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An artist's impression of NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity.

The first interplanetary helicopter is on its way to Mars

By Hanneke Weitering

NASA's Mars helicopter, called Ingenuity, is hitching a ride to the Red Planet with the agency's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

A diagram of NASA's Perseverance rover shows the locations of its two microphones.

The sounds of Mars: NASA's Perseverance rover packs microphones to hear the Red Planet

By Elizabeth Howell

For the first time ever, NASA's Perseverance rover will collect the sounds of Mars — starting as the spacecraft plummets through the atmosphere to its landing site at Jezero Crater.

Spaceflight

Russia's Roscosmos space agency aims to launch the Luna-25 moon lander in October 2021.

Russia gearing up to launch moon mission in 2021

By Leonard David

Russia's Luna-25 moon lander is starting to come together ahead of its planned launch next year.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 60 of the company's Starlink internet satellites from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 18, 2020.

SpaceX launching 57 more Starlink satellites early Friday: How to watch it live

By Elizabeth Howell

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to send 57 more Starlink satellites into space early Friday morning (Aug. 7). Here's how to watch it live.

Science & Astronomy

An artist's depiction of Jupiter, at left, and its massive moon Ganymede in the foreground.

Jupiter's huge moon Ganymede may have the largest impact scar in the solar system

By Meghan Bartels

Scientists have discovered what they believe may be the largest impact crater in the entire solar system, with scars covering a vast portion of Jupiter's huge moon, Ganymede.

Emperor penguins photographed here on the Brunt ice shelf near the British Antarctic Survey Halley Research Station.

Poop stains visible from space reveal hidden colonies of Antarctic penguins

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

There might be nearly 20% more emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica than previously thought.

Search For Life

Is the Pentagon secretly investigating UFOs or not?

Pentagon's secret, defunct UFO-hunting program may still exist

By Mindy Weisberger

A federal program for investigating UFOs was purportedly discontinued in 2012, but the Pentagon's search for UFOs never stopped. Its findings may soon be released to the public.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches NASA's Mars 2020 rover Perseverance toward the Red Planet on July 30, 2020.

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance is fine and out of 'safe mode'

By Mike Wall

You can breathe easy now: All is officially well with NASA's newly launched Mars rover Perseverance.

Artist's illustration of a rocket launching samples off the Martian surface, for delivery to Earth.

NASA's Perseverance rover launch kicks off audacious Mars sample-return project

By Mike Wall

Humanity's first interplanetary sample-return campaign is now underway.

Skywatching

This amazing view of a Perseid meteor was captured by amateur astronomers Stojan Stojanovski, Kristijan Gjoreski and Igor Nastoski of the Ohrid Astronomy Association in Ohrid, Macedonia during the peak of the Perseid meteor shower on Aug. 12-13, 2015.

Perseid meteor shower 2020: When, where & how to see it

By Sarah Lewin

The astronomy site at Dome A in Antarctica.

The best place to see stars from Earth also happens to be the coldest place on the planet

By Chelsea Gohd

If you want the clearest view of the night sky, you'll have to pack a warm jacket.

The Full Sturgeon Moon arrives on Monday, Aug. 3, at 11:59 a.m. EDT (1559 GMT).

August full moon 2020: Catch the 'Sturgeon Moon' with Jupiter and Saturn tonight

By Jesse Emspak

The full moon of August arrives on tonight (Aug. 3), after the moon makes a close pass to Jupiter and Saturn in the night sky.

Entertainment

What 'Star Trek' has taught us about diversity

By Swapna Krishna

What is so remarkable about "Star Trek" isn't its setting or tone: It is its cast.

Best space and sci-fi books for 2020

By Space.com Staff

Space.com's editors present a reading list for space and sci-fi lovers, as well as children who are interested in astronomy and spaceflight.

"The Relentless Moon" by Mary Robinette Kowal.

'The Relentless Moon' imagines a lunar base with Apollo-era technology

By Meghan Bartels

What if, when the U.S. went to the moon in the 1960s, it never stopped — not by choice but in desperation, as a time bomb of climate change ticked away?

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