On Friday, 8 April 2016, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a mission to deliver a spacecraft called Dragon with its payload of supplies and experiments into a trajectory towards the International Space Station (ISS). Most remarkably, the first-stage booster then landed
Last Friday, SpaceX achieved something incredible. It successfully landed one of its Falcon 9 rockets on a small barge bobbing in the ocean. This is after the rocket delivered a 1,5t supply payload for the International Space Station into orbit, and just nine minutes after it
There’s plenty of excitement at the announcement overnight that a new planet is potentially waiting to be found at the extremes of our solar system. The possible ninth planet is thought to be quite substantial, with a mass around 10 times that of Earth and a radius that’s two
Salty streaks have been discovered on Mars, which could be a sign that salt water seeps to the surface in the summers. Scientists have previously observed dark streaks (see image above) on the planet’s slopes which are thought to have resulted from seeps of water wetting surface dust. Evidence of salts left
When New Horizons phoned home on Wednesday morning after its close encounter with Pluto, there was jubilation and excitement. Now, as Pluto retreats into the distance, the slow
A US spacecraft became the first to fly past the dwarf planet Pluto on Tuesday, capping the exploration of the solar system, scientists said. Scientists at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Imagine launching a robotic spacecraft on a 10-year mission to land on a comet 600m kilometres from Earth knowing that you will not be able to make any physical repairs to the craft during the journey. This daunting engineering challenge has been the ultimate goal of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta
The aircraft industry is expecting a seven-fold increase in air traffic by 2050, and a four-fold increase in greenhouse gas emissions unless fundamental changes are made. But just how “fundamental” will those changes need to be
Two planets as friendly to life as the Earth have been found. Now, Harvard astronomers have confirmed the existence of life out there is just a matter of time, using an ingenious trick with starlight. In an announcement mostly
Scientists were preparing to send Curiosity on its first test drive over the billion-year-old rocks of Mars and said a busted wind sensor wouldn’t jeopardise its mission of determining whether life could exist there. Engineers at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena turned four of the rover’s six wheels
