Space News & Blog Articles

The European Space Agency has kicked off a competition to support the development of new launch vehicles and boost Europe's access to space.

The first orbital rocket launch from European soil ended in an explosion when Isar Aerospace's rocket fell to Earth seconds after launching on March 30.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Airbus to design and build the landing platform for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover. In 2028, ESA will launch this ambitious exploration mission to search for past and present signs of life on Mars.

SpaceX's upcoming Fram2 astronaut mission will attempt to grow mushrooms in microgravity for the first time, as part of an experiment called Mission MushVroom.

File: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) ahead of the launch of the Starlink 12-18 mission. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is hoping to close out the weekend with a Falcon 9 rocket launching a batch of 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites. The weather forecast on Sunday, however, is quite problematic, with meteorologists tracking storms that “may pack strong wind gusts and even small hail.”

Efforts are underway to develop advanced propulsion systems that can reduce transit times to Mars and other locations in the Solar System. These include nuclear propulsion concepts, which NASA began researching again in 2016 for its proposed "Moon to Mars" mission architecture. In a recent paper, two aerospace innovators reviewed some key nuclear-electric propulsion concepts, their respective advantages, and challenges. In the end, they conclude that nuclear propulsion has the potential to revolutionize space exploration and make humanity "multiplanetary."

Deciding how to power a CubeSat is one of the greatest challenges when designing a modular spacecraft. Tradeoffs in solar panel size, battery size, and power consumption levels are all key considerations when selecting parts and mission architecture. To help with those design choices, a paper from researchers in Ethiopia and Korea describes a new machine-learning algorithm that helps CubeSat designers optimize their power consumption, ensuring these little satellites have a better chance of fulfilling their purpose.

On Episode 154 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Space TV director Liam Kennedy about bringing content and video from the International Space Station down to Earth.

The partial solar eclipse of March 2025 did not disappoint as observers turned their eyes and cameras to the sky.

Here's a rundown of the science experiments that SpaceX's Fram2 astronaut mission will conduct while orbiting Earth's poles.

"It is always difficult to establish if the eclipses were seen in the ancient past as bad omens or good omens."

The hazards facing lunar astronauts are many. There's the radiation, the temperature extremes, the psychological challenges associated with isolation, and the risk of important equipment breaking down. But there's also the dust, which constitutes an ever-present background hazard.

With Doom: The Dark Ages around the corner, now is the perfect time to chainsaw your way through all the Doom games in order.

The four astronauts of the Fram2 mission stand atop the crew access tower at Launch Complex 39A during a pad visit in mid-February. From left to right: Eric Philips, Chun Wang, Rabea Rogge, Jannicke Mikkelsen. Image: Fram2

Less than a month after the SpaceX Crew-10 mission blasted off to the International Space Station, another four-person crew is gearing to up launch from the same pad in Florida this time making history as the first astronauts to fly in a polar orbit.

Neill Blomkamp's Johannesburg-set riff on Short Circuit and RoboCop wasn't a winner by any means, but it's far from soulless.

No matter where on Earth you stand, if you have a view of the night sky, and if it is dark enough, you can see the Milky Way. The Milky Way is our home, and its faint clouds of light and shadow have inspired human cultures across the globe. And yet, our view of the Milky Way is limited by our perspective. In many ways, we have learned more from other galaxies than from our own. But when the Gaia spacecraft launched in 2013, all of that changed.

A partial solar eclipse is coming this weekend, but weather could be an issue for many hoping to get a glimpse of the moon "taking a bite" out of the sun.

"Further strong activity is likely!"

In this age of exoplanet discovery, the flaring of red dwarf stars (M-dwarfs) has taken on new importance. M-dwarfs are known to host many terrestrial planets in their putative habitable zones. The problem is the flaring could make their habitable zones uninhabitable.

Zena Cardman,who was removed from an ISS launch to facilitate the return to Earth of Starliner's first crew, will command SpaceX's upcoming Crew-11 mission to the station.