Space Exploration

After a string of fiery failures, SpaceX’s biggest rocket faces another test flight with sky-high stakes for U.S. space ambitions

The U.S. planetary science community is sounding the alarm about plans to discard a nuclear technology that has powered dozens of NASA missions over the past 50 years

NASA faces historic budget cuts that could shutter missions and stall vital research, prompting a bipartisan outcry from all of the agency’s living former science chiefs.

Spurred by competition from China and Russia, the Trump administration is pushing for nuclear power on the moon by 2030

NASA needs clear support from the White House if we want to win the new space race

Astronomers think small space rocks from beyond our solar system routinely strike Earth—but proving it isn’t easy

Hundreds of staffers at the National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and the National Science Foundation have signed public letters to leadership opposing the direction in which the agencies are headed

A declaration of dissent from past and present NASA employees warns that science and safety are at risk and joins similar documents from staff at other federal science agencies

It’s certainly possible to consume water sourced from the icy rings of Saturn, but doing so safely may require extra steps

Scientists are racing to learn as much as possible about the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS before it fades from view forever

Observations of a baby star may show the earliest stages of planet formation that astronomers have ever seen

A new global overview of Mars suggests dust, rather than water, is the source of mysterious streaks there