NASA

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Repaired Moon Rocket to Shoot for April Launch

Artemis II is scheduled to return to the pad next week

(Newser) - NASA cleared its moon rocket on Thursday for an April launch with four astronauts after completing the latest round of repairs. The 322-foot rocket is scheduled to roll out of the hangar and back to the pad next week at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, the AP reports, leading to...

NASA Satellite Is About to Plunge Back to Earth
NASA Satellite
Plunges Back to Earth
UPDATED
Mar 12, 2026 11:35 AM CDT

NASA Satellite Plunges Back to Earth

Van Allen A probe re-entered atmosphere over eastern Pacific early Wednesday

(Newser) - An old NASA satellite crashed back to Earth early Wednesday over the eastern Pacific, apparently without harming any unlucky Earthlings. The US Space Force said the Van Allen Probe A came in west of the Galapagos Islands after its uncontrolled re-entry at 6:37am Eastern, the AP reports. The spacecraft,...

NASA: Asteroid Will Miss Moon by 13K Miles

New observations rule out 2024 YR4 collision with moon in 2032

(Newser) - NASA issued a welcomed all-clear Thursday, saying there's now zero chance that asteroid 2024 YR4 will crash into the moon in 2032. The space agency had been predicting a 4.3% chance of a direct hit. But observations by the Webb Space Telescope in February helped scientists refine...

Astronaut Who Had 'Medical Event' on ISS Comes Forward

NASA's Mike Fincke was part of first crew to be brought back early for medical issue

(Newser) - NASA's mystery patient from last month's sudden International Space Station return has stepped forward: It was Mike Fincke. The veteran astronaut confirmed Wednesday that he was the crew member who suffered a "medical event" that prompted NASA to end the four-person mission early and send Crew-11 back...

Famed Caltech Astrophysicist Fatally Shot at Home

Freddy Snyder, 29, charged with shooting death of Carl Grillmair

(Newser) - A California astrophysicist known for mapping the Milky Way's structure and spotting water on a distant world was shot to death on the porch of his desert home. Authorities say 67-year-old Carl Grillmair, a longtime Caltech researcher, was found with a gunshot wound to the torso outside his house...

With One Moon Rocket Issue Fixed, Another Appears

Helium blockage forces Artemis II launch delay until at least April

(Newser) - NASA's first crewed trip around the moon in more than 50 years is still a ways off. The agency will roll its towering Space Launch System rocket off the launchpad and back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday to investigate a helium flow blockage...

Snag Delays Launch of Moon Rocket for Weeks

Problem with helium flow requires removing rocket from pad

(Newser) - NASA's new moon rocket suffered another setback Saturday, one almost certain to bump astronauts' first lunar trip in decades into spring. The space agency revealed the latest problem just one day after targeting March 6 for the Artemis II mission, humanity's first flight to the moon in more...

Astronauts' Arrival Puts ISS Back to Full Strength

Replacements for evacuated crew will test new medical gear, moon-landing skills

(Newser) - The International Space Station is fully staffed again with the arrival Saturday of four new astronauts to replace colleagues who bailed early because of health concerns, per the AP . "Soft capture complete," radioed Jessica Meir, the mission commander, per Space.com . The spacecraft were flying south of South...

Astronaut's Ex-Wife Sentenced Over Space Crime Lie

Summer Heather Worden gets 3 months over false allegations about her ex

(Newser) - The ex-wife of a NASA astronaut is going to prison over a sensational lie about her ex. A judge in Texas on Thursday sentenced Summer Heather Worden, 51, to 3 months in federal prison and ordered her to pay $210,000 in restitution, reports People . Worden admitted lying when she...

It's 'One Giant Leap' for the Smartphone

NASA to finally allow smartphones in space

(Newser) - NASA is loosening one of its more old-school rules: it's finally letting astronauts take smartphones into space. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced that crews on the upcoming Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station and the Artemis II lunar flyby will be allowed to bring "the latest smartphones,...

