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Latest by G. Torbet

SpaceX's Super Heavy booster on the launchpad ahead of the Starship's seventh test flight.

SpaceX won’t be launching its big Starship test flight today after all

SpaceX fans will have to wait a little longer to see the mighty Starship in action once again.
Creating a golden streak in the night sky, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One lander soars upward after liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Jan. 15, as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. The Blue Ghost lander will carry 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the lunar surface to further understand the Moon and help prepare for future human missions.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost mission launches to the moon

A spacecraft carrying NASA instruments has launched on its journey to the moon.
This is one of a series of images taken by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on 8 January 2025 as the spacecraft sped by for its sixth and final gravity assist manoeuvre at the planet. Flying over Mercury's north pole gave the spacecraft's monitoring camera 1 (M-CAM 1) a unique opportunity to peer down into the shadowy polar craters. M-CAM 1 took this long-exposure photograph of Mercury's north pole at 07:07 CET, when the spacecraft was about 787 km from the planet’s surface. The spacecraft’s closest approach of 295 km took place on the planet's night side at 06:59 CET.

See the amazing images of Mercury captured by the BepiColombo mission

The BepiColombo mission recently made its sixth flyby of Mercury, snapping some images along the way.
Rendering of the Blue Ghost on the moon's surface.

How to watch Firefly launch its Blue Ghost mission to the moon on Tuesday night

Firefly Aerospace will launch its first mission to the moon this week. Here's how to watch.
An illustration of NASA's Sample Return Lander shows it tossing a rocket in the air like a toy from the surface of Mars.

NASA has two ideas for how to get samples back from Mars

NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is only in development and has already struggled. Now, the agency has laid out two paths forward.
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Watch India attempt a rare space feat for the first time tonight

India's space agency is attempting a rare feat tonight: docking two satellites in orbit.
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet conduct a spacewalk to complete work on the International Space Station on June 25, 2021.

NASA spacewalks are back! Two spacewalks this month after long break

Following a spacesuit leak in June last year, NASA suspended its spacewalks from the International Space Station. Now, they're back.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One lander, seen here, will carry 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the Moon’s near side when it launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign.

Firefly Aerospace to launch its first mission to the moon next week

Another private company will attempt a landing on the moon. It's set to launch next week.
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There’s still time to catch the stunning Quadrantids meteor shower

If you're hoping to catch the first meteor shower of the year, you have time until January 12.
The Polaris Dawn crew during a full dress rehearsal.

Can private spaceflight benefit more than just a lucky few?

A program is collecting data from commercial space missions to help determine the effects of space flight on human health.
Frosty scene at the south pole of Mars

Celebrating a white Christmas — martian style

The Mars Express spacecraft has snapped an image of icy and snowy hillsides on Mars.
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (from top) Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and the Starliner spacecraft.

Boeing Starliner astronauts will stay in space a little while longer

Two astronauts who traveled to space on the troubled Boeing Starliner spacecraft will have their stay extended a little longer.
Rendering of Tiangong Space Station

Chinese astronauts perform record-breaking 9-hour spacewalk

Two Chinese astronauts have performed the longest-ever single spacewalk, from the Tiangong space station.
This image depicts star cluster NGC 602 in vibrant and festive colors. The cluster includes a giant dust cloud ring, shown in greens, yellows, blues, and oranges. The green hues and feathery edges of the ring cloud create the appearance of a wreath made of evergreen boughs. Hints of red representing X-rays provide shading, highlighting layers within the wreath-like ring cloud.

NASA telescopes capture a cosmic wreath for the holidays

Two NASA telescopes have worked together to capture a stunning view of a star cluster.
This illustration shows NASA's InSight spacecraft with its instruments deployed on the Martian surface.

NASA orbiter captures one last image of retired InSight lander on Mars

An image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows one last view of the now-retired InSight lander mission.
Twelve million light-years away lies the galactic masterpiece Messier 83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. Its swirling spiral arms display a high rate of star formation and host six detected supernovae. This image was captured with the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab.

See the majestic Southern Pinwheel Galaxy in this Dark Energy Camera image

The striking Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is one of the brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky.
Artist concept of the proposed BHEX network.

Group wants to launch a telescope to study black holes from space

The next phase in imaging black holes is to study them from space.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, right, stands near the apex of a sand ripple in an image taken by Perseverance on Feb. 24, 2024, about five weeks after the rotorcraft’s final flight. Part of one of Ingenuity’s rotor blades lies on the surface about 49 feet (15 meters) west of helicopter (at left in image).

NASA learns how the Ingenuity helicopter ended up crashing on Mars

The Ingenuity helicopter flew on Mars for an incredible 72 flights. Now, NASA has shared findings of why the mission came to an end.
Artist's concept depicts new research that has expanded our understanding of exoplanet WASP-69 b's "tail."

Astronomers spot strange exoplanet with a tail 350,000 miles long

The recently spotted exoplanet WASP-69 b has a long tail of gas, like a comet.
This is a montage of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope views of our solar system's four giant outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, each shown in enhanced color. The images were taken over nearly 10 years, from 2014 to 2024.

