Spaceflight

The astronauts of the Shenzhou 16 mission have been cultivating vegetables as part of their science experiment workload aboard the Tiangong space station.

Frank Rubio is the first American to spend a year in space, a milestone he will reach on Sept. 21.

Japan's SLIM moon lander has passed a first critical operation period in Earth orbit, meaning its solar panels, communications, propulsion and other systems are working well.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission taught astronomers how little they know about space rocks. They might be only a few hundreds of feet wide, but their geology appears surprisingly complex.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched for a record-setting 17th time Tuesday night (Sept. 19), sending 22 Starlink satellites to orbit.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe performed one last trajectory-correcting maneuver on Sunday (Sept. 17) to set up the Sept. 24 arrival of its asteroid sample here on Earth.

Stoke Space successfully tested its Hopper vehicle, showcasing innovative designs for its second stage rocket while aiming for full rocket reusability.

In the next month or two, India plans to launch a test mission to validate the crew escape system for its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program.

Asteroid Dimorphos, which NASA intentionally hit with a rocket during its DART mission in September 2022, is behaving in unpredicted ways.

U.S. astronaut Tracy Dyson will fly to the International Space Station for the third time in March 2024 alongside crew members from Russia and Belarus, NASA announced on Sept. 15.

Rocket Lab suffered an anomaly during the launch of a radar Earth-observation satellite for the California company Capella Space early Tuesday morning (Sept. 19).

NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is delivering a precious haul of asteroid dirt and gravel to Earth this weekend. How much of this space-rock stuff will there be?

The descent capsule of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid-sampling mission is supposed to touch down softly under parachutes on Sept. 24. If it crashes, however, the agency has a backup plan.

A new initiative from the Mars Society suggests a new institute be established that could help develop the technologies needed for humans to settle on the Red Planet.

The first Venezuelan man or woman could land on the moon on a Chinese spacecraft, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said last week.

Rocket Lab will launch a radar Earth-observation satellite for the California company Capella Space early Tuesday (Sept. 19), and you can watch the action live.

SpaceX has signed a 14-launch deal to loft Telesat's Lightspeed internet constellation, beginning in 2026. Each liftoff will see a Falcon 9 carry up to 18 satellites to low Earth orbit.

When the OSIRIS-REx probe arrived at asteroid Bennu, it found a body that looked and behaved quite differently from what scientists had expected.

The challenges of settling Mars stretch beyond the boundaries of rocket technology, impacting our biology and fundamentally questioning our identity as a species.