News Feed

Some RSS News feeds from NASA, ESA and Astronomy Now Magazine.

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  • NASA’s X-59 Aircraft Flies Supersonic for First Time
    by Jim Banke on 5 June 2026 at 8:44 pm

    NASA’s experimental X-59 aircraft marked a major milestone Friday, June 5, when it flew faster than the speed of sound for the first time, setting the stage for demonstrating its quiet supersonic capabilities later this year.  NASA test pilot Jim “Clue” Less took off and landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, reaching a top speed of approximately Mach 1.1 (713 mph) and altitude of 43,400 feet. The X-59’s flight began at 11:08 a.m. PDT and lasted 81 minutes, with the team focusing on flying qualities at both subsonic and then

  • NASA Announces Winners of 2026 University Innovation Competition 
    by Bailey G. Light on 5 June 2026 at 8:17 pm

    NASA announced the Massachusetts Institute of Technology project, Exploration-Class Lunar Integrated Power SystEm, as the first place winner for the 2026 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition, which challenges students to bridge gaps in aerospace technology by innovating new system concepts and prototypes.  Another team from the same university won second place overall for their project, Mars Exploration Layered Infrastructure for Operations, Research, and Advancement, while Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University took third place with the Mars

  • NASA’s Artemis II Moon Mission Research Continues on Earth
    on 5 June 2026 at 7:16 pm

    Since NASA’s Artemis II crew members safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10 after their record-setting mission around the Moon, science teams have been busy collecting more data and combing through observations collected on the test flight. Results from these science investigations will help support safe human exploration of deep space and

  • NASA Concludes Antenna Mishap Investigation, Releases Report
    by jjrussel on 5 June 2026 at 5:00 pm

    NASA has completed the investigation into the damage sustained last year at its 70-meter radio-frequency antenna, known as the Deep Space Station 14 (DSS-14), at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California. The agency has classified the event as a Type A mishap based on the total cost of damages. The antenna will

  • First Steps: America’s Grueling Second Spacewalk
    by Michele Ostovar on 5 June 2026 at 3:47 pm

    One year after Gemini IV astronaut Edward H. White completed NASA’s first spacewalk the agency prepared for a demanding second excursion. Originally scheduled for Gemini VIII, the extravehicular activity (EVA) was reassigned to Gemini IX-A after that mission ended early, with Gene Cernan taking on the task. On June 5, 1966—the mission’s third day—Cernan exited

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  • Europe’s Mars rover may land in the remains of a vast ancient water system
    by Stuart Clark on 4 June 2026 at 4:42 pm

    New orbital mapping suggests Rosalind Franklin’s Oxia Planum landing site is part of a clay-rich region hundreds of kilometres wide, raising the possibility that it records a much larger watery episode in Mars’s early history.

  • Moon dust preserves record of life’s building blocks
    by Stuart Clark on 14 April 2026 at 4:57 pm

    The Moon may preserve a record of the raw ingredients that helped life begin on Earth. New analysis of lunar samples returned by China’s Chang’e missions has revealed a diverse suite of organic compounds embedded within the soil.

  • Dark matter may come in multiple forms, new model suggests
    by Stuart Clark on 11 April 2026 at 10:47 am

    Astronomers may not need to see the same dark matter signal everywhere in the Universe to confirm its existence. A new theoretical study suggests that dark matter could consist of more than one type of particle, potentially resolving a long-standing observational puzzle.

  • Witness to history: Artemis II, lunar exploration and hope
    by Stuart Clark on 2 April 2026 at 5:00 pm

    ORLANDO, FLORIDA. I’m a space-crazed Canadian who has somehow seen 11 launches across four different rockets since 2009. I’ve witnessed missions with astronauts, interplanetary spacecraft and (inevitably) Starlink, across two continents. But Artemis II took me by surprise yesterday (April 1). The Space Launch System was so bright it was almost painful to look at. The arc of its plume across the sky made noise and noise and NOISE minutes after launch. And the grizzled photographers surrounding me on the press-site lawn at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida were screaming: “TO THE MOON!” And cheering. And yelling the phrase again. It’s literally 16 hours after launch as I type this. I’m in Orlando airport trying to look relaxed, as much as one can on three cups of coffee and five hours of sleep. It feels ridiculous thinking about suitcases and flight arrangements. I’ve been asking myself, “What is normal? Can this be normal?” Fellow Canadian Jeremy Hansen is on his way to the Moon, with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch. I’ve been wanting to see any Moon mission with astronauts for 30 years; now there’s someone up there from my own country, and while

  • Artificial Intelligence uncovers more than 100 new worlds in NASA data
    by Stuart Clark on 25 March 2026 at 12:01 am

    A machine learning pipeline developed in the UK has validated over 100 exoplanets in NASA’s TESS data, revealing rare planetary systems and sharpening estimates of how common close orbiting worlds really are.