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This time next year, there may be a new world leader in lunar exploration. If all goes according to plan, China will have done something no other space-faring superpower has been able to do: land on the far side of the moon. China is rocketing ahead with its plans for lunar exploration. In 2018, they will launch a pair of missions known collectively as Chang’e 4. It is the fourth mission in a series named after the Chinese moon goddess. The first component of Chang’e 4 is scheduled to lift off in June. It will be a relay satellite stationed...

NASA is launching a new lander to Mars, as well as a spacecraft that will get closer to the Sun than ever before. And two of NASA’s vehicles already in space will finally arrive at their intended targets... But it’s not just NASA that has a busy year ahead; the commercial space industry has a number of significant test flights planned, and the launch of one of the world’s most anticipated rockets, the Falcon Heavy, is slated for early 2018. And if all goes well, people may finally ride to space on private vehicles. Here are all the missions and...

As the United States aims to reclaim its position as a leader in space exploration, it’s important to keep our space program grounded in fiscal reality. Last week, President Trump directed NASA to get astronauts back to the moon, with the goal of eventually sending Americans on a mission to Mars. It’s easy to get caught up in the thrill of potential new technological achievements and forget the very real costs that are associated with them—costs that are incurred regardless of whether such programs are successful or not. It’s a particular worry with NASA, an agency that has a history...

================================================================================================================ Researchers have re-examined data captured by the Voyager 2 spacecraft back in 1986, and think they've found evidence of two never-before-seen moons hidden in the rings of Uranus. Uranus, the third largest planet in our Solar System, already has 27 moons that we know of - but these two new ones appear to orbit the planet more closely than any of its other natural satellites, and are causing wavy patterns in its closest rings. Although Saturn is the most famous ringed planet orbiting our Sun, it's not the only one, with the three other gas giants - Jupiter, Uranus,...

The battle of the billionaires between Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson looks set to finally blast its first passengers into space next year. Speaking at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Colorado, Jeff Ashby, a former NASA astronaut who is director of safety and mission assurance for Jeff Bezos' space firm Blue Origin, said the firm is now 'a year out' from human flights. It comes as Richard Branson claimed in October he will travel to space on his Virgin Galactic craft within six months. Elon Musk is also expected to soon reveal the launch schedule for a...

The double-bodied jet —which has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in the world —has been undergoing tests at Stratolaunch's facility at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The latest phase in this process was testing the aircraft's steering and stopping capabilities. ... The monster jet was only rolled out from its scaffolding in May. This weekend's latest milestone comes three months after the company successfully tested the six engines on the colossal airplane for the first time. Stratolaunch officials have said they hope to have the aircraft in flight by the end of the decade, and the...

We're about to see — for the very first time — the event horizon of a black hole, proving beyond any last vestige of doubt that Einstein’s interstellar monsters are real. And here’s what it will look like.

In our galaxy, quite far away NASA have confirmed that astronauts onboard the International Space Station won’t have to miss ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘ as a copy is being sent up to the ISS. The second part of the Star Wars sequel trilogy is out today (December 14) and its reach won’t even miss the astronauts orbiting a few hundred miles above the surface of the Earth. NASA have confirmed to Inverse that a copy of the movie will be transported to the space station in the near future. NASA Public Affairs Officer Dan Huot said: “[I] can confirm...

A leading astronomer studying the origins of the space object known as Oumuamua has come out declaring it’s an alien probe with broken engines. Dr. Jason Wright claims that Oumuamua’s movement is that of a craft that has lost power to its engines. Right now, leading scientists are studying the odd “cigar-shaped” object which originated outside of our solar system. Teams lead by renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking, are attempting to discover whether or not Oumuamua is alien or natural. If a radio signal is detected later today, scientists will “proceed with caution.” Professor Avi Loeb, Professor of Astronomy at Harvard...

President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign his administration’s first space policy directive in a White House ceremony Dec. 11, one that will formally direct NASA to send humans back to the moon. A White House schedule of the president’s activities, released late Dec. 10, includes a 3 p.m. Eastern “signing ceremony for Space Policy Directive 1.” The schedule didn’t provide additional details about the event or the document, but a White House official later confirmed that the directive is linked to human space exploration policy. “The president, today, will sign Space Policy Directive 1 (SPD-1) that directs the NASA...

