The NASA planned 2028 nuclear powered ion drive spacecraft, SR-1 Freedom will have a 20 kilowatt nuclear reactor. SR-1 Freedom will use 20-plus kilowatt fission reactor fueled by High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium and Uranium Dioxide, encased in a Boron Carbide Radiation Shield. This will power a xenon ion drive. Previous nuclear spacecraft designs involved more powerful …
Imaging earth like exoplanets around Sun-like stars from the ground is challenging. We have never done it and here is an advance that could make it possible. A Nature paper predicts the performance of a hybrid space–ground approach that combines a large ground-based telescope, such as the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the Thirty Meter Telescope …
The first flyby images of the Moon captured by NASA’s Artemis II astronauts during their historic test flight reveal some regions no human has seen, including a rare in-space solar eclipse. During the lunar flyby, the crew documented impact craters, ancient lava flows, and surface fractures that will help scientists study the Moon’s geologic evolution. …
Orion is more than two-thirds of the way to the Moon, traveling at high speed and breaking the Apollo 13 distance record (about 248,655 miles from Earth). It will enter the Moon’s sphere of influence early on April 6. A lunar flyby will happen Monday, April 6, 2026 at about 2:45–9:40 p.m. EDT . Orion …
Blue Origin has several NASA missions, AST Space Mobile and Amazon LEO satellite launches planned. The plan is for four launches of New Glenn in 2026. There is an upcoming NG-3 for AST Space Mobile and then three launches. An Amazon LEO mission, a NASA moon mission and then another AST Space Mobile mission. Brian …
Thursday, NASA’s Orion spacecraft fired its main engine for five minutes and 50 seconds beginning at 7:49 p.m. EDT, to successfully complete the translunar injection (TLI) burn, sending the crew in Orion out of Earth orbit and on a trajectory toward the Moon. Congratulations to NASA for what has been a broadly successful mission so …
The NASA Lunar Gateway program was cancelled but pieces of it will be used for the early parts of the moonbase and as part of the nuclear mission to Mars. NASA wants to fly two crewed missions to the moon every year. Japan is helping to build a large 15 ton lunar rover that will …
NASA will advance lunar science by affordably building out of the Moon Base and underpin future Moon and Mars exploration. An accelerated CLPS cadence, targeting up to 30 robotic landings starting in 2027. NASA is expediting delivery of science and technology to the lunar surface. There will be many opportunities for payload delivery including rovers, …
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced a $20 billion plan to build a permanent U.S. base on the Moon over the next 7 years. NASA is cancelling plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit. “NASA is committed to achieving the near‑impossible once again, to return to the Moon before the end of President Trump’s …
NASA will launch the Space Reactor‑1 Freedom, the first nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft, to Mars before the end of 2028, demonstrating advanced nuclear electric propulsion in deep space. Nuclear electric propulsion provides an extraordinary capability for efficient mass transport in deep space and enables high power missions beyond Jupiter where solar arrays are not effective. …
NASA has changed Artemis III into a 2027 LEO (low earth orbit) rendezvous mission. There is no orbital refueling is needed at all by SpaceX. Block 1B – the planned upgrade to the SLS rocket – is dead. No more custom builds. No second mobile launcher. NASA is standardizing the rocket so they can launch …