This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. And one small step (and giant leap) will celebrate that milestone in a distinct, creative way.

The secretive mission of a U.S. Air Force X-37B miniature space plane just winged past 500 days in Earth orbit.

China's Chang'e 4 lander and rover are now getting cold-soaked, as darkness falls on their touchdown site on the far side of the moon.

China's bold moon-exploration plans don't stop with the pioneering Chang'e 4 mission, which made the first-ever soft landing on the lunar far side on Jan. 2.

Scientists have used photos captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to further pinpoint the landing locale of China's Chang'e 4 far-side mission.

China's far-side moon rover Yutu 2 has woken up from its nap as planned, according to Chinese media reports.

The proposed "Interstellar Probe" mission would aim to reach 90 billion miles (145 billion kilometers) from the sun, pushing the limits of engineering know-how and space technology.

China's Chang'e 4 mission will soon make a historic touchdown on the far side of the moon.

China's Chang'e 4 mission could have major effects on Earthbound science and politics.

New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern discusses the mission and its Jan. 1 flyby of the mysterious, distant object Ultima Thule.

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover has been silent since June 10, a casualty of a mega-dust storm. But the robot's handlers haven't given up yet on Opportunity, which touched down on Mars in January 2004.

China is getting set to launch the first-ever surface mission to the moon's far side.

Space-junk experts are raising a red flag about the upcoming launch of more than 60 small satellites atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Autodesk, a software company, have engaged in a multiyear collaborative research project to investigate new approaches for building interplanetary landers.

The latest mystery mission of the U.S. Air Force's robotic X-37B space plane has now passed the 400-day mark.

A space-elevator experiment is now at the International Space Station. The technology it's testing, if implemented on a large scale, could revolutionize spaceflight, advocates say.

Leading military space strategy experts are pondering the role of cis-lunar space in the context of President Donald Trump's plan to establish a U.S. Space Force.

Since its establishment in the 1870s, the USGS has focused on Earth. But now it's investigating what benefits may or may not exist in tapping extraterrestrial water, minerals and metals.

Forty years later, Gil Levin still insists that NASA's twin Viking landers found conclusive evidence of life on Mars.

The European Space Agency and Russia are working together to investigate the moon's resources — specifically, water ice and other volatiles at the lunar poles.

A recent paper lays out some key characteristics of Von Kármán Crater, the spot on the far side of the moon where China's robotic Chang'e 4 mission is scheduled to land late this year.

We now know a lot more about the region where China's ambitious lunar sample-return mission will touch down next year.