A discarded Chinese rocket stage and a Soviet-era satellite nearly collided over Earth overnight. The collision would have created a huge amount of new space debris and made our current space junk problem even worse. As we continue to launch more and more satellites, the potential for space junk to impact crewed missions increases. In …
Space junk is a problem that just won’t go away, and it keeps getting worse. Debris orbiting Earth makes it difficult for space agencies and companies to launch missions, risking damage to spacecraft and humans in crewed missions. SpaceX’s Starlink satellite horde is making things even worse, according to Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck. Space …
In our solar system, each planet has a reasonably well-defined and mostly circular path that it follows around the Sun. This, astronomers think, is true of many other star systems. But as with anything, in the vastness of the universe, there are bound to be outliers. The distant gas giant exoplanet known as HR 5183 …
It’s now been about a year and a half since Elon Musk’s cherry red Tesla Roadster was sent into space atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The launch went flawlessly and was a major milestone for SpaceX, marking the first time the Falcon Heavy was shot skyward. Now, many months later, the Tesla sports car …
Traveling to the Moon is hard, and sending crewed spacecraft to other planets will be even harder. One of the major challenges in deep space travel is the question of power, since, at present, spacecraft have to take all their required fuel with them when they leave Earth. NASA wants to change that, and in …
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe arrived at its target, a large space rock known as Bennu, in early December. The spacecraft’s mission will take several years to complete, but it hit a major milestone to close out 2018 by entering orbit around Bennu. It might not sound like much, but it’s actually a major accomplishment for …
NASA’s InSight lander is the new kid on the Martian block, and it’s already snapping selfies and telling its handlers back on Earth all about its new, dusty home. But it’s not the only piece of high-tech hardware with eyes on the Red Planet, and NASA used one of its other machines, the Mars Reconnaissance …
