In a surprise move, President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination of Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. The private astronaut’s prospective role as NASA administrator was seen by the space community as a welcomed change to the agency during a critical time, with looming budget cuts and several of its missions on the chopping block. With […]
Venus Harbors Secret Asteroids That Could Threaten Earth, Study Warns
Twenty years ago, Congress gave NASA a directive: find 90% of the near-Earth asteroids that could potentially harm our little world. Since then, astronomers have made major progress tracking down the rocky space debris, but a new study suggests there’s a population of asteroids lurking around Venus that could pose a problem. These so-called “Venus […]
NASA Revives Voyager Thrusters ‘Considered Dead’ for 20 Years
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has been in space for nearly 50 years, enduring the harsh environment of outer space while teams on the ground figure out ways to keep its aging hardware from falling apart. In the latest attempt to keep Voyager alive, engineers managed to bring the spacecraft’s old thrusters back to life after […]
Rogue Pulsar Snaps Galactic Bone in Milky Way’s Spine
A galactic filament that stretches across 230 light-years in the Milky Way has suffered from a strange kink that has distorted its magnetic field, appearing as a fracture in a massive bone. New X-ray images captured by the Chandra Observatory may have finally helped astronomers diagnose its ailment, naming a fast-spinning neutron star as the […]
NASA Has a Badass Moon Rover but No Way to Get It to the Moon
NASA’s VIPER is designed to search for water ice around the Moon’s south pole. But instead of exploring the lunar terrain, the fully assembled four-wheeled robot is in storage at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. After canceling its VIPER mission last year, NASA is still searching for alternatives to launch its lunar rover, and […]
Trump’s Proposed NASA Budget Could Torch the Agency’s Boldest Missions
The U.S. administration is proposing a $6 billion cut to NASA’s budget for next year, axing cornerstones of the agency’s Moon program and its ambitious plan to return rocky samples from Mars. President Donald Trump’s administration released a so-called skinny budget on Friday, outlining the proposed funding for NASA’s 2026 fiscal year. The proposed budget […]
NASA’s SPHEREx Telescope Just Switched On. Time to Map the Entire Universe in 3D
NASA’s newest eye on the cosmos is officially open for business, commencing its regular science operations this week with the main charge of mapping the universe. After a six-week calibration period, NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer—mercifully shortened to SPHEREx—has begun its two-year mission to build an […]
NASA’s Psyche Mission Suffers Strange Glitch on Its Way to a Metallic Asteroid
The Psyche spacecraft launched nearly two years ago and is currently on its way to rendezvous with a unique asteroid in an effort to understand the origins of Earth. Although it’s still a few years away from orbiting the asteroid, which bears the same name, the Psyche mission has run into an issue with its […]
Watch Live as NASA Astronauts Take On a Rare All-Woman Spacewalk Outside the ISS
Two astronauts are gearing up for some orbital maintenance work outside the International Space Station (ISS) during a rare all-woman spacewalk. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers are set to begin their spacewalk on Thursday at 8 a.m. ET, exiting the space station for a planned six hours and 35 minutes. NASA will broadcast […]
Here’s a NASA Satellite View of One of New Jersey’s Biggest Wildfires in Decades
Images taken by a NASA satellite this week reveal the worrying extent of a fast-moving wildfire in southern New Jersey. Taken during the fire’s second day, the images capture plumes of smoke and scorched terrain from the fire that’s burned 15,300 acres to date. New Jersey’s Pine Barrens are no stranger to fire—pitch pines actually […]