NASA

SpaceX launches NASA planet-hunting satellite

April 19, 2018

In a modest mission with the grandest of intentions, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a planet-hunting satellite for NASA Wednesday that will measure the light from millions of stars, on the lookout for indications of Earth-like, potentially habitable worlds scattered across the nearby Milky Way. Building on the legacy of NASA’s trail-blazing Kepler mission, which showed that […]

China Working on a New Heavy-Lift Rocket as Powerful as Saturn V

March 21, 2018

China is working on a new generation of heavy-lift rocket designed to take its taikonauts to the moon and beyond. The Long March 9, as it is informally known, would dwarf SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. The launch vehicle should be capable of sending 50 metric tons of people and cargo to the moon as China gears […]

NASA Plans to Launch Next Planet-Hunting Spacecraft on April 16

March 21, 2018

NASA is targeting April 16 for the launch of its next planet-hunting spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Prior to the launch of the mission, Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the US space agency on Tuesday said it would reveal more about the mission at a media event on […]

NASA crashed the $4 billion Cassini spacecraft into Saturn. It was awesome.

March 4, 2018

For 13 years, Cassini explored the gas giant and its moons. On Friday, it ended its mission in an elegant dive. On Friday, September 15, at 7:55:46 am Eastern time, NASA watched its 20-year-old, $4 billion-plus spacecraft crash into Saturn. The space agency had no other choice. Cassini was nearly out of fuel and […]