Astronomers say they have discovered a planet that’s twice the size of Earth and within a zone that could allow liquid water to exist on its surface. The finding comes from data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which ran out of fuel in October. The planet, K2-288Bb, is within its star’s habitable zone, which is why liquid

PHOENIX –Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) R Series, has halted work on GOES-T, the next spacecraft scheduled to launch, and turned its attention to successor GOES-U as it waits for Harris Corp. to complete modification of the spacecraft’s primary instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager

Thornberry: “There has been consistent bipartisan support for greater emphasis on space, including organizational reform.” WASHINGTON — The outgoing chairman of the House Armed Services Committee predicts there will be bipartisan support for a new military branch for space even in a Democratic-led House of Representatives. But the Trump administration should expect its Space Force

If you look just to the right of the northern constellation of Triangulum, you’ll see a faint smudge in the night sky. That’s the Triangulum Galaxy, and it’s 3 million light-years away – one of the most distant objects visible to the naked eye. But the Hubble Space Telescope’s eyes are not as limited as

WASHINGTON — Noosphere Ventures, two years after providing a lifeline investment in small-launcher company Firefly, is gearing up to make another space investment, this time in the small-satellite manufacturing sector. Officials from Noosphere said they are willing to pull another company back from the brink, if necessary, as they build a portfolio of space companies

The Big Bang didn’t just result in our familiar universe, according to a mind-bending new theory – it also generated a second “anti-universe” that extended backwards in time, like a mirror image of our own. A new story in Physics World explores the new theory, which was proposed by a trio of Canadian physicists who

PHOENIX – Since the U.S. military is extremely reliant on satellites for communications, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and geolocation, the Air Force is striving to augment space weather observations and improve forecast models. Unfortunately, progress often occurs at a glacial pace. “All of you probably learned about climate change and glacier movement,” said Ralph Stoffler, Air

HELSINKI — China’s Chang’e-4 lander and Yutu-2 rover have tested out payloads and systems on the far side of the moon, with the rover now taking a ‘noon nap’ as a precaution against high temperatures. The Chang’e-4 lander made its historic landing at 177.6 degrees east longitude and 45.5 degrees south within Von Kármán crater within

Certain types of bacteria can mutate to reproduce more quickly when exposed to microgravity, and that’s not great news for our space tourist dreams, seeing as we humans are teeming with bacteria. It’s not clear why these bacteria have responded so positively to microgravity, but researchers are now figuring out ways to protect astronauts out in space,

WASHINGTON — DigitalGlobe announced Monday that its WorldView-4 satellite has malfunctioned. In a statement, DigitalGlobe, a division of Maxar Technologies, said the control moment gyros on WorldView-4, launched in November 2016, have failed, preventing the spacecraft from pointing accurately. The company said that while efforts are continuing to restore the spacecraft, “Maxar believes that WorldView-4

Earlier this week, Chinese lunar probe Chang’e-4 made history by becoming the first spacecraft to ever land on the far side of the Moon – the less-studied, mountainous half that faces away from the Earth. Yesterday, we were blessed with a number of new high-resolution images, courtesy of China’s National Space Administration, showing the more

You step off the plane, having travelled across the world to the opposite hemisphere. The seasons are all backwards, and when you look up at the full Moon, you realise it’s not even the right way up! Not only is this incredibly weird (mostly because, how did we not realise this before?), but this curious

Thanks to a mission extension, NASA’s Juno probe continues to orbit Jupiter, being only the second spacecraft in history to do so. Since it arrived around the gas giant on July 5th, 2016, Juno has managed to gather a great deal of information on Jupiter’s atmosphere, magnetic and gravity environment, and its interior structure. In that time, the

China became the third country to land a probe on the Moon on Jan. 2. But, more importantly, it became the first to do so on the far side of the moon, often called the dark side. The ability to land on the far side of the moon is a technical achievement in its own

WASHINGTON — In the final hours of the 115th Congress, the Senate confirmed a new director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) but failed to act on a nominee for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In a voice vote late Jan. 2, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Kelvin Droegemeier to

Last year, Elon Musk’s personal Tesla might have gotten all the headlines during SpaceX’s historic rocket launch back back in February, but the Falcon Heavy also carried a second, secret payload almost nobody knew about. Stashed inside the midnight-cherry Roadster was a mysterious, small object designed to last for millions (perhaps billions) of years –

MT LAUREL, New Jersey — Iridium Communications is less than a week away from the final launch of its 75-satellite Iridium Next constellation, but could opt to launch six ground spares sooner than later should the right rideshare opportunity open up, CEO Matt Desch said Jan. 3. Iridium’s final six second-generation satellites should finish construction

WASHINGTON — NASA said Jan. 4 it is delaying a planned visit to the United States by Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, a trip that had become increasingly controversial. In response to a SpaceNews inquiry, NASA Press Secretary Megan Powers said Rogozin’s visit to the United States, which had been

It’s been over a year since NASA’s Cassini spacecraft plunged to its death after orbiting Saturn for an impressive thirteen years. Yet even from the grave, the exquisite images from this stalwart probe continue to take our breath away. Using photographs from Cassini’s flyby of Jupiter and its moons, NASA employee Kevin M. Gill has

MT LAUREL, New Jersey — GomSpace is holding up production on a 200-cubesat order from telecom startup Sky and Space Global due to past-due payments. Sky and Space Global paid about a third of a 30.9 million Swedish Krona ($3.45 million) invoice due to GomSpace during the manufacturer’s third quarter, which ended Sept. 30. Sweden-