Die Nasa will im Sommer während der bemannten Mission Artemis 3 die Mondlander von Space-X und Blue Origin in der Erdumlaufbahn testen. Dafür sollen binnen weniger Tage drei Großraketen starten. Der Nasa-Chef sieht aber noch technische Probleme.

Japanese space agency leads five-year mission to Phobos, one of ‘most important unclimbed mountains in the solar system’

Japan is to launch a spacecraft on the world’s first mission to bring back samples from Phobos, one of the two small, potato-shaped moons orbiting Mars.

Scientists hope the mission, which is expected to take five years, will provide clues to how Phobos and its smaller sibling Deimos formed, and hopefully even shed light on the origins of life in the solar system.

Expanding plume of fuel exhaust crystalized in the sky and reflected sunlight off frozen particles after Florida launch

A SpaceX rocket provided a stunning pre-dawn display over Florida as a egiant, luminescent “jellyfish cloud” spread for miles, caused by an expanding plume of fuel exhaust crystalizing in the sky and reflecting sunlight off the frozen particles.

The phenomenon occurred shortly after Tuesday’s 6.33am ET launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying cargo to the International Space Station.

Das neue „Nancy-Grace-Roman“-Weltraumteleskop der Nasa soll nebenbei auch noch Zehntausende Planeten entdecken.

So schnell war noch kein US-Raumschiff an der ISS: Knapp acht Stunden nach dem Start erreicht eine Kapsel von Space-X die Raumstation

Four astronauts pulled up at International Space Station after eight-hour express flight led by Jessica Watkins

Four astronauts pulled up at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday after launching on an eight-hour express that set a US speed record, and that created further history with the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit.

SpaceX launched commander Jessica Watkins and her crew for Nasa after a three-week delay to fix their Dragon capsule’s leaking fuel system. Thick clouds threatened all morning to halt the countdown but skies cleared enough to allow a safe liftoff from Cape Canaveral at 11.10am (1510 GMT).

Experiment suggests organisms could live in harsh environment under Enceladus’s icy crust, strengthening possibility moon could support life

From the moment scientists spotted plumes of water erupting from Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, it became the most tantalising place in the solar system to search for life beyond Earth.

Now the case is even more compelling after researchers found that organisms that live in deep-sea waters off Japan can survive the harsh conditions expected in the briny ocean that lurks beneath Enceladus’s icy crust.

Series of in-flight problems meant Link, a ‘commercial space robot’, could not salvage the Nasa observatory

A spacecraft that was launched in July on a mission to rescue a decaying Nasa space observatory plunged back to Earth on Friday, concluding a failed mission that will be followed by the telescope’s own demise in several weeks’ time.

Link, billed as “America’s first commercial space robot”, lifted off on 3 July from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific islands with the objective of lifting the orbit and prolonging the life of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a satellite that has studied gamma-ray bursts and other cosmic events for the last 22 years.

The revelation ‘left experts scratching their heads at exactly what Donald Trump has in his cosmic arsenal’

In Hollywood at least, space weapons are a relatively simple concept. The good guys, from Captain Kirk and his crew in Star Trek, to Luke Skywalker’s rebel alliance in Star Wars, battle intergalactic villains with an array of colorful lasers and particle-beam cannons, then the bad guys get dispatched in a spectacular, explosive finale.

The messaging coming out of the White House on the subject, by contrast, could not be more vague.

Wieder einmal sind Raumfahrer in Nördlingen zu Gast. Schon 1970 studierten Astronauten der Nasa im Ries Gesteine – sie tranken aber auch Weißbier und trieben allerlei Unfug.

Dass Europa mit einer Kleinrakete in die Erdumlaufbahn kommt, ist ein historischer Schritt. Aber die „Falcon 9“ von Elon Musk lässt sich damit nicht ersetzen. Es braucht mehr, um die Unabhängigkeit im All auszubauen.

Die Kleinrakete „Spectrum“ setzt schon beim zweiten Testflug Satelliten in der Erdumlaufbahn aus. Es ist die erste deutsche Trägerrakete überhaupt, die den Orbit erreicht hat.

Die Kleinrakete „Spectrum“ setzt schon beim zweiten Testflug Satelliten in der Erdumlaufbahn aus. Es ist die erste deutsche Trägerrakete überhaupt, die den Orbit erreicht hat.

A year on from the purge, with thousands of jobs cut and billions in foreign aid lost, a former leader reflects on the sorry saga – and why it would never happen to Nasa

A year has passed since I and thousands of colleagues lost our jobs at USAID. Asking myself “Why us?” I have come to the conclusion that the American public had very little idea of what we were doing and why.

Doge, the “department of government efficiency”, began its work in January 2025, with USAID as its first target, in a reckless campaign that even Elon Musk has said he would not repeat. At that moment of chaos, Americans lacked the knowledge that could contradict the false narrative presented by Musk, who called the agency a “criminal organisation” and “a viper’s nest of radical left-marxists who hate America”.

Since it was stripped of planetary status, Pluto’s defenders have been fighting the decision – and they’re only getting more passionate

Twenty years ago, Pluto got demoted. After a vote by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in August 2006, Pluto was relegated from major planet to dwarf planet status. Our solar system dropped from nine planets to eight. At the time, many scientists were unhappy with the decision. Two decades on, the debate is, if anything, even more polarised.

“The definition of a planet they created, you can’t use it at all,” says Philip Metzger, the director of the Stephen W Hawking Centre for Microgravity Research and Education at the University of Central Florida. “It makes the definition of a planet completely non-useful in science.”

Searching for exoplanets and clues on planet formation, the Roman telescope will lift off Sunday morning in Florida

A $4.3bn space telescope that Donald Trump tried to kill is set to lift off from Florida early on Sunday as Nasa embarks on the next stage of its quest to unlock the secrets of the universe.

The Nancy Grace Roman space telescope survived two rounds of proposed White House budget cuts, and will embark on a million-mile journey into deep space from a launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center at 7.26am ET, barring late technical issues or intervention from Florida’s notoriously capricious summer weather.

Nasa-funded project uses yeasts to turn plastics and other waste into edible proteins, fats and flavourings

Cookies produced from upcycled plastic may sound like something straight out of a dystopian sci-fi plot. But researchers say that they have succeeded in creating such a product as part of a Nasa-funded project aimed at feeding astronauts on future space missions.

The technology uses specially designed yeasts to transform plastics and agricultural waste into edible proteins, fats and flavourings. The resulting slurry is passed through a 3D printer to create a disc-shaped “cookie”.

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen broke record for farthest distance traveled from Earth

The crew of the historic Artemis II lunar flyby mission have earned the US’s top space medal, officials have announced.

Cmdr Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are set to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on 28 August, the US space agency Nasa said.

Das Raumfahrtunternehmen OHB hat gerade eine halbe Milliarde Euro an der Börse erlöst. Firmenchef Marco Fuchs spricht über seine Faszination für Space-X, neue Fabriken und seine Ideen für eine europäische Souveränität auf dem Mond.

The body is the size of the entire solar system and glows with a brilliant red light billions of light years from Earth

Astronomers claim to have discovered a new kind of cosmic object, a black hole “star”, which is the size of the entire solar system and glows with a brilliant red light.

The international team made the breakthrough after focusing their attention on a mysterious red spot in images of the early universe captured by Nasa’s James Webb space telescope.