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SpaceX's CRS-21 Cargo Dragon is seen docked to a port on the Harmony module of the International Space Station. It's planned return to Earth on Jan. 11, 2021 was delayed by bad weather at its Atlantic Ocean splashdown site.

Bad weather on Earth delays SpaceX Dragon's return from space station

By Elizabeth Howell

Poor weather on Earth forced a SpaceX supply ship to wave off the opportunity to make the company's first autonomous undocking from the International Space Station on Monday (Jan. 11).

This concept design shows future astronauts on Mars. A new study shows how future astronauts might use local materials to make methane-based rocket fuel to get home.

Future astronauts could make methane rocket fuel on Mars

By Chelsea Gohd

How will future astronauts get back home to Earth from Mars? According to a new study, they could make rocket fuel from the methane that's already on the Red Planet.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Turksat 5A satellite from Florida on Jan. 7, 2021.

SpaceX launches Turksat 5A communications satellite for Turkey, lands rocket

By Amy Thompson

SpaceX kicked off what is expected to be another launch-packed year by delivering a Turkish communications satellite to orbit tonight (Jan. 7).

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk and the SpaceX team are recognized by Vice President Mike Pence at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center following the launch of the company’s Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station on May 30, 2020.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world

By Mike Wall

Elon Musk just became the world's richest person, nudging fellow space tycoon Jeff Bezos from the top spot.

Who's a good boy?

Meet Au-Spot, the AI robot dog that's training to explore caves on Mars

By Mindy Weisberger

Scientists are equipping four-legged, animal-mimicking robots with artificial intelligence (AI) and an array of sensing equipment to help the bots autonomously navigate the Red Planet.

Artist's illustration of China's Earth-orbiting space station, which the nation plans to assemble by the end of 2022.

China plans to launch core module of space station this year

By Mike Wall

The Tianhe module will lift off atop a Long March 5B rocket a few months from now, if all goes according to plan.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the new Turksat 5a telecommunications satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Jan. 7, 2021.

SpaceX will launch the Turksat 5A satellite for Turkey tonight. Here's how to watch live.

By Amy Thompson

SpaceX is set to launch a Turkish communications satellite into orbit on Thursday evening (Jan. 7), and you can watch the action online.

An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota.

India plans to build reusable rockets in the next decade (report)

By Chelsea Gohd

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has revealed plans to develop reusable rocket-launch technology this decade, according to a report by SpaceNews.

A total of 114 tanker trucks delivered more than 733,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the B-2 Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center for the seventh "green run" test of NASA's SLS rocket.

NASA will fire up its SLS moon megarocket in final 'green run' test this month

By Elizabeth Howell

NASA says it's ready to proceed with the next stage of testing the megarocket that will send the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission to the moon in November.

Police officers intervene after Trump supporters breached security and entered the Capitol building in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021.

Senator Mark Kelly, other former astronauts condemn storming of US Capitol building

By Mike Wall

The madness that swept over Capitol Hill on Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 6) drew widespread condemnation, including from some folks who have seen Earth from a perspective-enhancing remove.

SpaceX's SN9 Starship prototype conducts its first static-fire test, on Jan. 6, 2021, in this screenshot from a video captured by SPadre.com

SpaceX's Starship SN9 prototype fires its engines for the 1st time

By Mike Wall

SN9's engines burned briefly today (Jan. 6) during a static-fire test at SpaceX's South Texas facilities, near the Gulf Coast village of Boca Chica.

Virgin Orbit's carrier plane, Cosmic Girl, hauls the company's LauncherOne rocket aloft on the Launch Demo mission on May 25, 2020. LauncherOne did not reach orbit on the flight.

Virgin Orbit aims to launch 1st spaceflight Jan. 10

By Mike Wall

Virgin Orbit is targeting Sunday (Jan. 10) for Launch Demo 2, its second attempt to send its LauncherOne rocket to Earth orbit.

The Chang'e 4 lander (right) and Yutu 2 (left) spotted by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in October 2020.

NASA spacecraft reveals travels of China's Yutu 2 rover on far side of the moon

By Andrew Jones

China's Yutu 2 rover just turned two years old, and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has kept a sharp eye on its movements during its mission on the moon.

China's Tianwen-1 Mars probe is seen by a tiny camera ejected from the spacecraft in a photo captured 15 million miles from Earth.

China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft will reach Mars orbit on February 10

By Andrew Jones

China's Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter and rover are speeding toward the Red Planet and preparing to arrive on Feb. 10, according to the China National Space Administration.

plum brook neil a. armstrong test facility

NASA Plum Brook test facility renamed for astronaut Neil Armstrong

By Robert Z. Pearlman

A remote Ohio facility used to test NASA's new moon-bound spacecraft has been renamed for the first astronaut to step foot on the lunar surface.

SpaceX's Super Heavy rocket booster launches the Starship interplanetary spacecraft in this still from a SpaceX animation.

SpaceX targets bold new 'catch' strategy for landing Super Heavy rockets

By Mike Wall

SpaceX wants to bring Super Heavy, the giant first stage of the two-stage Starship system, down directly on the launch stand shortly after liftoff.

"Space Explorers: The ISS Experience" offers the public the chance to experience life on board the International Space Station as never possible or available before.

'ISS Experience' puts viewers aboard the space station in 3D 360-degree VR

By Robert Z. Pearlman

You could be the next crew member on the International Space Station with the VR app "Space Explorers: The ISS Experience."

Planetary-protection guidelines determine how projects like NASA's Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, are prepared to leave Earth and journey to potentially habitable worlds.

Planetary protection needs more than just NASA, White House plan says

By Meghan Bartels

The White House has laid out a plan for overhauling the federal government's planetary-protection rules, which work to prevent contamination between Earth and other potentially habitable worlds.

Test pilot Chuck Yeager in the cockpit of the Bell X-1, in which he became the first recorded pilot to break the sound barrier – although others had likely died trying.

Chuck Yeager was a Hollywood idea of a brave test pilot – today they must be skilled engineers too

By Guy Gratton

Charles “Chuck” Yeager, who has died aged 97, epitomised the movie test pilot of the 1940s and 1950s.

Five Expedition 64 astronauts on the International Space Station celebrate 2021 by ringing in the New Year with a zero gravity ball drop. They are (clockwise from top left): NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi and NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Shannon Walker.

Astronauts ring in new year from space with zero gravity ball drop for 2021

By Tariq Malik

Astronauts in space found a way to ring in 2021 on New Year's Eve in their own way: a ball drop in zero gravity.