just as intriguing as the planet’s dazzling surface, with a swirli... More »
A flag with a company logo is seen during satellite launch company Arianespace annual news conference in Paris, France, January 9, 2018. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Planned satellite launches using Europe’s heavy lifter Ariane 5 rocket can... More »
An artist’s rendering of how the first stars in the universe may have looked, in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters February 27, 2018. N.R. Fuller, National Science Foundation/Handout via REUTERS WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A ground-based radio antenna ... More »
(Reuters) – A capsule carrying two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station landed in snowy Kazakhstan on Wednesday after a five-and-a-half month mission, a NASA TV live broadcast showed. The Soyuz spacecraft brought back Jo... More »
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a PAZ Earth Observation satellite is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB) as seen over the Ventura Pier in Ventura, California, U.S., February 22, 2018. REUTERS/Patrick T. Fallon BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s defens... More »
Israeli scientists participate in an experiment simulating a mission to Mars, at the D-MARS Desert Mars Analog Ramon Station project of Israel’s Space Agency, Ministry of Science, near Mitzpe Ramon, Israel, February 18, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun RAMON CRATER,... More »
(Reuters) – A recently discovered asteroid was due to zip within 39,000 thousand miles (64,000 km) of Earth on Friday, marking the second space rock to pass within the orbit of the moon this week, according to NASA scientists. Measuring between 50 and 130 feet... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – The world’s most powerful rocket, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, roared into space through clear blue skies on its debut test flight on Tuesday from a Florida launch site in another milestone for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s pr... More »
A red Tesla Roadster is seen during preparations to use it as a mock payload for the launch of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. December 6, 2017. Flickr.com/photos/SpaceX via REUTERS. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – A scarlet Tes... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday carrying into orbit a Luxembourg-made communications satellite designed in part to expand NATO’s surveillance reach and its capability to deter cyber attacks on all... More »
MILAN (Reuters) – Italy needs to start thinking of a partnership in the space industry with France after the two countries have joined forces over the naval sector, Industry Minister Carlo Calenda said on Friday. “We now must think of a partnership in the spac... More »
Mars fission power system concept in the Kilopower project is shown in this undated NASA handout photo released on January 9, 2018. Courtesy NASA/Handout via REUTERS WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Initial tests in Nevada on a compact nuclear power system designed to s... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India launched its 100th satellite on Friday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to project the country as a global low-cost provider of services in space. A total of 31 small satellites were launched into space on Friday. More than hal... More »
A cross-section of a thick sheet of underground ice is exposed at the steep slope that appears bright blue in this enhanced-color view of Mars from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in this ima... More »
FILE PHOTO: Members of the International Space Station expedition 54/55, Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) during the send-off ceremony after checking their space suits before the launch of the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft at the Baiko... More »
FILE PHOTO: A monitoring screen at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center shows China’s Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1 module as seen from the Shenzhou 8 spacecraft after docking on November 3, 2011. REUTERS/CCTV via Reuters TV BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s T... More »
An illustration depicts a hypothetical uneven ring of dust orbiting Tabby’s Star (KIC 8462852) released October 4, 2017 by JPL-Caltech and obtained by REUTERS January 3, 2018. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It was too good to be tr... More »
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel’s Space Communication Ltd, operator of the Amos satellites, said on Tuesday Nepal’s Dish Media Network has contracted for more capacity on the Amos-4 satellite starting in the fourth quarter. The additional capacity will increase Sp... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Friday it had re-established contact with Angola’s first national telecoms satellite AngoSat-1. The connection had been lost after the satellite launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on Tuesday. “Telemetry information received... More »
FILE PHOTO: The Souyz-2 spacecraft with Meteor-M satellite and 18 additional small satellites launches from Russia’s new Vostochny cosmodrome, near the town of Tsiolkovsky in Amur region, Russia November 28, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremli... More »
(Reuters) – A trio of U.S., Japanese and Russian astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday, a NASA TV broadcast showed. Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and flight engineers Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agenc... More »
(Reuters) – A trio of U.S. and Japanese astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off from Kazakhstan on Sunday for a two-day trip to the International Space Station, a NASA TV broadcast showed. Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and flight engineers Nor... More »
FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is shown reflected on an adjacent office building in Irvine, California, U.S. August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google and NASA said on Thursday that advanced computer analysis id... More »
(Reuters) – A capsule carrying U.S., Russian and Italian astronauts from the International Space Station landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday after a five-month mission, a NASA TV live broadcast showed. The spacecraft brought back Randy Bresnik from the U.S. Natio... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Europe launched four more Galileo satellites on Tuesday, taking the number in orbit to 22 and moving a step closer to having its own navigation system, lessening its dependence on the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS. The satellites bl... More »
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a space astronaut toy as he participates in a signing ceremony for Space Policy Directive at the White House in Washington D.C., U.S., December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria WASHINGTON (Reuters) – At a time when China is wor... More »
Artist’s conception of the most-distant supermassive black hole ever discovered, which is part of a quasar from just 690 million years after the Big Bang is shown in this illustration released on December 6, 2017. Courtesy Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for... More »
VOSTOCHNY COSMODROME, Russia (Reuters) – Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday it had failed to establish contact with a newly-launched weather satellite. The Meteor-M was launched earlier on Tuesday from Russia’s new Vostochny cosmodrome in the Far E... More »
A small asteroid or comet that has been spotted racing through our solar system may have come from elsewhere in the galaxy, U.S. space scientists say, possibly marking the first such interstellar visitor observed from Earth. More »
The earth is a fragile thing that could even destroy itself, Pope Francis told astronauts on the International Space Station on Thursday, saying they had an opportunity to see the planet "from the eyes of God". More »
The earth is a fragile thing that could even destroy itself, Pope Francis told astronauts on the International Space Station on Thursday, saying they had an opportunity to see the planet "from the eyes of God". More »
The earth is a fragile thing that could even destroy itself, Pope Francis told astronauts on the International Space Station on Thursday, saying they had an opportunity to see the planet "from the eyes of God". More »
The earth is a fragile thing that could even destroy itself, Pope Francis told astronauts on the International Space Station on Thursday, saying they had an opportunity to see the planet "from the eyes of God". More »
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund plans to invest about $1 billion in Richard Branson's space company, Virgin Galactic, and sister companies The Spaceship Company and Virgin Orbit, according to a joint statement published on Thursday. More »
Israel's Space Communications has signed a deal with Elon Musk's SpaceX to launch two communication satellites into orbit, after a prior attempt ended in disaster. More »
Scientists in the United States and Europe have for the first time paired the detection of gravitational waves, the ripples in space and time predicted by Albert Einstein, with light from the same cosmic event, according to research published on Monday. More »
Europe launched the sixth of its Sentinel Earth observation satellites on Friday as part of the multi-billion-euro Copernicus program to monitor volcanic ash and ultraviolet radiation. More »
An asteroid the size of a school bus flew remarkably near Earth on Thursday, providing scientists with an opportunity to test the warning systems that would kick in if a space collision was coming. More »
