Space Exploration

From an interstellar comet to breathtaking auroras and from brand-new rockets to iconic space telescopes, here are some of our favorite images from the cosmos in 2025

A look back at 2025’s biggest science stories—from federal upheaval and public health setbacks to climate policy reversals and groundbreaking discoveries in space.

Oceans hiding within the crusts of distant moons are tantalizing targets for scientists looking for life beyond Earth

NASA’s Perseverance rover has gathered groundbreaking Mars samples, but the mission to bring them home is facing serious challenges.

A partially successful test of China’s Zhuque-3 rocket shows that other countries are rapidly catching up with the U.S in the race for reusable rocketry

Using direct imaging, astronomers have found a brown dwarf that could help test technology for taking snapshots of Earth-like exoplanets

Jared Isaacman—the presumptive next leader of NASA—answered questions about his plans for the future of U.S. space exploration on Wednesday

The Shenzhou-22 spacecraft is set to launch November 25

The moss Physcomitrium patens joins tardigrades and thale-cress as a species that has survived in space

NASA’s presumptive next leader wants to outsource more of the space agency’s interplanetary science. The newly launched ESCAPADE mission to Mars offers a sanity check for those plans

The Shenzhou 20 spacecraft was too damaged to bring its crew home from China’s Tiangong space station. Those astronauts have now returned via the Shenzhou 21 craft, leaving its crew without a return ride until the nation sends a new spacecraft to the station

After delays, Jeff Bezos’s rocket company successfully launched a NASA mission to study Mars on Thursday