Potential sign of life found on a distant planet and why many are still skeptical
A team of astronomers announced on April 16, 2025, that in the process of studying a planet around another star, they had found evidence for an unexpected atmospheric gas. On Earth, that gas – called dimethyl sulfide – is mostly produced by living organisms. In April 2024, the James Webb Space Telescope stared at the …
Psyche visit of a metal world may reveal mysteries of Earth’s interior
French novelist Jules Verne delighted 19th-century readers with the tantalizing notion that a journey to the center of the Earth was actually plausible. Since then, scientists have long acknowledged that Verne’s literary journey was only science fiction. The extreme temperatures of the Earth’s interior – around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,537 Celsius) at the core – …
Tiangong station gives China continuous presence in orbit
The International Space Station is not the only place where humans can live in orbit. On Nov. 29, 2022, the Shenzhou 15 mission launched from China’s Gobi Desert carrying three taikonauts – the Chinese word for astronauts. Six hours later, they reached their destination, China’s recently completed space station, called Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace” …
First launch of SpaceX’s Starship was a successful failure
On April 20, 2023, a new SpaceX rocket called Starship exploded over the Gulf of Mexico three minutes into its first flight ever. SpaceX is calling the test launch a success, despite the fiery end result. As a space policy expert, I agree that the “rapid unscheduled disassembly” – the term SpaceX uses when its …
ESA’s Juice lifts off to probe secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons
ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 14:14 CEST on 14 April. The successful launch marks the beginning of an ambitious voyage to uncover the secrets of the three ocean worlds around the giant planet Jupiter, the moons of Ganymede, Callisto and …
NASA announces Artemis II crew as rocket’s core stage completes assembly
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced the crew of four astronauts who will blast off on the historic Artemis II mission – as ‘humanity’s crew’ on humanity’s next epic journey beyond Earth orbit and around the Moon and back for the first time in more than 50 years. The history-making international flight will …