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324 articles
Russia’s space agency unlikely to join NASA-led lunar program
The head of the Russian space agency said this week that the the Gateway mini-space station NASA plans to build around the moon is "too U.S.-centric" and added that Russia unlikely to significantly contribute to the project.
Blue Origin completes successful suborbital space shot
Blue Origin launched its New Shepard suborbital rocket to the edge of space Tuesday from the company's remote desert test site in West Texas on an experimental flight to test precision lunar landing technology for NASA.
Juno team planning close flybys of Jupiter’s moons
NASA's Juno spacecraft could perform the first close flybys since the early 2000s of three of Jupiter's largest moons, including Europa, if the space agency grants the mission an extension, Juno's lead scientist said recently.
VideoCrucial first fueling test on tap for SLS core stage later this month
If all goes according to plan, engineers in southern Mississippi later this month will load cryogenic propellants into the core stage of a rocket NASA says will launch astronauts back to the moon, exposing its tankage and internal plumbing to extreme operating conditions hundreds of degrees below zero for the first time. The fueling test -- a major milestone in its own right -- is a precursor to a high-stakes eight-minute test-firing of the Space Launch System's four shuttle-era main engines planned as soon as November.
NASA selects SpaceX to launch mission studying interstellar space
NASA has awarded SpaceX a $109 million contract to launch the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, a NOAA space weather observatory, a robotic scout to map water on the moon, and two other ridealong payloads on a single Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in 2024.
NASA lays out $28 billion plan to return astronauts to the moon in 2024
NASA officials released a nearly five-year, $28 billion plan Monday to return astronauts to the surface of the moon before the end of 2024, but the agency's administrator said the "aggressive" timeline set by the Trump administration last year hinges on Congress approving $3.2 billion in the next few months to kick-start development of new human-rated lunar landers.
Jupiter looms large in spectacular Hubble image
The Hubble Space Telescope turned toward Jupiter last month, capturing colorful views of the giant planet and its icy moon Europa more than 400 million miles from Earth.
Hints of life renew interest in Venus, and a private mission could lead the way
The announcement Monday of the discovery of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus -- an indicator of possible life -- has raised hopes among scientists for new robotic missions to renew exploration of Earth’s planetary neighbor. If Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck gets his way, a privately-funded mission could get the next crack at probing Venus's soupy atmosphere.
NASA challenges companies to mine lunar soil
NASA announced Thursday it plans to purchase lunar soil from a commercial company, an effort the agency's top official said is intended to set a precedent for the transfer of ownership of extraterrestrial material and stimulate a market harvesting resources from bodies throughout the solar system.
SLS booster test-fired in Utah
Northrop Grumman test-fired a five-segment solid-fueled booster for NASA's Space Launch System Wednesday at the company's test facility in Promontory, Utah.