spacecraft

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will take off tonight for its first piloted test flight

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An Atlas 5 rocket transporting astronauts for the first time in six decades was ready for an explosion on Monday night to give a boost Boeing’s long-delayed Starliner crew ferry launched into orbit for its first piloted test flight to the International Space Station. The Starliner is years behind schedule and over a billion dollars … Read more

A widespread solar storm affected spacecraft near the Sun, Earth and even Mars

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A bright mass erupts from a red circle. Space weather may seem like a story from a galaxy far, far away, but when solar storms hit us on Earth, we are directly affected. These storms are the cause of the northern Lights, for example. They can even lead to temporary disruptions in our communications systems … Read more

A dead Russian spacecraft almost collided with a NASA satellite. The crash could have shot 7,500 pieces of debris around the Earth.

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A simulated image of a satellite collision and the resulting debris.ESA / ID&Sense / ONiRiXEL, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO NASA’s TIMED satellite narrowly avoided a collision with the dead Russian spacecraft Cosmos 2221 this week. At its worst, the collision would have thrown 7,500 pieces of debris into low Earth orbit. Satellite collisions are becoming … Read more

Asteroid is a ‘completely different body’ after being hit by NASA spacecraft, scientists say

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Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. When NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft deliberately collided with the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022, the impact may have caused “global deformation” of the space rock, according to new research. The purpose of the … Read more

The fate of Japan’s ‘Moon Sniper’ mission remains unclear after landing due to a power problem

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Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s science newsletter Wonder Theory. To receive it in your inbox, Register for free here. The moon is hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from Earth, but humanity has played a major role in shaping it for more than sixty years. In fact, human exploration has … Read more

The fate of Japan’s ‘Moon Sniper’ mission remains unclear after landing due to a power problem

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Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s science newsletter Wonder Theory. To receive it in your inbox, Register for free here. The moon is hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from Earth, but humanity has played a major role in shaping it for more than sixty years. In fact, human exploration has … Read more

The first American spacecraft to attempt a moon landing in decades burns up after a failed mission

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Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. After flying hundreds of thousands of miles through space and battling a propellant problem that derailed its plans, the Peregrine lunar lander has likely met its fiery end. The spacecraft was expected to end its … Read more

The Peregrine Falcon lunar lander’s mission ends in a fiery reentry over the Pacific Ocean

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Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. After flying hundreds of thousands of miles through space and battling a propellant problem that derailed its plans, the Peregrine lunar lander has likely met its fiery end. The spacecraft was expected to end its … Read more

The first secret asteroid mission won’t be the last

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Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander at the company’s factory in Houston on Feb. 1, 2023. (Brandon Thibodeaux/The New York Times) For generations, Western space missions have largely taken place in the open air. We knew where they were going, why they were going there and what they planned to do. But the world is on … Read more