Scientists have uncovered new types of organics in icy geysers spouting from Saturn's moon Enceladus.

NASA says a recently discovered comet has broken apart as it approached the sun.

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope has revealed the sharpest images yet of a portion of a horse-shaped nebula.

NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 in a way that makes sense.

A NASA spacecraft around the moon has found the likely crash site of Russia's lost lunar lander.

Three rich businessmen are back on Earth with their astronaut escort after a pricey trip to the International Space Station.

NASA is returning to sizzling Venus, our closest yet perhaps most overlooked neighbor, after decades of exploring other worlds.

With this critical test finally finished, NASA now will send the rocket segment to Kennedy Space Center for launch preparations. (NASA via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA completed an engine test firing of its moon rocket Thursday, after the first attempt in January ended prematurely. This time, the four main engines of the rocket’s core stage remained ignited for the full eight minutes. John Honeycutt, NASA's program manager for the Space Launch System or SLS rocket, said everything seemed to go well in Thursday's test firing. The SLS rocket will send an empty Orion capsule to the moon and back.

An aerial photograph shows the village of Jezero, Bosnia, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021. It will be a historic day for the 1,000 villagers, who hope that the landing of the Perseverance rover in a crater on Mars will also bring them some earthly rewards. It will be a historic day for the 1,000 villagers, who hope that the landing of the Perseverance rover in Mars' Jezero crater will also bring them some earthly rewards. The rover named Perseverance is headed Thursday for a compact 5-mile-by-4-mile (8-kilometer-by-6.4-kilometer) patch on the edge of an ancient river delta. It seems that hardly anyone has anything bad to say about NASA’s mission to scour the dried-out Jezero crater for evidence of life.

The return clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch as early as next month and possible tourist flights next year. Welcome back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX, said Mission Control from SpaceX headquarters. It was the first time a private company launched people into orbit and also the first launch of NASA astronauts from home turf in nearly a decade. SpaceX already had experience hauling cargo to the space station, bringing those capsules back to a Pacific splashdown. SpaceX needs six weeks to inspect the capsule before launching the next crew around the end of September.

Astronauts returning in the early 1970s from Skylab, NASAs first space station, did not feel well following splashdown, Hurley noted. Feeling sick is the way it is with a water landing, he said during the crews final news conference from the International Space Station. The capsule has been docked at the space station since May 31, allowing Hurley and Behnken to chip in with spacewalks and experiments. The plan is for the Dragon to undock from the space station on Saturday, a day before splashdown. We wont leave the space station without some good landing opportunities in front of us, good splashdown weather, Behnken told reporters.

The mission will send a Mars rover to the Red Planet to search for signs of life, explore the planet's geology and much more. NASAs Perseverance rode a mighty Atlas V rocket into a clear morning sky in the worlds third and final Mars launch of the summer. the mission will yield lessons that could pave the way for the arrival of astronauts as early as the 2030s. Because going to Mars is hard, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said just before liftoff. Samples taken straight from Mars, not drawn from meteorites discovered on Earth, have long been considered the Holy Grail of Mars science, according to NASAs now-retired Mars czar, Scott Hubbard.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The launch of NASAs successor to the Hubble Space Telescope faces seven more months of delay, this time because of the pandemic and technical issues. Officials announced Thursday that the James Webb Space Telescope the space agency's top science priority is now scheduled to launch on Oct. 31, 2021. NASA wants an overlap in operations between Hubble and Webb. The new telescope, once launched, will look at many of the same things Hubble has and will. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education.

Amateur astronauts, private space stations, flying factories, out-of-this-world movie sets this is the future the space agency is striving to shape as it eases out of low-Earth orbit and aims for the moon and Mars. But the future is incredibly exciting, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren said the day before SpaceXs historic liftoff. The ticket price which includes 15 weeks of training and more than a week at the space station is about $55 million. Beginning in 2024, Axiom plans to build its own addition to the 260-mile-high (420-kilometer-high) outpost to accommodate its private astronauts. SpaceX still has to get NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken safely back to Earth this summer in its Dragon capsule.

For the first time in nearly a decade, astronauts will blast into orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company. SpaceX becomes the first private company to launch people into orbit, a feat achieved previously by only three governments: the U.S., Russia and China. Thanks for the great ride to space, Hurley told SpaceX ground control. A SpaceX capsule exploded on the test stand last year. For SpaceX and the future of public-corporate space exploration, the stakes on Saturday were extraordinarily high.

It will be the first astronaut launch from NASAs Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011. (SpaceX via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken join NASAs exclusive inner circle by catching a ride on a SpaceX rocket and capsule. Their destination is the International Space Station, where theyll spend one to four months before guiding their capsule to a splashdown in the Atlantic. Wife Karen Nyberg, a former space station resident, retired two months ago from NASA. As joint operations commander, he'll oversee the Dragons rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station.

(SpaceX via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Its back to the future as NASA astronauts launch again from the U.S. aboard a retro-style Right Stuff capsule. SpaceXs Dragon crew capsule outshines NASAs old Apollo spacecraft in virtually every way. This fresh take on a vintage look will be on full display Wednesday when SpaceX plans to launch NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station a first for a private company. Russias workhorse Soyuz capsules, still in use after a half-century plus, have kept NASA astronauts flying to the space station. A test dummy soloed on last years Dragon crew capsule debut.

(Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)STERLING, Va. President Donald Trump plans to be on the Florida coast Wednesday to watch American astronauts blast into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center for the first time in nearly a decade. It will be the first time since the space shuttle program ended in 2011 that U.S. astronauts will launch into space aboard an American rocket from American soil. Elon Musks SpaceX is the conductor and NASA the customer as businesses begin chauffeuring astronauts to the International Space Station. The NASA/SpaceX Commercial Crew flight test launch will carry NASAs newest test pilots, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Vice President Mike Pence, who is chairman of the National Space Council, also plans to attend Wednesday's launch.

Starting with the dream of growing a rose on Mars, Musks vision morphed into a shake-up of the old space industry, and a fleet of new private rockets. But for Musks company, SpaceX, its also the latest milestone in a wild ride that began with epic failures and the threat of bankruptcy. There are many space companies and like all of them, SpaceX is designed for profit. The idea of bigger roles for private companies has been around for more than 50 years, but the market and technology werent yet right. A 2005 pilot project helped private companies develop ships to bring cargo to the station.

(SpaceX via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The two astronauts who will test drive SpaceXs brand new rocketship are classmates and friends, veteran spacefliers married to veteran spacefliers, and fathers of young sons. Retired Marine Col. Doug Hurley will be in charge of launch and landing, a fitting assignment for the pilot of NASAs last space shuttle flight. Hurley, 53, and Behnken, 49, are NASAs first test pilot crew in decades. Crippen and the late John Young rode NASAs first space shuttle, Columbia, into orbit on April 12, 1981. Hurley and Behnken both two-time space shuttle fliers were among four astronauts chosen in 2015 for NASAs commercial crew program.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is the conductor and NASA the customer as businesses begin chauffeuring astronauts to the International Space Station. The drama unfolds from the exact spot where men flew to the moon and the last space shuttle soared from Kennedy Space Center. NASAs newest test pilots, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, are launching from home turf with SpaceX presiding over the countdown. Plagued with software problems, Boeings Starliner capsule is still a year from launching with Ferguson and two NASA astronauts. In terms of launch power, the relatively small Falcon 9 has far less than the space shuttle did, another layer of safety.