After years of delay, Boeing's Starliner is flying people for the first time with two NASA astronauts heading to the International Space Station. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
NASA is shifting the way the Hubble Space Telescope points. The change is a work-around for a piece of hardware that's become intolerably glitchy. Officials say Hubble will continue to do 'ground breaking science,' for about another decade.
The Boeing Starliner launch was halted with just minutes to spare. The mission to the International Space Station was to carry two NASA astronauts. Starliner has already faced years of delays.
The same solar region that brought an outburst of night-time beauty in early May is coming back around. But things have changed, a space weather expert tells NPR.
The U.S. accusation, which Russia denies, raises questions about how a satellite might be used as a weapon in low Earth orbit and how close the two countries are to developing such a military tool.
Ed Dwight, a former Air Force test pilot who was passed over to become an astronaut in the 1960s, described his flight aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard as "life changing."
A helium leak pushed back a planned launch to May 25. Boeing's program that would shuttle astronauts to and from the International Space Station has been plagued with problems.
When a private space traveler said he wanted to take a SpaceX capsule on a mission to improve the aging Hubble telescope, NASA studied the options. Internal emails show concern about the risk.
The solar storm that's pushing sightings of the Northern Lights to lower latitudes is forecast to continue into the coming days, but its impact has likely peaked.
A powerful solar storm struck Earth, triggering spectacular celestial light shows in skies around the world — and threatening possible disruptions to satellites and power grids.
Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed a cluster of sunspots on the surface of the sun this week. With them came solar flares that kicked off a severe geomagnetic storm. That storm is expected to last throughout the weekend as at least five coronal mass ejections — chunks of the sun — are flung out into space, towards Earth! NOAA uses a five point scale to rate these storms, and this weekend's storm is a G4. It's expected to produce auroras as far south as Alabama. To contextualize this storm, we are looking back at the largest solar storm on record: the Carrington Event. Want us to cover more about the sun? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Earth, Mars and Venus all looked pretty similar when they first formed. Today, Mars is dry, cold, and dusty; Venus has a hot, crushing atmosphere. Why did these sibling planets turn out so different?
