Missions

Hope for the future of space exploration lies at the heart of SpaceX’s new ‘Polaris’ missions

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SpaceX aims to make progress in space and on Earth with its new venture, the Polaris Program. And the team behind it couldn’t be more excited.  The Polaris Program is a joint effort involving SpaceX and Jared Isaacman, the tech entrepreneur and billionaire who funded and commanded the Inspiration4 orbital crewed mission to benefit St. … Read more

Asteroid sharing Earth’s orbit discovered — could it help future space missions?

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University Research has shown that the Earth trails an asteroid barely a kilometer across in its orbit about the sun — only the second such body to have ever been … Read more

NASA delays rollout of Artemis 1 moon mission’s SLS megarocket until March. Hear why today.

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NASA won’t roll its first moon-bound megarocket out to the launch pad any earlier than March, again delaying the launch of its Artemis 1 mission. Agency officials will discuss the decision during a news conference Wednesday (Feb. 2) at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT); NASA will broadcast audio of the event on NASA TV and … Read more

NASA getting SLS megarockets ready for crewed moon missions

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The giant rockets that will carry NASA astronauts to the moon a few years from now are really starting to come together.  In a brief status update posted on Tuesday (Jan. 11), NASA officials wrote that the agency and its manufacturing partners have made “great progress” on putting together the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket … Read more

NASA may need more astronauts for space station, moon missions, report says

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NASA may need more astronauts to meet its human spaceflight goals over the coming years, according to a new report from the agency’s investigative office. Currently, NASA only flies astronauts to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules and Russia’s Soyuz vehicles. But the agency’s ambitious Artemis program to return humans to the … Read more

U.S. and Chinese Scientists Propose Bold New Missions beyond the Solar System

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Right now our solar system is barreling into a region of space that we know next to nothing about. For about 60,000 years, our sun has been traversing the local interstellar cloud (LIC), a region of gas and dust within a mostly empty bubble that was carved out of the Milky Way by supernovae millions … Read more

These are the space missions to watch in 2022

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An exciting year lies ahead with many space missions slated to launch in 2022.  While 2021 was an eventful year with the first space tourist-focused missions, NASA’s new Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter landing on Mars, the long-awaited launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and numerous other science missions, there’s even more to look … Read more

China has moon’s south pole in its sights with 3 missions launching this decade

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China has formally approved three missions targeting the south pole of the moon, with the first to launch around 2024. The missions dubbed Chang’e 6, Chang’e 7 and Chang’e 8 will launch across the 2020s, each with different goals and an array of spacecraft. The trio make up the so-called fourth phase for the Chinese … Read more

2022 news preview: A round-up of the year’s most exciting space missions

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By Leah Crane The Psyche spacecraft’s propulsion system undergoes inspection NASA/JPL-CALTECH IF ALL goes well, the first major space mission of 2022 will be the launch of the Space Launch System rocket in February. After many budget and schedule overruns, NASA’s colossal rocket is finally set for its first uncrewed flight, which will carry several … Read more