Musk: SpaceX Shifts Focus From Mars to Moon

He says lunar city could happen in under a decade, while Mars city would take more than 20 years

(Newser) - Elon Musk just quietly rewrote his space dream—this time with a lunar address instead of a Martian ZIP code. As the Super Bowl kicked off Sunday, the SpaceX CEO posted on X that his company has "already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon,"...

Get Ready for Some Major Space Weather

Strong X-class flares released this week may trigger bright auroras, minor disruptions

(Newser) - If you like sky shows, the sun is setting one up for this week, while giving satellite operators a mild headache. NASA says four powerful solar flares blasted off the sun in the space of around 20 hours on Sunday and Monday, all in the strongest "X-class" category. Three...

Fuel Leaks Delay Moon Mission by a Month
NASA's
Moon Mission
Again Stalls
Feb 3, 2026 8:33 AM CST

NASA's Moon Mission Again Stalls

Artemis II now set for a possible March launch date due to fuel leaks

(Newser) - NASA has again delayed the planned start of its fly-around-the-moon mission after its mega-rocket sprang a leak. The agency says the launch of Artemis II, which had been shooting for as early as Sunday in Florida, will now slip to March after engineers spotted hydrogen leaking from the Space Launch...

Blue Origin Has Paused Space Tourism Flights

Company shifts resources to accelerate lunar lander work for NASA

(Newser) - Blue Origin's tourist rocket is heading for a long timeout while Jeff Bezos' space company shoots for the moon. The company said Friday it will stop flying its New Shepard suborbital rocket for "at least two years" to shift engineers and resources to NASA's Artemis program, which...

Cold Weather in Florida Delays Artemis Moonshot

First Artemis moonshot won't be until Super Bowl Sunday at the earliest

(Newser) - NASA has delayed astronauts' upcoming trip to the moon because of near-freezing temperatures expected at the launch site. The first Artemis moonshot with a crew is now targeted for no earlier than Feb. 8, two days later than planned. NASA was all set to conduct a fueling test of the...

NASA Research Plane Does a Belly Flop at Houston Airport

'Mechanical issue' forces gear-up emergency landing; runway closed during response

(Newser) - A specialized NASA research jet made an emergency belly landing at Ellington Airport in Houston on Tuesday after an apparent malfunction, with all crew members reportedly safe. The aircraft, a WB-57 high-altitude research plane run by NASA's Johnson Space Center, came down without its landing gear deployed, NASA spokesperson...

NASA Puts Moon Mission Crew in Quarantine

Crew begins 2-week health stabilization before historic Artemis 2 mission

(Newser) - Astronauts aiming for the moon are now living under rules that look a lot like 2020. Futurism reports that the four-person Artemis 2 crew has entered NASA's standard pre-launch isolation program, a roughly two-week "health stabilization" effort designed to keep them from catching anything that could derail the...

Hubble Captures Images of Huge Stars Still Forming

Look at environments could help understanding of how they're created

(Newser) - NASA is showing off a new kind of baby picture: portraits of massive stars still in the womb. Using the Hubble Space Telescope's infrared vision, astronomers captured rare views of protostars—young, still-forming stars wrapped in dense clouds of gas and dust. Visible light can't escape those cocoons,...

Astronaut Who Was Stuck on ISS Retires

NASA chief praises Suni Williams as 'a trailblazer in human spaceflight'

(Newser) - NASA's Suni Williams—one of two astronauts stuck for months on the International Space Station—has retired. The space agency announced the news Tuesday, saying her retirement took effect at the end of December. Williams' crewmate on Boeing's ill-fated capsule test flight, Butch Wilmore, left NASA last summer...

NASA Brings Its Ailing Astronaut Home

Crew of 4 returns to Earth early in agency's first medical evacuation

(Newser) - An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA's first medical evacuation. SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited...

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