Space Exploration

While everyone was caught up in the spectacle of NASA’s latest Mars landing, there was another important event happening nearby. Two tiny cubesats traveling along with InSight came online, beaming data back to Earth from InSight. No one has ever sent one of these small, off-the-shelf satellites so far away …

NASA’s InSight mission has successfully landed on the red planet, making it the first Mars landing for the agency in six years. With the solar panels deployed, it’s time for the probe to start doing some science, Well, it’s going to prepare to do some science. InSight has to do …

After an almost seven-month, 300-million-mile (458 million km) journey from Earth, NASA’s InSight lander successfully touched down Monday, November 26, 2018, near Mars’ equator on the western side of a flat, smooth expanse of lava called Elysium Planitia, with a signal affirming a completed landing sequence at approximately 3 p.m. …

The International Space Station (ISS) has been orbiting Earth as a functional station for 20 years this month, and it’s time to celebrate as only astronauts can — with a really long timelapse video from space. The ESA has put together a fantastic 15-minute video of Earth from the ISS, …

The InSight Mars lander might not be as flashy as a rover that gets to drive all around the planet, but it’s an important instrument in our quest to understand the red planet. After launching earlier this year, InSight is nearing its destination. It should touch down on Mars on …

After months in space, the NASA InSight probe has successfully touched down on Mars. The long-awaited landing came with the usual “seven minutes of terror” while signals from Mars crawled back to Earth at the speed of light. There was nothing to fear this time, though. NASA reports that InSight’s …

NASA’s Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet at approximately 3 p.m. EST (12 p.m. PST, 8 p.m. GMT) on November 26, 2018. Blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California on May 5, …

New research from Brown University reinforces the idea that grooves crisscrossing the surface of Phobos, the larger of the two Martian moons, were made by rolling boulders blasted free from a huge asteroid impact. Martian moon Phobos. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona. Phobos’ grooves, which are …

SpaceX’s next giant rocket, the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) doesn’t even exist in any capacity beyond design renders and some parts in manufacturing facilities, but it’s already getting a new name. CEO Elon Musk casually announced the change on Twitter, as he is wont to do. The BFR is now …

The InSight Mars lander might not be as flashy as a rover that gets to drive all around the planet, but it’s an important instrument in our quest to understand the red planet. After launching earlier this year, InSight is nearing its destination. It should touch down on Mars within …