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SpaceX launched yet another batch of its Starlink satellites to orbit today (Sept. 20). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink craft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on California’s foggy central coast today at 9:50 a.m. EDT (1350 GMT and 6:50 a.m. local California time). The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to […]

SpaceX launched yet another batch of its Starlink satellites to orbit today (Sept. 20). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink craft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on California’s foggy central coast today at 9:50 a.m. EDT (1350 GMT and 6:50 a.m. local California time). The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to

SpaceX has taken its dispute with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to Capitol Hill. On Tuesday (Sept. 17), the FAA announced that it plans to fine SpaceX $630,000 for allegedly skirting regulations on two launches last year. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk responded to the news that same day, declaring on X (formerly Twitter)

SpaceX just fired up another Starship vehicle, to prep for a test flight that’s likely several months away. The company performed a “static fire” on Wednesday (Sept. 18) at its Starbase site in South Texas, briefly igniting the six Raptor engines of Ship 31, the upper stage of the vehicle that will conduct the sixth

SpaceX’s new Starlink satellites produce 32 times more radio noise than their predecessors, causing concerns among astronomers about their interference with radio astronomy observations. Radio astronomy uses supersensitive antennas to detect faint radio signals emitted by stars, black holes and other objects in the universe. Researchers working at the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the

China’s lunar rover Yutu 2 is still active on the far side of the moon nearly six years after its historic touchdown. Earlier this year, China aced the complex Chang’e 6 mission to land on the far side of the moon, collect samples and deliver them to Earth. But the Chang’e 4 mission, which pulled

Rocket Lab aborted a launch at the last second today (Sept. 18). The company’s Electron rocket was scheduled to launch five “Internet of Things” satellites for the French company Kinéis today at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) from New Zealand. The countdown clock reached zero, and Electron appeared to fire up its first-stage engines. But

Although they may never completely shed the label, the women who worked for NASA as human computers during the space race are no longer “hidden figures,” and they now have a medal to prove it. On Wednesday (Sept. 18), the women as a group and four individuals who have come to represent their collective experiences

Mars spiders have arrived on Earth. But fear not, arachnophobes — these “spiders” aren’t actual arachnids, but spider-like geological formations on the Martian surface. And NASA has just recreated them in a lab. Scientists first discovered these spider-like features, or araneiform terrain, on Mars in 2003 while studying images from orbiters. They’re much, much larger

The next space station astronaut mission will delay one day to Sept. 25. The delay in the SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is “to complete prelaunch preparations and ensure separation between operations”, NASA officials wrote in a Sept. 12 statement. If Crew-9 misses the Sept. 25 opportunity, backup dates are available