Space Travel

Apollo 11 Moon Rock Bag Sells for $1.8 Million in Controversial Auction

NASA waged an unsuccessful legal battle to retrieve the bag, which contains traces of lunar dust, from a private collection

The Mars Rover Concept Vehicle was created as a traveling exhibit to inspire future space explorers.

A Vehicle Like This Will One Day Go to Mars

For now, the prototype rover—part tank, part Batmobile—is destined for Washington, D.C.

An artist's rendering of a star colliding with the surface of a supermassive sphere. In recent years some scientists have surmised that black holes may be hard objects rather than a region of intense gravity and compressed matter.

Could You Crash Into a Black Hole?

Probably not, but it’s fun to think about

Adorable Drone Helps Document Experiments on the International Space Station

Cute as a button, the Int-Ball is taking over astronauts’ photographic duties

Researchers tested the fungus that grew in this isolated habitat as four people lived in it for a month.

Space-Bound Humans Bring Fungus Aboard—And the Stowaways Could Cause Trouble

Microscopic life is everywhere, but it could be dangerous for future astronauts bound for Mars

Georgia Tech engineers Glaucio Paulino and Jerry Qi show two of their 3-D printed "tensegrity" structures that fold flat and build themselves up with heat. These are just proofs of concept, but Qi and Paulino predict that structures like this could be used to build space habitats or heart stents.

Print, Then Heat for Self-Assembling Space Stations

With special ‘memory’ polymers, stents and space habitats could one day build themselves

The Bonneville Crater on Mars

Mars Surface May Be Too Toxic for Microbial Life

The combination of UV radiation and perchlorates common on Mars could be deadly for bacteria

This flatworm fragment went to space and became a double-headed worm.

What Space-Faring Flatworms Can Teach Us About Human Health

Their experiment had some weird results—and could one day help humans thrive in microgravity and back here on Earth

The astronauts of "2001: A Space Odyssey" hide in a pod to discuss the troubling behavior of their spacecraft's artificial intelligence, HAL 9000. In the background, HAL is able to read their lips.

When We Go to Mars, Will We Have a Real-Life HAL 9000 With Us?

How generations of NASA scientists were inspired by an evil Hollywood supercomputer

How NASA Cut Costs With a New Kind of Spacecraft

With budgets for space exploration falling toward the end of the 1960s, NASA began to make plans for a new kind of reusable spacecraft to save money

“I saw these beautiful shapes and forms,” says Soluri, creator of the series “Evidence of Human Spaceflight.”

New Photos Reveal What's Left Behind When a Rocket Travels to Space

Michael Soluri captures these strangely evocative traces of America’s heroic extraterrestrial journeys

Rocket Lab lifts off in New Zealand.

New Zealand Sent a 3D-Printed Rocket to Space

Will the Electron usher in a new era for satellites?

A mid-air tourist flight. The author is second from the left.

The Future of Zero-Gravity Living Is Here

Entrepreneurs predict there will be thousands of us living and working in space. Our correspondent takes off to see what that feels like

Space mice snuggle with their Earth-bound mother.

Why Scientists Sent Mouse Sperm to the International Space Station

Back on Earth, a pile of new pups proves that mouse DNA can survive space

Why Morning Glories Could Survive Space Travel

The seed of the common garden flower could survive long journeys in space

Scientists Make Sturdy Bricks From Mars-Like Soils

Their findings may be a step forward in the mission to build structures on the Red Planet

Peggy Whitson's latest record is one of many she's held during her inspiring career.

Astronaut Peggy Whitson Breaks NASA Record for Most Days in Space

She has spent 534 cumulative days (and counting) in orbit

Sergei Korolev was technically still a political prisoner when he began working on the Soviet rocket program.

The First Manned Space Flight Was the Rocket Designer’s Victory as Much as Yuri Gagarin’s

Sergei Korolev designed the entire Soviet rocket program. But nobody knew his name until after he died

Part of the seized "Supergun," now at a museum in England.

The Bizarre Story of Saddam Hussein’s Failed “Supergun”

It was called “Big Babylon” and it was originally supposed to fire satellites into orbit

SpaceX launches it's first re-used Falcon 9 rocket

Watch SpaceX's Recycled Rocket Stick Its Landing

The reused Falcon 9 booster rocket may usher in an era of cheaper and more frequent trips into space

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