Latest Astronomy News
NASA to test engine for 'most powerful rocket in the world'
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP) — NASA is preparing to test-fire engines on Saturday that could send a rocket to the moon in 2022. The Stennis Space Center, near Bay St. Louis, will test all four engines on its new Space Launch System, the only rocket that will be able to send the Orion spacecraft, astronauts...
RIP: Mars digger bites the dust after 2 years on red planet
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA declared the Mars digger dead Thursday after failing to burrow deep into the red planet to take its temperature. Scientists in Germany spent two years trying to get their heat probe, dubbed the mole, to drill into the Martian crust. But the 16-inch-long (40-centimeter)...
Cheers! French wine, vines headed home after year in space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The International Space Station bid adieu Tuesday to 12 bottles of French Bordeaux wine and hundreds of snippets of grapevines that spent a year orbiting the world in the name of science. SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule undocked with the wine and vines — and...
Japanese spacecraft's gifts: Asteroid chips like charcoal
TOKYO (AP) — They resemble small fragments of charcoal, but the soil samples collected from an asteroid and returned to Earth by a Japanese spacecraft were hardly disappointing. The samples Japanese space officials described Thursday are as big as 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) and rock hard, not breaking when...
Q&A: Clooney on 'Midnight Sky' and his twilight as an actor
NEW YORK (AP) — How has George Clooney been handling isolation? Aside from spending time with his wife, Amal Clooney, and their 3-year-old twins, and editing his new film “The Midnight Sky,” he's relied on, like many others, a text chain with pals and Zoom. He just got off one with Matt Damon...
2 Colorado astronauts could be headed to the moon with NASA
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Two Colorado residents were placed on a list of astronauts that could soon travel to the moon, officials said. NASA Astronauts Matthew Dominick of Wheat Ridge and Jessica Watkins of Lafayette were among 18 astronauts selected to the Artemis Program on Dec. 9, The Gazette...
Jupiter, Saturn merging in night sky, closest in centuries
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Jupiter and Saturn will merge in the night sky Monday, appearing closer to one another than they have since Galileo’s time in the 17th century. Astronomers say so-called conjunctions between the two largest planets in our solar system aren't particularly rare. Jupiter...
European Space Agency appoints Austrian scientist new chief
BERLIN (AP) — Austrian scientist Josef Aschbacher has been appointed to head the European Space Agency as the organization grapples with the fallout from Brexit and the rise of commercial rivals outside of Europe. The agency's 22 member states elected Aschbacher, who leads ESA's Earth observation program,...
Moon rocks in hand, China prepares for future moon missions
BEIJING (AP) — Following the successful return of moon rocks by its Chang’e 5 robotic probe, China is preparing for future missions that could set the stage for an eventual lunar base to host human explorers, a top space program official said Thursday. China's next three lunar missions are on...
Chinese capsule returns to Earth carrying moon rocks
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese lunar capsule returned to Earth on Thursday with the first fresh rock samples from the moon in more than 40 years, offering the possibility of new insights into the history of the solar system and marking a new landmark for China's rapidly advancing space program. The capsule of...
LOADING MORE STORIES
