On this day in space! Feb. 7, 1984: The world's 1st untethered spacewalk.

On Feb. 7, 1984, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless became the first person to go on a spacewalk without a tether.  McCandless was wearing a type of jetpack known as the Manned Maneuvering Unit, or MMU. The MMU fit over a regular EMU spacesuit and included gas thrusters that al…

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Perseverance Mars rover finds 'one-of-a-kind treasure' on Red Planet's Silver Mountain.

The Perseverance Mars rover has collected a rock sample on Mars unlike any other it has picked up so far. NASA's Perseverance rover is currently exploring hills and rocky outcrops along the rim of Jezero Crater, where it has been collecting rock samples to reveal the are…

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Putin axes Yuri Borisov, head of Russia's space agency.

Russia has a new space chief. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Yuri Borisov after 2.5 years in charge of the nation's space agency Roscosmos, The Moscow Times reported today (Feb. 6). His replacement is 39-year-old Dmitry Bakanov, who most recently served a…

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Falling space debris is increasingly threatening airplanes, researchers say.

Space debris from rocket bodies orbiting Earth is posing an increased threat to aircraft while falling from space, according to new research. While the probability of space junk striking an airplane is low, the risk is rising due to increases in both the aviation industry an…

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NASA astronaut Suni Williams sets new record on 5.5-hour spacewalk outside ISS.

Two NASA astronauts working outside of the International Space Station on Thursday (Jan. 30) were able to finally remove a faulty radio communications unit, succeeding where two previous spacewalks had been unsuccessful. The extended work needed to free the radio frequency g…

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Senior U.S. official exits after rift with Musk allies over payment system.

The highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department left the agency after a clash with allies of billionaire Elon Musk over access to sensitive payment systems, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to des…

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Japan's Resilience moon lander spots Point Nemo, Earth's remote spacecraft graveyard, from orbit.

The second lunar lander from Japanese space exploration company ispace snapped a stunning image of the Earth as it prepares for its journey to the moon. ispace's Resilience lander launched on Jan. 15 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, sharing the ride with Firefly Aerospace&…

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Trump asks Elon Musk to return 2 Starliner astronauts from the ISS for NASA.

On Tuesday evening (Jan. 28), President Donald Trump announced that he has another task for SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, who is already leading a cost- and regulation-cutting effort called the Department of Governmental Efficiency. "I have just asked Elon Musk and …

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Astronaut Hall of Fame to honor Bernard Harris and Peggy Whitson in May.

The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame will honor its 2025 class of inductees, record-setting space travelers Peggy Whitson and Bernard Harris, at a public ceremony in Florida this spring. There is a possibility, though, that one of the honorees will not be able to be able to atte…

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NASA's 2 stuck astronauts take their first spacewalk together.

NASA’s two stuck astronauts took their first spacewalk together Thursday, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in. Commander Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore removed a broken antenna and wiped the station’s exterior for evidence of any micr…

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India launches navigation satellite into orbit on nation's 1st mission of 2025.

India just launched its first mission of 2025. The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on schedule today at 7:53 p.m. EST (0053 GMT and 6:23 a.m. local time on Jan. 29). It w…

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On this day in space! Jan. 29, 1989: Phobos 2 enters orbit around Mars.

On January 29, 1989, a Soviet space probe named Phobos 2 arrived in orbit around Mars. This was the last space mission launched by the Soviet Union.  The mission's  primary purpose was to study Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos. Phobos 2's journey to the Red Plan…

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Meta agrees to pay $25 million to settle lawsuit from Trump after Jan. 6 suspension.

Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against the company after it suspended his accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to three people familiar with the matter. It's the latest instance of a…

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Gigantic 500,000-mile 'hole' in the sun's atmosphere aims aurora-sparking solar wind at Earth.

A colossal coronal hole, nearly 500,000 miles (800,000 kilometers) wide, has opened in the sun's atmosphere, spewing fast-moving solar wind toward Earth. Coronal holes are regions where the sun's magnetic fields have opened up, allowing solar wind, to escape freely i…

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Google says it will change Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’ in Maps app after government updates.

Google said Monday it will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” in Google Maps after the Trump administration updates its “official government sources.” The company also said it will start using the name “Mount McKinley” for the mountain in Alaska curre…

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Hubble's 2.5-Billion-Pixel Mosaic Reveals Andromeda in Breathtaking Detail.

The Andromeda galaxy is our closest galactic neighbor, barring dwarf galaxies that are gravitationally bound to the Milky Way. When conditions are right, we can see it with the naked eye, though it appears as a grey smudge. It's the furthest object in the Universe that w…

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A private US spacecraft headed to the moon captures a glorious view of Earth.

A private U.S. spacecraft bound for the moon has captured stunning images of Earth one week into its flight. Still circling Earth, Firefly Aerospace’s lunar lander fired its thrusters Thursday to put it on a path to reach the moon in over a month. Dubbed Blue Ghost, the spac…

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New Kind of Planet Unlike Anything in Our Solar System Discovered.

An object we thought belonged to the most common category of planet in the galaxy has turned out to be something we've never seen before. The exoplanet Enaiposha, or GJ 1214 b, is a hazy world orbiting a red dwarf star about 47 light-years from Earth. Previously likened …

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Hubble Telescope sees rare supernova explosion as a violent 'pale blue dot'

The Hubble Space Telescope recently captured a snapshot of a rare supernova that sits in the Gemini constellation, about 650 million light-years away from Earth. A newly released Hubble pic shows the galaxy LEDA 22057, where the supernova explosion occurred. The spiral galax…

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Astronauts repair black hole observatory, inspect cosmic ray detector on ISS spacewalk.

An X-ray observatory used to study neutron stars is “back in the black” and a cosmic ray detector is ready for possible future upgrades after two astronauts completed a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS). Nick Hague worked to repair the Neutron star Inte…

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