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Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit reached space on Sunday, eight months after the first demonstration flight of its air-launched rocket system failed, the company said. A 70ft LauncherOne rocket was released from beneath the wing of a Boeing 747 carrier aircraft off the coast of southern California, ignited moments later and soared toward space. The two-stage […]

Nasa’s Boeing-built deep space exploration rocket, Space Launch System (SLS), is set to fire its behemoth core stage for the first time on Saturday, a crucial test for a years-delayed US government project facing mounting pressure from emerging private sector technology. The SLS hot fire test, expected to begin at 5pm CST Saturday at Nasa’s […]

The European Space Agency (Esa) has signed a contract to begin building the module to supply communications and refuelling for the international lunar Gateway space station. The European System Providing Refuelling, Infrastructure and Telecommunications (Esprit) will consist of two separate units. The communications system will be used by astronauts to provide data, voice and video […]

The International Space Station bid adieu on Tuesday to 12 bottles of Bordeaux wine and hundreds of snippets of grapevines that spent a year orbiting the world in the name of science. The wine and vines – and thousands of pounds of other gear and research, including mice – will splashdown onboard a SpaceX Dragon […]

British spacecraft could travel to Mars in half the time it now takes by using nuclear propulsion engines built by Rolls-Royce under a new deal with the UK Space Agency. The aerospace company hopes nuclear-powered engines could help astronauts make it to Mars in three to four months, twice as fast as the most powerful […]

Nasa has approved a large contribution to Japan’s Extreme Ultraviolet High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope (EUVST) mission. Led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the mission involves a solar telescope that will study the way the sun’s atmosphere detaches to become the solar wind. This is a constant sleet of particles that flows through the solar system […]

The history of humanity is intimately entwined with the cosmos. The stars have influenced religion, art, mathematics and science – we appear naturally drawn to look up in wonder. Now, with modern technology, our view of the cosmos is changing. It is in reachable distance of our spacecrafts and satellites, and yet because of light […]

Starwatch star chart moon and Spica 4 January 2021 This week, the waning crescent moon slides past Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo, the virgin. The passage takes place in the morning sky. The chart shows the view looking due south from London at 6am (GMT) on the morning of 7 January. […]

Once upon a time I lived on Mars. Or the closest thing to it. At the time I was a science journalist and not necessarily an obvious choice for the mission. And yet I found myself on it. This was 2012 and Kim Binsted, professor of information and computer sciences at the University of Hawaii, […]

In 1969, a British engineer was invited to the White House to meet President Nixon. His name was Francis Thomas Bacon and he had developed the fuel cells used on Apollo 11. Known now as Bacon fuel cells, these power sources consume hydrogen and oxygen to produce water, heat and, in theory, a continuous supply […]

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed contracts for its first reusable space transportation system. Known as Space Rider, it is a robotic laboratory about the size of a couple of eight-seater minivans. ESA has signed two contracts. The first is for delivery of the spacecraft by co-prime contractors: Thales Alenia Space Italy and Avio. […]

Jupiter and Saturn have come closer than at any time in 400 years in the event dubbed the great conjunction, prompting people around the world to turn out and try for a glimpse. The orbital paths of the two huge planets ensure great conjunctions every 20 years, but many are impossible to see with the […]

Stargazers’ attempts to observe a once-in-a-lifetime sight were hindered in the UK by a far more everyday occurrence – bad weather. Many hoping to see the “great conjunction” of Jupiter and Saturn on Monday evening, where the two planets appeared closer together in the night sky than they have for almost 400 years, were disappointed […]

Starwatch graphic The moment has arrived. Keep your fingers crossed for clear skies tonight and whatever else you are doing, make the attempt to see the extraordinary conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Known as a grand conjunction, the line of sight to each planet is now lying so close to one another that you will […]

Members of the new US space force will be known as “guardians”, Vice-President Mike Pence announced on Friday, at a ceremony to mark the first birthday of the newest branch of the US armed forces, one of Donald Trump’s signature policy initiatives. “It is my honour,” Pence said, “on behalf of the president of the […]

Astronomers are gearing up for a heavenly spectacle when Jupiter and Saturn huddle closer together in the evening sky than they have for nearly 400 years. The celestial event will play out on Monday when the solar system’s two largest planets appear side by side in a “great conjunction” above the horizon soon after sunset. […]

Astronomers behind the most extensive search yet for alien life are investigating an intriguing radio wave emission that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. The narrow beam of radio waves was picked up during 30 hours of observations by the Parkes telescope in Australia in […]

An unmanned Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the moon returned safely to Earth early on Thursday (local time) in the first mission in four decades to collect lunar samples, the Xinhua news agency said. The return module of the space probe known as Chang’e-5 landed in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, Xinhua said, […]

Scientists in Japan said they were left amazed when they saw how much asteroid dust was inside a capsule delivered by the Hayabusa-2 space probe. The Japanese probe collected surface dust and pristine material last year from the asteroid Ryugu, about 200m miles (300m km) away, during two daring phases of its six-year mission. This […]

I got to know Heather working on the Millennium Commission, which was a great organisation with which to be involved. It really changed the face of Britain, investing in buildings, projects and community schemes up and down the country [Couper was one of the founding commissioners, alongside Michael Heseltine; Benjamin joined in 1999]. We’d both […]

This year, stargazers will have the chance to see a Christmas “kiss” beneath interplanetary mistletoe when Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer to one another and brighter than they have in 800 years in an event known as a “great conjunction”. What is happening and how rare is it? On the 21 December solstice, the […]

British engineers are to start work on a new spacecraft that will lie in wait for passing comets then chase them down and map their surfaces in three dimensions. Appropriately dubbed the “comet chaser”, the mission will not only record details of the comets’ contours, but also the composition of the dust and and gases […]