space exploration

Hi Ryugu: Japanese spacecraft snaps crazy pictures of asteroid’s surface

Have you ever wondered what the surface of an asteroid looks like? Well, you’re in luck. The Japanese space agency Jaxa published new pictures…

The Moon is getting its own 4G network in 2019

I only just got 4G LTE in my area, but noooo, serving the planet Earth is just too damn boring for some companies. Four…

Sci-fi gone real: flying cars, commercial space travel and teleportation

Sci-fi gone real is a series that focusses on the extravagant concepts dreamt up in the world of sci-fi, exploring just how close they…

Elon Musk bids Starman farewell in a final Instagram snap

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has shared the “last pic” of his cherry-red Tesla roadster hurting towards the Asteroid Belt, after it was launched into…

Sci-fi gone real: cyborgs, cloning and the science of new life

Sci-fi gone real is a series that focusses on the extravagant concepts dreamt up in the world of sci-fi, exploring just how close they…

Elon Musk’s BFR will fly from London to Cape Town in just 34 minutes

Elon Musk may be nuts, but a remarkable number of the South African-born businessman’s ventures have been successful. This week at the International Astronautical…

Osiris-Rex will today fly past Earth before visiting our asteroid neighbour

We’re still mourning the loss of Cassini but space exploration doesn’t have time for emotion. Instead, another craft is on NASA’s radar this week…

South Africa’s nSight1 nanosatellite makes history 300km above the Earth

South Africa’s first privately-owned nanosatellite dubbed the nSight1 has been successfully launched into orbit from the International Space Station (ISS). The nSight1 began its…

California wants to tax spaceflight, based on distance

Florida is widely seen as the state of choice for spaceflight in the USA, but California also plays host to its fair share of…

Cassini’s latest fly-by captures Saturn’s creepy but fascinating surface

NASA has this week published new images of Saturn’s surface taken by its Cassini spacecraft in April. The decade-old craft, embarking on the first…

Cassini’s grand finale: Saturn’s best friend embarking on its final mission

NASA’s fabled Cassini mission is about to come to an abrupt but long-coming end. The craft, which has been a part of Saturn’s sky…

Boeing’s Deep Space Gateway will be our high-tech taxi to Mars

There’s a slim chance that us human beings will be populating both the Moon and Mars in the next few decades. Boeing, alongside NASA,…

Mars Curiosity Rover is injured with no one around to fix it

It’s a sad lonely world for a space craft. You’re sent deep into space beyond foreign worlds and forced to survive with little to…

New Google Doodle honours NASA’s latest discovery

It’s not often mother Earth discovers long lost relatives in outer space, but that’s largely what NASA has announced this week. The space exploration…

Cassini beams back unprecedented views of Saturn’s rings

NASA’s venerable Cassini spacecraft is currently grazing Saturn’s rings, beaming some astounding images back to Earth in the process. The images, published on NASA’s…

Virgin Galactic VSS Unity aces first glide flight

Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane has this week completed its first successful glide flight test. The flight was successfully completed at the hands of…

EMDrive: NASA paper says ‘impossible drive’ seems to work

Several years ago, a controversial propulsion method was devised by Roger Shawyer, dubbed EMDrive. This “impossible” form of propulsion claimed to bounce microwaves to…

Update: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explodes at Cape Canaveral

Update 2: 2 September, 7.44pm: SpaceX shed more light on the incident, saying the “anomaly originated around the upper stage oxygen tank” and happened…

Falcon Heavy: SpaceX’s rocket will outlift Space Shuttle

Elon Musk’s private space company, SpaceX, has been making waves in recent years — and for good reason. The company has successfully delivered supplies…

SpaceX is getting pretty good at this rocket landing thing

Private space firm SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, delivering a commercial satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. But, as usual, it was the company’s Earth-based…

Space mining a step closer: private firm announces mission to asteroid

Private space mining firm Deep Space Industries has announced the first commercial mission to an asteroid. The Prospector-1 mission is expected to launch before…

NASA’s Juno probe is now orbiting Jupiter, sends time-lapse too

Sending a probe millions of kilometres away to orbit around a gas giant is no easy feat, but NASA has managed to do just…

NASA’s Juno probe is just a week away from historic Jupiter visit

We saw some amazing shots after the Curiosity rover landed on Mars in 2012, delivering panoramas, detailed composite shots and much more Martian goodness. Last year saw…

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