NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover takes a selfie with the 20ft-tall ‘Mont Mercou’ rock formation

Say cheese! NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover takes a selfie with the 20ft-tall ‘Mont Mercou’ rock formation NASA’s Curiosity rover took the selfie after collecting its 30th sample Mont Mercou is a rock formation on Mars named after a mountain in France The selfie is composed of 60 images taken by Curiosity’s Hand Lens Imager on … Read more

SpaceX’s Dragon spaceship given domed window for Inspiration4 all-civilian mission

SpaceX‘s Crew Dragon spaceship will be equipped with a domed window for the world’s first all-civilian mission to space later this year, Inspiration4.  The company posted an artist’s impression of the specially modified Crew Dragon on Twitter with the caption: ‘A new view for crew.’ Crew Dragon’s additional window at the ‘nose’ of the space capsule … Read more

Former astronaut Ed Gibson, 84, says he’d ‘go back in a heartbeat’ if given the chance 

Former astronaut Ed Gibson, the final person to leave NASA‘s Skylab space station, says he’d go back to space ‘in a heartbeat’ if given the chance. Gibson, a solar physicist, was in the first group of scientist-astronauts selected to go into space by NASA, making his only spaceflight as part of the final Skylab crew. … Read more

We’re safe! ‘Potentially hazardous’ asteroid Apophis will NOT collide with Earth in 2068 says NASA

The near-Earth object that was thought to smash into our planet in 2068 has been deemed no longer a threat for at least the next 100 years. NASA made the announcement after asteroid Apophis passed by Earth earlier this month, allowing the American space agency to estimate the space rock’s orbit around the sun. Scientists … Read more

NASA’s Orion spacecraft completes first water drop test in preparation for Artemis I launch in Nov

NASA conducted its first splash test for the Orion spacecraft in advance of the upcoming Artemis lunar missions. Cameras captured the 11-foot capsule dropping into the ‘hydro impact basin,’ a large tank of water at Langley Research Center’s Landing and Impact Research Facility in Hampton, Virginia.  However, the drop was hardly a long fall -the … Read more

Saturn’s moon Enceladus has ‘churning’ ocean currents beneath its 12 miles of ice, experts say

Saturn’s moon Enceladus has ‘churning’ ocean currents buried beneath its 12 miles of ice, according to a new study.   It’s already known that Enceladus – one of Saturn’s 82 moons – hides water beneath its shiny, icy surface. But experts at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) think ocean currents are flowing on Enceladus a bit like those near … Read more

Back to the Moon! Most powerful rocket ever built is set for the biggest blast-off in history

Back to the Moon! Most powerful rocket ever built – with boosters taller than Nelson’s Column – is set for the biggest blast-off in history NASA’s Space Launch System will produce up to 8.8million pounds of thrust  Boosters taller than Nelson’s Column will be used to launch the Orion spacecraft This will see astronauts – including a … Read more

One step closer to the moon! NASA ignite $18.6BN Space Launch System ‘megarocket’ for eight minutes

The first woman and next man to launch to the moon are one step closer to walking on the lunar surface following a successful test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). The $18.6 billion ‘megarocket’ completed a full eight-minute hot fire test of its massive engines Thursday, which is the final step needed to move … Read more