The international space agency NASA has launched a daring mission to probe some of the sun’s deepest secrets. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe lifted off this morning (Aug. 12) at 3:31 a.m. EDT (0731 GMT) from a pad here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, its powerful United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket carving an […]

The first ever spacecraft to fly directly toward the Sun is poised to blast off Saturday, on a mission to plunge into our star’s sizzling atmosphere and unlock the mysteries of the center of the solar system. NASA’s car-sized, $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to launch on a Delta IV Heavy rocket from […]

NASA is poised to launch a $1.5 billion spacecraft on a brutally hot journey toward the Sun, offering scientists the closest-ever view of our strange and mysterious star. After the Parker Solar Probe blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 11, it will become the first spacecraft ever to fly through the Sun’s scorching […]

Explorations in Earth’s space environment by NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft have discovered a surprising new magnetic event in turbulent plasma. Though close to home, the space immediately around Earth is full of hidden secrets and invisible processes. In a new discovery reported in the journal Nature, scientists working with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft — MMS — […]

NASA on Saturday launched its latest Mars lander, called InSight, designed to perch on the surface and listen for “Marsquakes” ahead of eventual human missions to explore the Red Planet. “Three, two, one, liftoff!” said a NASA commentator as the unmanned spacecraft blasted off on a dark, foggy morning atop an Atlas V rocket at […]

 Most space missions rely on solar power, but a few that demand maximum reliability have a thermal nuclear power system. Human spaceflight and colonization efforts will require a lot of power that works no matter the conditions. That’s why NASA has been developing small-scale nuclear fission reactors. The space agency now reports that the delightfully […]

 Astronomers have made the most precise measurement to date of the rate at which the universe is expanding. But there’s also some unsettling news: The new number remains at odds with independent measurements of the early universe’s expansion, which could mean that there is something unknown about the makeup of the universe. Is something unpredicted […]

NASA on Wednesday announced two finalists for billion-dollar robotic missions — one to explore a comet and another Saturn’s moon Titan — with a launch by the winner planned in the 2020s. “These are tantalizing investigations that seek to answer some of the biggest questions in our solar system today,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator […]

 SpaceX’s first flight with a pre-flown booster for NASA was a success. After launch, SpaceX successfully touched down its used Falcon 9 rocket at the company’s ground-based Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral. This marks the 14th landing SpaceX has pulled off this year, and the second time this particular vehicle has landed following take […]

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft — cruising interstellar space billions of miles from Earth — was back on the right track Friday thanks to thrusters that were fired up for the first time in 37 years. The unmanned spaceship was launched along with its twin, Voyager 2, more than 40 years ago to explore the outer […]