Space Exploration

Droughts in 48 of 50 U.S. states, evidence of microplastics mucking up wastewater recycling and the science of a baseball mud bath in this week’s news roundup.

Pesky leaks on the International Space Station aren’t the most serious issue facing U.S. human spaceflight

A special spacecraft will guide the space station through Earth’s atmosphere, but what about other large pieces of space debris?

SpaceX’s fifth Starship flight test concluded with mechanical arms snatching the descending rocket booster out of the air

For the first time, we are sending a spacecraft to explore an alien ocean world—a moon that might host life today

A roundup of the science Nobels, the latest COVID updates and the Europa Clipper launch delay.

Claims of worlds orbiting Barnard’s star have been made before. But an advanced instrument could provide the breakthrough that finally confirms the star hosts a planetary system

Sooner or later a doomsday asteroid will wipe out most life on Earth—unless, that is, we prevent threatening space rocks from hitting us in the first place

We are in a new and different kind of moon race, one the U.S. is losing. To win, says a former NASA official, we need new strategies

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) could soon shine very bright in Earth’s skies

A small asteroid, 2024 PT5, will spend the next two months alongside our planet as a mini moon before swooping back to deep space

Scientists are putting a new spin on the creation of binary asteroids