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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched two European navigation satellites tonight (Sept. 17) and then landed safely, acing its 22nd mission. The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying two spacecraft for Europe’s Galileo satnav constellation, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida tonight...

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to fine SpaceX more than $630,000 for allegedly failing to comply with regulations on two launches last year. “Safety drives everything we do at the FAA, including a legal responsibility for the safety oversight of companies with commercial...