Space Travel

Take 360-Degree Tours of Mars and the Moon

Earth's neighbors have never seemed so tantalizingly close

A view of Earth from a replica of the Cupola Observation Module.

Check Out This Scale Replica of The International Space Station

Pretend you’re in orbit without ever leaving the ground

Christa McAuliffe received a preview of microgravity during a special flight aboard NASA's KC-135 "zero gravity" aircraft. She was to be the first in a series of civilians in space

The Challenger Disaster Put an End to NASA’s Plan to Send Civilians Into Space

On the 30th anniversary of the space shuttle tragedy, a look back at an ambitious plan to put the rest of us into orbit

The Znamya 2 mirror-solar sail, deployed.

How a Russian Space Mirror Briefly Lit Up the Night

In 1993, the 65-foot-diameter satellite, called Znamya, briefly lit the Earth like a giant orbiting night light

The transporter in this artwork is called the Clarke Clipper, after the British science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote about space elevators in his novel The Fountains of Paradise.

People Are Still Trying to Build a Space Elevator

Though key players have distanced themselves from the concept, a new film examines the continuing draw behind the sci-fi staple

Pictures? No problem. But don’t expect much information. A crew tends to the X-37B after it landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in October 2014, after 674 days in orbit.

What’s the Secretive X-37 Spaceplane Doing Up There?

The Air Force isn’t saying, so we asked other spaceplane experts

This flower isn't just a pretty face—its the first one ever grown in space.

Check Out the First Flower Grown in Space

It was a close call for this brilliant orange zinnia

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches on Sunday, January 17. Though the launch went as planned, the craft's landing did not.

Sunday's SpaceX Landing Didn't Exactly Go as Planned

Jason-3 made it to orbit—but the company's Falcon 9 rocket didn't make it back to Earth in one piece

A rendering of the MoonArk

What's Inside this Artistic Capsule Headed to the Moon?

See how these artists captured a portrait of humanity in just six ounces

Get Excited for This Year's Space-Themed Stamps

The Postal Service honors NASA’s New Horizons Mission and Star Trek's premiere

A Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft lifts off from a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 23, 2015.

Russia Scraps Space Agency for a State-Run Corporation

Russia's federal space agency will soon be no more

Screenshot from “The story of space debris” showing the Earth's cluttered space in 2015.

Jettison Through Nearly 60 Years of Space Junk Accumulation

People have been leaving a mess out in Earth's orbit

The back shell of NASA’s InSight spacecraft being lowered onto the lander, last July, in preparation for the mission.

Here's Why NASA Had to Postpone a 2016 Mission to Mars

A leak in a key instrument on board the InSight lander means the team will have to wait for the next launch window in 2018

A long exposure captures the Falcon 9's launch and return.

SpaceX's Rocket Stuck the Landing

During the first Falcon 9 launch in six months, the first stage booster rocket make a neat u-turn in air and a clean landing on the ground

Metal microlattice

This Metal Is 99.9 Percent Air

A new metal "microlattice" is strong yet incredibly light, lending itself to a wide variety of aerospace, automotive and medical uses

Watch a NASA Scientist School the Empire on How to Build a Better Death Star

Darth Vader could have saved a few dollars by building it around an asteroid

NASA astronauts Scott Kelly (left) and Terry Virts (right) work on a day’s task on board the International Space Station

How Much Space Do Astronauts Need?

The answer could help design spacecraft for one day taking people on the months-long trip to Mars

Surprising bright spots lurking in Ceres’ Occator crater, as spotted by the Dawn spacecraft

We Finally May Know the Cause of Ceres’ Bright Spots

It's not aliens

The informally named al-Idrisi mountains meet the smooth surface of Sputnik Planum in this image.

New Images Capture Pluto’s Mountains, Badlands and Craters in Breathtaking Detail

These images are "the best close-ups of Pluto that humans may see for decades," according to NASA

Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket takes off at the start of a test to re-land the system

First Reusable Rocket Launched and Landed Safely Back on Earth

Blue Origin's ship cruised to the edge of space and back in a mere 11 minutes

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