For astronauts living at the International Space Station, money is practically useless. There's nowhere to spend it. Instead astronauts developed a functioning barter economy.
The test was for NASA's Space Launch System, a successor to the retired Space Shuttle program. It takes eight minutes to generate the power needed to get to space, and ultimately to the moon.
The command, a new department of the Air Force, has selected an Army installation in Huntsville as the most-desired location for its future headquarters.
Before scientists were even sure black holes existed, an Indian astrophysicist did the math behind Einstein's predictions of what would happen if two black holes collided.
This has been a tough year for pretty much everyone on Earth. But things have been going much better in space. One of the big milestone was for NASA and the commercial company SpaceX.
For the past 65 years, the North American Aerospace Defense Command has made sure that Santa Claus' Christmas Eve goes smoothly. This year, it received support from U.S. Space Command.
On Monday evening, Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer to each other in the sky than they have for hundreds of years in what has become known as the Great Conjunction.
The two planets will appear to converge into one bright star, that people call the Christmas Star. The last time the planets got this close was almost 400 years ago.
The official moniker, announced by Vice President Pence at a White House ceremony, comes one year after the creation of the newest military branch. The name drew raised eyebrows online.
The successful completion of the Chang'e-5 mission makes China only the third country to have returned soil and rock samples from the surface of the moon.
It's the first time in over 40 years that fresh lunar samples are being brought back to Earth. Scientists hope to gain a better understanding of lunar volcanic activity and the age of various craters.
At least, that's how it will look to someone craning their head aloft. On the winter solstice, the pair of gas giants will appear closer to each other in the night sky than they have in centuries.
Chuck Yeager, fighter ace, test pilot, breaker of the sound barrier and coolest of the cool, was the man even astronauts looked up to. Yeager never sought the spotlight, and was always a bit gruff.
The sample of the asteroid collected by the Japanese space program caps a six-year mission. Researchers hope it will offer clues to the secrets of the birth of the solar system and the start of life.
The sample collected by the spacecraft Hayabusa2 caps a six-year mission to Ryugu. Researchers hope it will offer clues to "the secrets of the birth of the solar system and the birth of life."
Three missions from Earth are currently headed to Mars. But some scientists are saying it's time to go to Venus, despite all the challenges in heading to Earth's toxic, volcanic planetary neighbor.
The mission will land, take a sample and return to Earth. It's the first such sample-return mission in more than 40 years, and it will tell scientists about the age of the moon and planets.
The Chang'e-5 mission will attempt to bring back rock and soil samples from a previously unexplored part of the moon, helping scientists better understand its volcanic history.
NPR's Rachel Martin talks to director Werner Herzog about his new documentary — Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds — which explores our cosmic visitors from deep space: meteorites.
Scientists have used a NASA probe way out in space, beyond Pluto, to measure visible light that's not connected to any known source like stars or galaxies.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule docked to the International Space Station — adding four astronauts to the crew of three already on board. It's the first full operational mission for the private company.
