Mercury has a layer of diamond 10 miles thick, NASA spacecraft finds.

The solar system's tiniest planet may be hiding a big secret. Using data from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, scientists have determined that a 10-mile-thick diamond mantle may lie beneath the crust of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.  Mercury has long puzzled sc…

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Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket launching for 1st time ever today.

Europe's new heavy-lift Ariane 6 rocket is set to make its long-delayed debut today (July 9). If all goes according to plan, the Ariane 6 will launch from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Tuesday during a four-hour window that opens at 2 p.m. EDT (1800…

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Crew of NASA's earthbound simulated Mars habitat emerge after a year.

The crew of a NASA mission to Mars emerged from their craft after a yearlong voyage that never left Earth. The four volunteer crew members spent more than 12 months inside NASA's first simulated Mars environment at Johnson Space Center in Houston, coming out of the artif…

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NASA's Juno probe reveals lava lakes across Jupiter's volcanic moon Io.

NASA's Juno mission might have originally been all about Jupiter, but its extended mission has the spacecraft observing the gas giant's moons — and it's making some pretty interesting discoveries. Its latest find? The Jovian moon Io is covered in "fire-brea…

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NASA's oldest active astronaut will return to space for a six-month mission in September.

Don Pettit, 69, will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) as a part of the Roscosmos-led Soyuz MS-26 mission, which includes Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner.  Russian state media source TASS said this week that the launch date will be on Sept. 11. …

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NASA Astronauts again postpone return to earth after Boeing Spacecraft issues.

A roughly one-week trip to space to test out a private Boeing spacecraft has turned into a three-week excursion with no definite return date for two NASA astronauts, after their spacecraft experienced multiple technical issues. Boeing’s Starliner transportation vessel, which…

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China returns samples from the moon's far side in historic 01st.

China has made spaceflight history yet again. The nation's robotic Chang'e 6 mission returned material from the moon's mysterious far side to Earth on Tuesday (June 25) — something that had never been done before.  The milestone moment occurred Tuesday at 2:07 a.m…

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Mountain-size 'planet killer' asteroid will make a close approach to Earth this week.

A massive "planet killer" asteroid will make a very close approach to Earth later this week, safely zipping past our planet at around 58,000 mph (93,000 km/h). The "potentially hazardous," mountain-size object is one of the largest space rocks to pass cl…

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NASA cancels ISS spacewalk due to spacesuit coolant leak.

NASA cancelled a spacewalk at the International Space Station today (June 24) following a spacesuit coolant leak in the hatch. NASA astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mike Barratt were told by Mission Control at 8:52 a.m. EDT (1252 GMT) to stop the planned 6.5-hour spacewal…

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A massive black hole may be 'waking up' in a nearby galaxy.

In December of 2019, the sky-scanning Zwicky Transient Facility — a telescope perched on California's Palomar Mountain — alerted astronomers to a sudden flare coming from an otherwise unremarkable galaxy some 300 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo…

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Ed Stone, who led NASA's iconic Voyager project dies.

Ed Stone, who served as the project scientist for NASA's groundbreaking Voyager mission from 1972 to 2022, died on Sunday (June 9) at the age of 88. Voyager launched twin probes on a "grand tour" of the solar system's giant planets in 1977. The two spacecra…

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Solar flare blasts out strongest radiation storm since 2017.

Beastly sunspot AR3697 has made headlines again just before it makes another exit. The sunspot region, formerly known as AR3664, produced the historic geomagnetic storm that led to May's global auroras. On Saturday (June 8), the sunspot fired off a M9.7-class solar flare…

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Water frost on Mars discovered near Red Planet's equator.

Water frost has been spotted at the equator of Mars for the first time. In this region of the Red Planet, equivalent to its tropics, it was previously believed that it would be impossible for frost to exist.  The discovery could be crucial to modeling where water exists on M…

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Apollo 8 astronaut dies in fiery plane crash.

Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders died in a fiery plane crash over Puget Sound in Washington on Friday. The tragic incident was caught on video. Anders was 90. At the time of the airplane crash, Anders was piloting his vintage Beechcraft T-34 Mentor – a single-engine, propel…

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Boeing launches NASA astronauts for the first time after years of delays.

Boeing launched astronauts for the first time Wednesday, belatedly joining SpaceX as a second taxi service for NASA. A pair of NASA test pilots blasted off aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule for the International Space Station, the first to fly the new spacecraft. The trip by …

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A Russian cosmonaut becomes the first person to spend 1,000 days in space.

A 59-year-old Russian cosmonaut has become the first person to spend 1,000 days in space, Russian space agency Roscosmos said Wednesday. Oleg Kononenko achieved the milestone on Tuesday, having made five journeys to the International Space Station dating back to 2008. His cur…

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SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites on 50th mission of the year.

SpaceX launched 20 of its Starlink internet satellites today (May 14), on the company's 50th orbital mission of 2024. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft — 13 of which feature direct-to-cell capability — lifted off from California's Vandenberg Space Fo…

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Helium leak delays Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut launch to May 21.

The crewed debut of Boeing's Starliner capsule has been pushed back an additional four days. Starliner had been scheduled to lift off this Friday (May 17) on Crew Flight Test (CFT), a mission that will send NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to the Internati…

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SpaceX launches 23 satellites from Florida on 1st leg of Starlink doubleheader.

SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida today (May 8), on the first leg of a planned spaceflight doubleheader for the company. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 23 Starlink craft lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to…

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Voyager 1 Light-Sensing Instrument Non-operational.

Project officials report light-sensing instrument aboard NASA's Voyager 1, that had difficulty during encounter with the planet Jupiter March 5th, has been confirmed as no longer being able to record useful data. Tests conducted last week indicate that the light sensitiv…

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