On pace with its once-a-month flight goal, Virgin Galactic is about to embark on its fifth commercial mission, and likely its final flight of 2023. Galactic 05 is scheduled to lift off this Thursday (Nov. 2) and will carry three passengers on a brief trip to suborbital space. The trio will fly...

The three astronauts of China’s Shenzhou 16 mission returned to Earth on Monday (Oct. 30) after completing a five-month stint aboard the country’s space station. Astronauts Jing Haipeng (the mission’s commander), Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao touched down in their Shenzhou 16...

Yesterday, a team of CNES, ESA, Arianespace and ArianeGroup personnel at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, completed a full-scale wet rehearsal of the new Ariane 6 rocket that was fuelled and then drained of its fuel. The test lasted over 30 hours with three teams working in shifts...

SpaceX launched 22 Starlink internet satellites to orbit from California on Sunday (Oct. 29), on the first of two planned missions for the day. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT; 2 a.m. local California time). The...

Scientists have created an artificial intelligence (AI) program that can detect alien life in physical samples — though they aren’t sure exactly how it works. The new machine-learning algorithm — trained using living cells, fossils, meteorites and lab-made chemicals — can distinguish between...

Early next month, SpaceX will send a clutch of science experiments to the space station investigating a range of topics, from high-speed laser communications to rolling atmospheric waves on Earth. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the uncrewed Dragon spacecraft, is scheduled to launch toward the...

The Full Hunter’s Moon of October will see the Earth’s shadow pass across its face this weekend, creating a partial lunar eclipse. The lunar eclipse will be fully visible from Africa, Europe, Asia and parts of Western Australia. The eastern tip of South America will get a small glimpse...

Testing is now underway on NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft, a nuclear-powered, car-sized aerial drone that will look for potential precursors to life on Saturn’s moon, Titan. But before Dragonfly can take to the sky, NASA has to make sure it can withstand the moon’s unique environment...

China’s youngest crew so far is on its way to the Tiangong space station. A Long March 2F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert today (Oct. 25) at 11:14 p.m. EDT  (0314 GMT or 11:14 a.m. Beijing Time on Oct. 26), carrying the Shenzhou 17 spacecraft and...