Space Exploration, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 31, 2017

North Korea's Missile Threats to US May Not Be Empty for Long

North Korea has always talked the talk, and now it seems to be walking the walk as never before. The nuclear-armed rogue nation appears to be making progress on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which could conceivably allow the Hermit Kingdom to make good on its oft-repeated threat to turn...

Nov 30, 2018

SpaceX Launches Dragon Cargo Ship to Space Station, But Misses Rocket Landing

According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Twitter, a hydraulic pump on one of the first stage grid fins stalled, so the booster ended up splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean rather than coming in for a landing at a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida....

Nov 30, 2018

Space Oddity: 10 Bizarre Things Earthlings Launched into Space in 2018

Strange space launches (Image credit: Rocket Lab)This past year, engineers launched many oddities into space, including a Tesla Roadster, a gold-plated canopic jar and a cosmic disco ball. The total list of launched objects is lengthy, so here are the top 10 coolest objects (in our opinion) that blasted spaceward...

Oct 31, 2018

See the Apollo Moon Missions Like Astronauts Did — In 3D

Fifty years ago, NASA launched America into the space race with the birth of the Apollo program — an 11-year initiative that sent 33 spaceflights to the moon, six of which deployed landers that visited the lunar surface. That incredible story comes to light in a new book, Mission Moon...

Sep 30, 2018

SpaceX to Attempt 1st West Coast Falcon 9 Rocket Landing on Sunday

SpaceX is targeting an evening launch Sunday (Oct. 7) for its next Falcon 9 rocket flight, a mission that will also mark the first land-based landing of the booster on the West Coast. The rocket will lift off from SpaceX's pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. This will be...

Sep 30, 2018

Another NASA Space Telescope Sidelined by Glitch

Another NASA space telescope is out of commission, at least for the time being. The Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has been observing the universe in high-energy light since 1999, entered a protective safe mode on Wednesday (Oct. 10), NASA officials announced. All systems functioned as expected and the scientific instruments...

Jul 31, 2018

Trump Hails Astronauts That Will Fly on SpaceX and Boeing Spaceships. And Space Force, Too?

NASA, which is making a BIG comeback under the Trump Administration, has just named 9 astronauts for Boeing and Spacex space flights, Trump wrote on Twitter. We have the greatest facilities in the world and we are now letting the private sector pay to use them. Exciting things happening. Space...

May 31, 2018

NASA Satellites Make Magnetic Discovery in Turbulent Space Near Earth

Earth is surrounded by charged particles known as plasma. Most of these high-energy particles are deflected by the magnetosphere, which is the protective magnetic field that surrounds the planet. As Earth's magnetic-field lines absorb this energy, they stretch and eventually snap, releasing powerful bursts of particles toward Earth, which, in...

May 31, 2018

Will China's Second Space Station Fall Out of the Sky Soon?

China's recently abandoned space station did a big, unexplained wobble in orbit this month. And the event left observers outside the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSE) guessing about the country's plans for the long-term future of Tiangong-2, the middle child of China's space station family. Tiangong-2, the successor to...

Mar 31, 2018

China's Space Station Expected to Make Fiery Plunge in Next Few Hours

Editor's note: Chinese space station Tiangong-1 fell to Earth in the southern Pacific Ocean on Sunday, April 1 at 8:16 p.m. EDT (0016 GMT on April 2). You can read more about the fiery reentry here. It sure looks like the abandoned Chinese space station Tiangong-1 will put on its...

Feb 28, 2018

What Should You Do If You Find a Piece of China's Crashed Space Station?

China's defunct Tiangong-1 space station is careening through low-Earth orbit right now, and is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere sometime between March 30 and April 2. Most of the 9-ton (8,500 kilograms) space station will probably burn to bits in the atmosphere — but a few thousand chunks of hot,...

Jan 31, 2018

Starman's SpaceX Spacesuit Would Leave You Dead in Minutes

If you hope to someday take a profile pic that looks as majestic as the convertible-driving, spacesuit-wearing mannequin known as Starman that was just launched into space, we have some bad news for you. For starters, cosmic radiation will probably rip that cherry-red convertible to bits within a year. And...

Jan 31, 2018

Launch of Superfast Russian Cargo Ship Mission Aborted at Last Minute

The launch of a Russian cargo ship bound for the International Space Station was aborted in the final minute Sunday (Feb. 11), just as it was poised to fly the fastest resupply mission to the orbiting lab in history. The uncrewed Progress 69 resupply ship and its Russian-built Soyuz 2.1a...

Jan 31, 2018

A Giant Claw Will Grab Falling SpaceX Gear 'Like a Giant Catcher's Mitt'

See more SpaceX is planning to use a giant net — one so immense that it takes up the majority of a high-speed watercraft named Mr. Steven — to catch reusable gear that falls back to Earth after missions to outer space. If the huge net successfully catches the SpaceX...

Dec 31, 2017

US Launches Spy Satellite on Secret Mission

The fleet of U.S. spy satellites has just welcomed a new member. The NROL-47 spacecraft soared into Earth orbit today (Jan. 12), riding atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Medium rocket that lifted off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 5:11 p.m. EST (2211 GMT, 2:11 p.m....