Israeli dishwasher-size moon lander looks to shatter space 'glass ceiling'
It is only the size of a dishwasher and weighs as much as a giant panda, but its inventors are hoping this spacecraft will go where no other Israeli vessel has gone before — to the moon. Working on a shoestring budget, the Israeli scientists ...
Sicilian amateur scientists have launched a model cannolo, a cream-stuffed pastry roll symbolic of the Italian island, into the stratosphere, capturing bizarre images of the dessert flying far above Earth last month. The "Sicilian Space Program," which cost roughly €350, had symbolic importance as well ...
Scientists have observed for the first time an asteroid breaking apart, crumbling into at least 10 pieces in a kind of slow-motion celestial train wreck. The rocky asteroid, named P/2013 R3, was one of the innumerable objects populating the crowded asteroid belt between the orbits ...
JAXA-NASA observatory to improve ability to analyze global precipitation
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Friday revealed the details of a global precipitation observatory that will be put into orbit next month. The Global Precipitation Measurement core observatory was jointly developed by JAXA and NASA. Unlike conventional satellites, the 4-ton, 6.5-meter-high facility has ...
Budget limits trim NASA's plans for big projects
The Cassini spacecraft is in splendid shape as it circles Saturn. Conceived in the 1980s and launched in 1997, Cassini arrived at the gas-giant planet in 2004 and has continued to deliver stunning images of the jewel of the solar system. The unmanned probe scored ...
China completed the first soft landing on the moon's surface in 37 years Saturday, becoming only the third country to pull off the feat. State television showed scientists in white and pale blue coats applauding, shaking hands and congratulating each other after the craft, Chang'e-3, ...
The search for life in the solar system took a twist Thursday with the announcement that Europa, a moon of Jupiter first discovered by Galileo, shows signs of water geysers erupting from its south pole. This could be the best evidence yet that Europa has ...
As comet ISON hurtles toward the sun, its million-year-long journey through our solar system may end with its violent death — or a spectacular sky show. When the comet rounds the sun on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day in America, professional and amateur astronomers alike will await ...
Billionaire Dennis Tito, tired of being told that we can't send humans to Mars yet, on Wednesday revealed his plan for launching two astronauts to the red planet as early as December 2017. Dubbed "Inspiration Mars," the flyby mission would exploit a rare alignment of ...
Spacecraft set to uncover past, future of galaxy
European scientists are preparing to launch a probe that will transform our understanding of the galaxy. The spacecraft, called Gaia, will carry the world's biggest, most accurate camera, which it will use to pinpoint more than a billion stars with unprecedented precision and create ...
The Chesapeake Bay can not only be seen from space, it essentially came from space. An asteroid or huge chunk of ice slammed into Earth about 35 million years ago, splashing into the North Atlantic Sea, sending tsunami as far as the Blue Ridge Mountains ...
U.S. Dream Chaser space taxi soars on test flight, skids after landing
For the would-be spaceship named the Dream Chaser, everything on the first flight of a prototype went perfectly — until the craft touched down, toppled on its side, skidded off the runway and wound up in the sand of the Mojave Desert.
