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Three astronauts assigned to Crew Dragon mission in late 2021
Rookie astronaut Raja Chari -- a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot -- veteran physician-astronaut Tom Marshburn, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer have been assigned to fly to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship in the fall of 2021.
Canadian astronaut to join NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission around the moon
A Canadian space flier will join three NASA crew members on the first piloted flight of the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft around the moon, becoming the first non-U.S. astronaut on a lunar voyage, officials announced last week.
Virgin Galactic pilots land safely after aborting suborbital flight
Two pilots aboard Virgin Galactic's commercial SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocketplane safely landed back in New Mexico Saturday after a "computer communications loss" triggered an abort of the craft's engine ignition sequence.
SLS cryogenic tanking test preps begin this weekend
Final preparations began this weekend at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to load super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the massive core stage of the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket for the first time as soon as Monday.
Arecibo Observatory collapses as scientists lament loss of deep space radar
The 900-ton suspended platform of Puerto Rico's famed Arecibo Observatory collapsed Tuesday after cable failures, crashing into the radio telescope's iconic dish and shattering a research instrument used to study pulsars, galaxies, planets, and asteroids that might threaten Earth.
Photos: Falcon 9 launches and lands at Vandenberg Air Force Base
These photos show the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Nov. 21 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich oceanography satellite.
China launches ambitious mission to return lunar material to Earth
A heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket hurled a 9-ton Chinese spacecraft toward the moon Monday on a 23-day mission attempting to return lunar samples to Earth for the first time in 44 years.
VideoLive coverage: Chinese sample return spacecraft completes docking in lunar orbit
After launching Nov. 23 and arriving in lunar orbit over the weekend, China's Chang'e 5 sample return mission landed on the moon Tuesday, targeting a volcanic region in the Oceanus Procellarum region. On Thursday, the craft's ascender vehicle took off to begin the trip back to Earth, followed by a successful docking with the mission's return vehicle in lunar orbit Saturday.
International satellite launches to extend measurements of sea level rise
A European-built satellite with the unusual shape of a house launched into orbit Saturday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California's Central Coast, carrying a sophisticated radar altimeter to measure rising sea levels on our home planet.
Photos: Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich encapsulated for launch
Check out photos of the encapsulation of the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich oceanography satellite inside the payload shroud of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket before its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.