California News and Insights
Prior to its maiden flight to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year, the world’s first commercial spaceplane with wings has touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Tenacity, a Dream Chaser DC-100 spaceplane, was cleared to begin final pre-launch procedures, including
Future deep space trips to Mars could be revolutionized by an inventive rocket technology, cutting the time it takes to reach the Red Planet down to a few months. Many obstacles stand in the way of the objective of landing humans on Mars, one of
When NASA astronauts lifted the Hubble Space Telescope out of the cargo bay of Space Shuttle Discovery and launched it into orbit in 1990, things were considerably different. There were only 5.3 billion people on the planet, the Cold War was coming to an end,
NASA has selected a smaller Earth science technology demonstration mission for development and four Earth science mission ideas for additional consideration. On May 7, NASA announced that it has chosen four ideas for its first Earth System Explorer missions, which will be Phase A research
In an additional step toward gathering lunar samples, China’s Chang’e-6 lunar far side sample return spacecraft reached orbit around the moon late on Tuesday. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said that the Chang’e-6 orbiter successfully performed a braking burn at 10:21 p.m. Eastern on
On May 7, 2024, NASA announced that it has selected four concept study concepts for missions targeted at improving our understanding of Earth science fields and our planet. These missions are part of NASA’s Earth System Explorers Program (ESEP) and represent a promising first step
Massive explosions on the Sun’s surface this year could provide major clues about whether life has ever lived on Mars. The massive, blazing volcano at the center of our solar system reaches what NASA refers to as its “peak activity” around every 11 years. In
Captain Sunita Williams, an astronaut of Indian descent who enjoys eating samosas in orbit, is prepared to launch into space once more, this time on the Boeing Starliner, a brand-new spaceship. The planned launch window is May 7, 2024, from the Kennedy Space Center, at
Next week, astronauts will launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for the first time in more than 50 years. The first human spaceflight from the space station in almost 56 years will occur when the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, atop an Atlas V rocket,
A laser message that was just received by Earth from a record-breaking 140 million miles distant in space may have significant ramifications for space travel in the future. The sender of this letter, NASA’s Psyche mission, which is presently situated around 1.5 times the distance