On March 2, 2004, the European Space Agency launched the Rosetta mission to study Comet 67P Rosetta would later become the first spacecraft to orbit a comet. It was also the only mission to attempt a soft landing on a comet.Rosetta launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana and spent the next...

As a private lunar lander closed in on the moon early Sunday morning (March 2), poised to make history with the first fully successful landing, NASA’s acting chief Janet Petro was excited. And why not? NASA and its commercial partner Firefly Aerospace were just 24 minutes away from what became...

Russia celebrated a late cosmonaut’s upcoming 100th birthday on Thursday (Feb. 27), by lighting a huge “candle” and delivering “gifts” to his modern-day colleagues living in orbit. The launch shroud encasing the uncrewed Progress MS-30 (or Progress 91, as NASA refers to...

The northern lights are a truly remarkable spectacle, with curtains of light dancing across the sky, twisting and turning to the whims of Earth’s magnetic field. Nothing quite beats seeing the dazzling performance with your own eyes. Unfortunately for most of us, we simply don’t live far...

On Feb. 27, 1942, a British physicist named James Stanley Hey accidentally found out that the sun emits radio waves. Hey was working for the Army Operational Research Group in the middle of World War II. His job was to find ways to stop the Germans from jamming British radars. Hey received reports...

SpaceX has pushed the eighth test flight of its Starship megarocket back a few days. Elon Musk‘s company had been targeting Friday (Feb. 28) for Flight 8 of Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. But that’s no longer the plan. “Now targeting to launch...

Our aurora forecast live blog tells you everything you need to know about the likelihood of seeing the northern lights tonight and for the days ahead. We’ll also report on relevant solar activity and significant space weather events such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and coronal holes which...

Starship hardware has made it to the pad ahead of a planned liftoff this week. SpaceX posted photos on X today (Feb. 25) showing Super Heavy, the giant first stage of its Starship megarocket, being lifted onto the orbital launch mount at its Starbase site in South Texas. The milestone keeps the...

The company’s Athena lander is scheduled to launch toward the moon atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday evening (Feb. 26). CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Intuitive Machines is poised to launch its second lunar lander in as many years, marking a significant milestone in commercial space...