News Archive
Browse every article published on Spaceflight Now, from launch reports and mission previews to spacecraft development coverage. Use the filters to narrow by topic or search by keyword.
Matching Articles
717 articles
NASA studies mission to return samples from Mars by end of 2020s
NASA is examining options to launch a robotic mission as soon as 2026 to pick up rock specimens from the surface of Mars and bring them back to Earth, moving forward the timeline for a sample return mission as the agency postpones plans for a new Mars reconnaissance and data relay orbiter.
NASA releases inside-out view of Saturn’s rings
Continuing to make discoveries in the final weeks of a historic mission at Saturn, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has recorded a unique time lapse movie looking out toward the planet's iconic icy rings.
VideoOrbital imagery shows Harvey’s path toward Texas
Videos and photos from satellites and the crew aboard the International Space Station showed Hurricane Harvey bearing down on the Texas coast this weekend.
SpaceX informed NASA of slowdown in its commercial Mars program
Confirming rumors and suspicions that SpaceX is adjusting its plans to begin dispatching robotic landers to Mars, NASA officials said the commercial space company has informed the agency that it has put its Red Dragon program on the back burner.
NASA counts down final month of Cassini’s tour of Saturn
NASA's Cassini orbiter sailed through the tenuous outermost reaches of Saturn's atmosphere without trouble Monday, performing the first of five close swings nearer to the planet than any previous spacecraft before a final dive Sept. 15 to end the probe's nearly 20-year mission.
New Horizons’ next target might be a binary pair
Ground observations of the New Horizons spacecraft's next target last month revealed the distant object, lurking in the outer solar system more than four billion miles from Earth, might have an unconventional elongated shape, or even consist of two icy bodies orbiting one another in an age-old cosmic dance.
Planetary protection is serious business at NASA
A NASA post advertising an opening for a new Planetary Protection Officer provided a field day for headline writers who apparently couldn't resist having a bit of fun at the agency's expense by suggesting, in large type, that whoever filled the post would be defending Earth from aliens. And making good money to boot.
Opportunity rover peers into ‘Perseverance Valley’
NASA's Opportunity rover, now showing nearly 28 miles on its odometer since landing on Mars, recorded a panoramic view last month of its next scientific destination, a valley that may have been carved by water, an icy or muddy debris flow, or ancient Martian winds.
First images of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot reach Earth
Two days after NASA's Juno spacecraft streaked over Jupiter's Great Red Spot, pictures of the solar system's largest, most powerful storm, have been transmitted to Earth, giving eager scientist close-up views of the 10,000-mile-wide anticyclone where 400-mph winds have been howling for at least 187 years and possibly much longer.
BepiColombo Mercury mission tested for journey into ‘pizza oven’
Three spacecraft built in Europe and Japan have completed their final joint tests to ensure they are ready for departure to Mercury on an Ariane 5 rocket late next year on the nearly $1.9 billion BepiColombo mission to survey the solar system's innermost planet.