Opportunity’s last Mars panorama is a showstopper
The Opportunity Mars Rover may be officially offline for good, but its legacy of science and imagery is ongoing — and NASA just shared the last (nearly) complete panorama the… Read more »
Category: Space
SpaceX makes history by completing first private crew capsule mission
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule has safely splashed down in the Atlantic, making it the first privately built crew-capable spacecraft ever to complete a mission to the International Space Station. It’s… Read more »
SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft launches successfully
Launch brings US plans to resume sending people into space in own spacecraft closer Astronauts could be flying again from US soil as early as this summer after the flawless… Read more »
Ubiquitilink advance means every phone is now a satellite phone
Last month I wrote about Ubiquitilink, which promised, through undisclosed means, it was on the verge of providing a sort of global satellite-based roaming service. But how, I asked? (Wait,… Read more »
Watch SpaceX launch the first private moon landing mission
Calling all lunatics — the first fully private moon landing mission is about to take off from Cape Canaveral. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying SpaceIL’s Beresheet lander is set… Read more »
Watch the historic first private mission to the Moon launch Thursday night
For the first time later this week, a privately developed moon lander will launch aboard a privately built rocket, organized by a private launch coordinator. It’s an historic moment in… Read more »
Deploy the space harpoon
Watch out, starwhales. There’s a new weapon for the interstellar dwellers whom you threaten with your planet-crushing gigaflippers, undergoing testing as we speak. This small-scale version may only be good… Read more »
SpaceX and Boeing commercial crew capsule test dates slip yet again
One of the most important upcoming events in the space industry is undoubtedly the advent of SpaceX and Boeing’s competing crew-bearing capsules, which the companies have been working on for… Read more »
Meet the little-known Chinese WiFi startup that rubs shoulders with WeChat and Alipay
A service that connects people to WiFi hotspots for free turned out to be one of China’s most popular apps, nestling in the top ranks with Tencent’s WeChat messenger and… Read more »
Ultima Thule shows its lumps in latest images from New Horizons flyby
The rendezvous between the New Horizons probe and the distant object known as Ultima Thule was an historic moment, but after the mind-blowing imagery the craft sent back from Pluto,… Read more »
Swarm Technologies raises $25M to deploy its own 150-satellite constellation
Swarm Technologies is one of several companies looking to populate low Earth orbit with communications satellites, setting itself apart with the sheer smallness of its devices — and of course… Read more »
Watch Blue Origin’s 10th New Shepard mission launch a science-loaded capsule to space
Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, is about to undertake the 10th launch of its New Shepard launch vehicle, with its capsule chock full of experiments…. Read more »
Rocket Lab snags DARPA launch contract for first 2019 mission
Launch startup Rocket Lab is following the success of its first couple commercial launches by adding a prestigious (and deep-pocketed) new client: DARPA. The New Zealand-based company will send an… Read more »
Super blood wolf moon: stargazers battle cold and clouds to view lunar eclipse
Thousands endure sub-zero temperatures in US and Europe to see rare event Super blood wolf moon – in pictures Thousands of stargazers have battled sub-freezing temperatures to catch a glimpse… Read more »
Here’s how SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule will look motoring in from sea
If you’re coming back from space at high speeds, it’s generally safer to descend over water than land, for a number of reasons. Certainly SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule will do… Read more »
SpaceX will lay off hundreds to ‘become a leaner company’
SpaceX plans to lay off approximately 10 percent of its workforce in order to manage its costs, the company confirmed to TechCrunch today. First reported by Ars Technica’s Eric Berger,… Read more »
Elon Musk shows off the assembled Starship test rocket
After weeks teasing renderings and production photos, Elon Musk finally showed off the finished Starship test rocket last night. Starship test flight rocket just finished assembly at the @SpaceX Texas… Read more »
Astronomers spot more mysterious radio signals from far outside the galaxy
Whenever some new “cosmic puzzle” crops up, you always have to be ready for the other shoe to drop. But just because something isn’t an alien message or Ringworld doesn’t… Read more »
Swarms of tiny satellites could act like one giant space telescope
It won’t be long before the James Webb Space Telescope is launched, an enormous and complex feat of engineering — but all one piece. That’s a good thing for now,… Read more »
Daily Crunch: AR startups face an uneasy future in 2019
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you… Read more »
SpaceX’s Starship goes sci-fi shiny with stainless steel skin
SpaceX’s futuristic Starship interplanetary craft may embody the golden age of sci-fi in more ways than one: in addition to (theoretically) taking passengers from planet to planet, it may sport… Read more »
FCC fines Swarm Technologies $900K over unauthorized satellite launch
Back in March came the surprising news that a satellite communications company still more or less in stealth mode had launched several tiny craft into orbit — against the explicit… Read more »
Watch Rocket Lab launch 10 cubesats into orbit tonight for NASA
It’s been just over a month since Rocket Lab’s inaugural (and long-delayed) commercial launch, “It’s Business Time,” and it’s about to take another customer to space: NASA. Tonight’s 8PM scheduled… Read more »
Listen to the soothing sounds of Martian wind collected by NASA’s InSight lander
The InSight Mars lander accomplished a perfect landing last week on the Elysium Planitia region of the planet, where it is hard at work preparing to drill into the surface… Read more »
The International Space Station’s new robot is a freaky floating space Alexa
Meet Cimon. The 3D-printed floating robot head was developed by Airbus for the German Space Agency. He’s been a crew member of the International Space Station since June, though as… Read more »
Nine companies will compete to help NASA astronauts return to the moon
NASA is ready to send astronauts back to the moon for the first time in more than 40 years. It won’t be doing it alone, however. The agency is enlisting… Read more »
Nasa’s Mars lander sends back first pictures from red planet
InSight probe reveals desolate landscape as dust settles after its arrival on Martian surface This is the view across Elysium Planitia, the vast lava plain near the equator of Mars,… Read more »
Mars Lander InSight sends the first of many selfies after a successful touchdown
Last night’s 10 minutes of terror as the InSight Mars Lander descended to the Martian surface at 12,300 MPH were a nail-biter for sure, but now the robotic science platform… Read more »
They’re making a real HAL 9000, and it’s called CASE
Don’t panic! Life imitates art, to be sure, but hopefully the researchers in charge of the Cognitive Architecture for Space Exploration, or CASE, have taken the right lessons from 2001:… Read more »
11 moments from the International Space Station’s first 20 years
It was November 20, 1998, when an unprecedented international coalition of astronomers, engineers and rocket scientists saw years of collaboration come to fruition with the launch of the International Space… Read more »