Space Exploration

Starliner’s first crewed test flight has concluded with a successful touchdown—and two astronauts still in orbit awaiting a different ride home

Wispy whorls on the moon’s surface are as lovely as they are strange. Scientists are starting to unravel their origins

Even Earth’s mightiest telescopes aren’t up to the task of imaging Apollo lunar landing sites. A lack of resolution is the biggest reason why

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched to the International Space Station in June and expected eight days in space. Now these stranded astronauts finally have a ride home

The Polaris Dawn mission—a partnership between SpaceX and billionaire Jared Isaacman—will soar to historic heights and attempt the first-ever commercial spacewalk

Paralympian and surgeon John McFall is redefining the astronaut image and proving that space travel is achievable for people with physical disabilities

Launching in late 2024, the Fram2 mission will be the first human spaceflight to explore the planet's polar regions

Reports of Earth-orbiting astronauts glimpsing the Great Wall of China and many other artificial structures are wildly exaggerated, but humanity’s planetary influence isn’t entirely invisible from afar

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been stuck on the ISS since they launched to the station in early June. Now the space agency is close to deciding how to bring them back

A new blood test for cancer, helpful cat parasites and a new kind of wood are featured in this week’s news roundup.

A former space agency official argues that cutting a robotic explorer pulls the scientific teeth from the Artemis program

An ambitious U.S. government program is working to detect and track millions of tiny space junk pieces—down to the size of a sand grain—throughout low-Earth orbit and beyond