Feast your eyes on 10 years of Hubble images of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

The Hubble Space Telescope has been imaging the outer planets of our solar system for a decade, learning about their strange weather conditions.
An image of the planet Jupiter.

Jupiter will be at its biggest and brightest this weekend. Here’s how to see it

There's a special chance to see Jupiter in the sky this weekend as it comes closest to Earth.
The Orion crew module for NASA’s Artemis II mission.

NASA pushes back its Artemis moon missions due to heat shield issues

NASA is delaying its Artemis II and Artemis III missions to 2026 and 2027 respectively due to issues with the Orion capsule's heat shield.
This image shows the Spiderweb protocluster as seen by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera).

James Webb spots ancient Spiderweb cluster that’s 10 billion years old

An image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a group of galaxies called the Spiderweb protocluster, and it dates to when the universe was young.
Artist's impression of Copernicus Sentinel-1C in its Vega-C launcher

Watch Europe’s Vega-C rocket return to flight after two years

Europe's Vega-C rocket is back in action after a failure in 2022. It will launch the Sentinel-1C satellite tomorrow -- here's how to watch.
Proba-3 spacecraft aligned above Earth

This pair of satellites is going to create an artificial solar eclipse

A pair of spacecraft are launching on a mission to observe the sun's corona by having one cast a precise shadow from which the other can observe.
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Take a flight over Mars’ Ares Vallis in a new video from Mars Express

A video shows a flight over one of Mars's longest channels, the Ares Vallis.
An artist’s concept of the Voyager spacecraft.

It lives! 47-year-old Voyager 1 is back in action

Despite its age and an ever-dwindling power supply, the Voyager 1 probe is back in action following an issue with its communication system.
Featured in this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month is the spiral galaxy NGC 2090, located in the constellation Columba. This combination of data from Webb’s MIRI and NIRCam instruments shows the galaxy’s two winding spiral arms and the swirling gas and dust of its disc in magnificent and unique detail.

Webb and Hubble snap the same object for two views of one galaxy

Two different space telescopes have looked at the same galaxy, so you can see the difference in how they observe the universe.
Caption: Artist’s concept of Dragonfly soaring over the dunes of Saturn’s moon Titan.

SpaceX to launch NASA’s Dragonfly drone mission to Titan

In 2028, a NASA mission called Dragonfly will launch using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on a trip to Saturn's moon Titan.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring. The mid-infrared light highlights the gas and dust that are part of star formation taking place among the Sombrero galaxy’s outer disk. The rings of the Sombrero galaxy produce less than one solar mass of stars per year, in comparison to the Milky Way’s roughly two solar masses a year. It’s not a particular hotbed of star formation. The Sombrero galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.

Stunning view of the Sombrero Galaxy captured by James Webb

The James Webb Space Telescope recently captured a new image of a galaxy famously named after the Mexican hat style.
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Watch Blue Origin launch its latest space tourism flight this morning

Blue Origin will shortly be launching its ninth space tourism flight that will carry six private crew members on a 10-minute flight.
This image shows an artist’s reconstruction of the star WOH G64, the first star outside our galaxy to be imaged in close-up. It is located at a staggering distance of over 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This artistic impression showcases its main features: an egg-shaped cocoon of dust surrounding the star and a ring or torus of dust. The existence and shape of the latter require more observations to be confirmed.

Astronomers snap first up-close image of a star outside our galaxy

Astronomers have taken a detailed image of a star outside of the Milky Way for the first time.
NASA’s Curiosity captured this panorama using its Mastcam while heading west away from Gediz Vallis channel on Nov. 2, 2024, the 4,352nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The Mars rover’s tracks across the rocky terrain are visible at right.

Check out this incredible panorama of Mars taken by Curiosity

A stunning panorama shows the haunting terrain of the Gediz Vallis channel, where the Curiosity rover has been exploring.
An artist's depiction of the system showing the host star, transiting planet, misaligned transition disk, and wide binary companion (in the background).

Scientists discover a baby exoplanet ‘just’ 3 million years old

Scientists have discovered a nearby exoplanet that is just a baby by planetary standards, located 520 light-years away.
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SpaceX makes nail-biting sixth Starship test flight, but fails to catch booster

The SpaceX Starship sailed through a sixth test flight, but unlike the previous historic test, this time the company wasn't able to catch the booster.
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Here’s what NASA plans to do with its shiny new SpaceX spacecraft

NASA has big plans for its two new lunar spacecraft, currently under development by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Image of the irregular dwarf galaxy Sextans A, located at a distance of about 4 million light years from us, towards the edge of the Local Group, captured by the VST (VLT Survey Telescope), an Italian telescope managed by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, Chile.

Stunning images of nearby galaxies from the VLT Survey Telescope

A telescope in Chile has taken five beautiful images of nearby galaxies.
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (from top) Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and the Starliner spacecraft.

Starliner astronauts are healthy and not losing weight, NASA says

NASA has denied rumors that two of its astronauts are losing weight on the ISS, saying they are in outstanding health.