I was on the John Batchelor Show last Thursday talking about Project Vanguard, GPS and my book GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones. www.gpsdeclassified.com

In 1985 one of the most audacious space rescue missions was launched by the Soviets to recover a space station that had been dead for months due to an unknown fault. A feat that was unparalleled in space exploration and rewrote the books on what was thought possible: and yet, its story has fallen into obscurity and conspiracy theories. This is the story Salyut 7 and how the Soviet crew of two, Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Victor Savinikh against the odds rescued it in a daring mission that was the first of its kind in space exploration. **Apologies to all the...

Building a new mobile launch platform for later Space Launch System missions could cost NASA $300 million but allow for more frequent launches, agency officials said. Bill Hill, NASA deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, discussed the tradeoffs regarding building a new mobile launcher during a Nov. 29 meeting of the human exploration and operations committee of the NASA Advisory Council at the Kennedy Space Center. The current mobile launcher, originally built during the Constellation program for the since-cancelled Ares 1, is finishing modifications to support the first SLS launch, which will use the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS)....

A new edition of an international space exploration planning document to be released early next year will offer an updated plan for human missions to the moon and Mars, emphasizing the role that NASA’s proposed Deep Space Gateway could play. In January, NASA and 14 international space agencies plan to publish their common goals for exploration, including an extended presence in low Earth orbit, a cislunar habitat, moon missions and eventual excursions to Mars, in an updated Global Exploration Roadmap being drafted by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG). Since NASA’s first flight of its heavy-lift Space Launch System...

GoPro Spacewalk NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik captured this footage with a GoPro camera on Oct. 20, 2017 during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Bresnik reflected on this quiet moment, "Sometimes on a #spacewalk, you just have to take a moment to enjoy the beauty of our planet Earth. This Go-Pro footage is from our spacewalk where Joe Acaba and I refurbished the Canadarm2 robotic arm and the Dextre robotic arm extension." Read more at https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c71_1511931944#z4qzTlbPefli2YAq.99

Living bacteria were found on the surface of the International Space Station (ISS), and they might have extraterrestrial origins, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov said. The microorganisms will be studied further on Earth. Shkaplerov, an ISS expedition flight engineer who will take his third trip to the ISS in December as part of the Expedition 54 crew, said that scientists found living bacteria while they were taking samples from the surface of the station. Speaking to TASS, he said that the microorganisms might have come from outer space. ... However, traces of bacteria originating on Earth – from Madagascar – and...

Test shuttles found inside derelict Soviet warehouse near Cosmodrome Baikonur, 125 miles east of Aral Sea The space craft were both developed as part of Moscow's Buran programme which was shut down in 1993 Same building home to vast Energia rocket, designed to propel the unmanned space plane Buran into orbit Russian model had striking external similarities to the US Space Shuttle Columbia sparking espionage claims These eerie photographs show how USSR-era space craft have been left to rust in an abandoned desert hangar in Kazakhstan. Two test shuttles were found inside a derelict Soviet warehouse near the Cosmodrome Baikonur,...

On Thursday, Virgin Orbit won a contract from the Air Force to carry "technology demonstration satellites" on its LauncherOne rocket by early 2019. The LauncherOne rocket will be "air launched" from a modified Boeing 747 called "Cosmic Girl." The contract follows Branson's quiet launch earlier this month of Vox Space, a subsidiary of Virgin Orbit, that will focus on military contracts. While there is plenty of room in space, the launchpad is becoming more crowded. That's good news for the Pentagon as it looks toward increased competition and embracing new technology like reusable rockets to lower launch costs. United Launch...

Recently, scientists reported in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society the discovery of a theory-shattering exoplanet — one of countless such discoveries in the last two decades. As reported on phys.org on October 31, the hot Jupiter “should not exist according to planet formation theory.” In this episode, we outline the fundamental differences between the standard model of planet and star formation versus that of the Electric Universe.

Built by Orbital ATK, the Minotaur C rocket is a hybrid version of the company's old Taurus XL rocket, Pegasus rocket and Minotaur family of rockets. After Orbital ATK suffered a series of launch failures with the Taurus rockets — which led to the loss of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory as well as its Glory climate-monitoring satellite — the company redesigned the Taurus. The new and improved rocket uses newer and more reliable technologies that Orbital ATK had built for its other Minotaur rockets. "To date, our Minotaur rockets have completed 26 missions out of every major U.S. spaceport with...