March 15th, 2026
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China’s Shenzhou-21 astronauts continue to perform a series of tasks aboard the country’s Tiangong space station, including in-orbit experiments, equipment maintenance and health The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on March 15 that the crew — mission commander Zhang Lu and astronauts Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang — have spent more than four months […]
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In the U.S. and China-led race to put astronauts back on the Moon, there is, in fact, one shared goal: establishing a sustainable, permanent, crewed Moon base. But their specific plans to achieve that moonshot are far from similar, with key differences that could dictate which country gets there first—and, just maybe, which controls […]
China is making progress on the country’s mission to retrieve samples from Mars. Xinhua news agency reports that the Tianwen-3 flight model development phase is to be completed within the year. Liu Jizhong, chief designer of the Tianwen-3 mission, said last week that building on preliminary technical research and demonstrations, the mission has achieved breakthroughs […]
Arizona’s meteor crater and other leftover scars from inbound space rocks continue to serve up secrets. These impact features continue to be on-going research sites, generating new data on wayward, mean and nasty creatures from the surrounding cosmos. “The crater is still providing new insights every year, so continued studies there are really important,” […]
For the first time, legislation has been unanimously passed that gives the go for NASA to establish a permanent moon base as part of sustained American presence on the lunar surface. While not a done deal – both the U.S. Senate and House chambers must agree on the language – the impetus for establishing a […]
China’s next robotic lunar mission, Chang’e-7, is slated for departure later this year. Its target is the Moon’s south pole in a search for and detection of water ice. “Scientists around the world believe there’s water on the Moon, but no one has found any yet. Now China is going to look for it,” said […]
NASA’s firm-fixed-price contract approach relies on selected lunar Human Landing System (HLS ) providers to design, build, and demonstrate their own lander hardware. SpaceX is developing its Starship lander, while Blue Origin is working on its Blue Moon lander. A NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report has taken a hard look at […]
The World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland has posted International Women’s Day: What NASA’s latest astronaut picks tell us about gender equality. “NASA’s latest Astronaut Candidate Class is 60% female, a stellar celebration of International Women’s Day, marking a giant leap for equality in the space sector.” For the first time, NASA’s latest Astronaut Candidate […]
It came from outer space. A very bright fireball shot across the sky from the southwest to the northeast and observed by people in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The Sunday, March 8th event glowed for roughly six seconds. The fireball left a visible trail in the sky before fracturing into pieces. Some […]
China’s Shenlong (“Divine Dragon”) space plane launched from the country’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on February 6 and continues on its fourth-ever orbital mission. What’s up with this mysterious winged craft, a vessel very similar to the U.S. Space Force X-37B robotic space plane, also now zipping around Earth on its […]
