space

Virgin Galactic tourist rocket ship reaches space in test

By John Antczak, Associated Press

Thursday's supersonic flight takes Virgin Galactic closer to turning the long-delayed dream of commercial space tourism into reality. The company aims to take paying customers on the six-passenger rocket, which is about the size of an executive jet.

You may not even need a telescope this weekend to see this comet

By Shannon Schmoll, The Conversation

Comet 46P/Wirtanen is expected to make an appearance Dec. 14 to 19 that may well be visible even to the naked eye. Photo by Suchart Kuathan/via Getty Images…

WATCH: NASA’s Osiris-Rex reaches Bennu, in mission to bring home asteroid dust

By Nsikan Akpan

Part pioneer and part dirt collector, Osiris-Rex will spend the next year or so looking for a spot to capture pieces of the asteroid before heading back to Earth.

WATCH: NASA’s InSight lands on Mars after 6-month journey through space

By Julia Griffin

The first NASA lander to explore the interior of another planet successfully landed on Mars Monday.

Hazardous space junk is piling up. Can this satellite help?

By Vicky Stein

More than a half a million pieces of trash whiz at more than 17,000 miles per hour around the planet, threatening the lives of astronauts on the International Space Station and the functionality of satellites scattered across low Earth orbit.

U.S., Russian astronauts safe after emergency landing

By Dmitry Lovetsky, Associated Press

The rescue capsule automatically jettisoned from the booster and went into a ballistic descent, landing at a sharper than normal angle and subjecting the crew to heavy gravitational force.

This beaming sculpture will shine from earth’s orbit — and probe the politics of space

By Corinne Segal

Trevor Paglen's sculpture "Orbital Reflector" is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in mid-November, raising questions about who controls space and why.

Meet the scientist behind these stunning images of Jupiter

By Vicky Stein

Candice Hansen-Koharcheck, a planetary scientist, has been photographing celestial bodies for decades. But for the Juno mission, her collaborators are citizen scientists.