Space

About Space

Follow whispers from the silent cosmos — distant galaxies, black holes and the mysteries of the universe.

space17 Jul 2026

AMPTE Artificial Comet Experiment Created a Plasma Tail

On December 27, 1984, the AMPTE mission released barium into the solar wind to create and study an artificial comet-like cloud with a plasma tail.

space15 Jul 2026

Point Nemo and the Spacecraft Graveyard at Sea

Point Nemo is used by space agencies as a controlled reentry zone for spacecraft and other large orbital hardware because it is the most remote spot in the world’s oceans.

space13 Jul 2026

NASA LCROSS Moon Crash Found Water Ice

NASA’s LCROSS mission deliberately crashed a rocket stage into a lunar crater and confirmed that water was present in the resulting plume, showing that some permanently shadowed regions on the Moon contain substantial ice.

space10 Jul 2026

Apollo 11 Moonwalk Tapes Were Lost, Not the Footage

Apollo 11’s original SSTV moonwalk source tapes are missing, so the footage people usually see is a lower-resolution broadcast conversion of the live lunar TV signal.

6 Apollo Moonquake Facts That Made the Moon Ring

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space02 Jul 2026

6 Apollo Moonquake Facts That Made the Moon Ring

The article explains how Apollo seismic experiments showed that the Moon experiences impacts and quakes whose vibrations can persist unusually long, revealing a dry, fractured interior that makes the Moon seem to “ring.”

Apollo 12 Lightning Strike and the SCE to AUX Fix

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space01 Jul 2026

Apollo 12 Lightning Strike and the SCE to AUX Fix

During Apollo 12’s launch, a lightning strike caused telemetry problems, but the “SCE to AUX” command helped restore usable data and keep the mission going.

space20 Jun 2026

Beagle 2 Mars Lander Found in Orbiter Images

Beagle 2 was later identified on Mars by NASA orbit images, showing the lander had reached the surface but failed to deploy fully and transmit.

space08 Jun 2026

Xichang 1996 Long March Failure and Its Aftermath

A Long March 3B rocket carrying Intelsat 708 failed seconds after liftoff, crashed near the launch site, and led to scrutiny of launch safety and secrecy in China.

7 Asteroids Showing YORP-Linked Spin-Up in Action

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space04 Jun 2026

7 Asteroids Showing YORP-Linked Spin-Up in Action

This list explains how the YORP effect—tiny torques from sunlight—has been observed or strongly inferred to alter asteroid spin, surface stability, and in some cases trigger mass shedding, binary formation, or breakup.

space01 Jun 2026

Gemini 3 Corned Beef Sandwich Changed NASA Food Rules

During Gemini 3, John Young sneaked a corned beef sandwich into orbit, and the crumbs helped highlight why NASA tightly controlled food in spacecraft.

space26 May 2026

Luna 9 Images Reached Britain Before Moscow Published Them

Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon, and Jodrell Bank later decoded its image signals to publish the first lunar surface panorama before the Soviet release.

New Horizons Carried Clyde Tombaugh's Ashes to Pluto

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space21 May 2026

New Horizons Carried Clyde Tombaugh's Ashes to Pluto

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft carried a small capsule containing Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes, making its trip to Pluto a symbolic memorial to the astronomer who discovered the dwarf planet.

6 Spacecraft That Outlived Their Original Missions

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space18 May 2026

6 Spacecraft That Outlived Their Original Missions

This list highlights six space missions whose operations lasted far beyond their original plans or that were successfully revived after major setbacks, leading to major additional scientific returns.

space10 May 2026

US Space Mining Law and the Asteroid Ownership Debate

The article explains that U.S. law allows private ownership of asteroid resources after extraction, while the Outer Space Treaty forbids countries from claiming sovereignty over celestial bodies.

space10 May 2026

Mars Recurring Slope Lineae May Be Dry Dust Flows

Many Martian recurring slope lineae, once thought to hint at salty liquid water, are now more strongly explained as dark streaks made by dry dust and sand moving downhill.

space09 May 2026

Luna 3 and the First Far Side Moon Photos

Luna 3’s 1959 mission photographed the Moon’s far side by developing, scanning, and radioing images from inside the spacecraft instead of sending film back to Earth.

space07 May 2026

Hubble Mirror Flaw Traced to a Tiny Testing Error

Hubble’s early blurry images were caused by a tiny polishing error in its primary mirror, later corrected by astronauts in 1993.

space29 Apr 2026

Crab Pulsar Signals Shifted by Tiny Plasma Filaments

Astronomers observed that radio pulses from the Crab pulsar were briefly delayed and echoed because small plasma filaments in the Crab Nebula crossed the line of sight and distorted the signal.

7 Space Instruments That Made Outsized Discoveries

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space24 Apr 2026

7 Space Instruments That Made Outsized Discoveries

The article highlights how compact space instruments have produced outsized scientific discoveries by measuring dust, water, minerals, magnetic fields, elements, and radiation across multiple missions.

Tardigrades Survived Open Space in ESA FOTON-M3 Test

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space23 Apr 2026

Tardigrades Survived Open Space in ESA FOTON-M3 Test

In 2007, tardigrades on ESA’s FOTON-M3 mission were exposed to vacuum and ultraviolet radiation in space, and some survived, with a few still able to reproduce afterward.

space21 Apr 2026

Bennu Rock Ejections Show Asteroids Aren't Geologically Still

OSIRIS-REx observed asteroid Bennu ejecting small rocks and dust from its surface, showing the rubble-pile asteroid is more active than expected.

space17 Apr 2026

Queqiao Relay Satellite Made Chang'e 4 Far-Side Landing Possible

China’s Chang’e 4 mission used the Queqiao relay satellite to maintain communications with the Moon’s far side during its landing and rover operations.

space12 Apr 2026

Moon Treaty 1979 and the Unsettled Fight Over Lunar Resources

The 1979 Moon Treaty proposed an international framework for using lunar resources, but key space powers never ratified it, leaving current rules over Moon mining unsettled.

space11 Apr 2026

2020 SO Asteroid Was Actually a 1966 Rocket Booster

A 2020 near-Earth object called 2020 SO was initially mistaken for an asteroid, but orbital analysis showed it was actually the Centaur upper stage from NASA’s 1966 Surveyor 2 mission.

space09 Apr 2026

Karl Jansky and the Radio Noise That Changed Astronomy

Karl Jansky’s investigation of radio static in the early 1930s revealed radio noise coming from the Milky Way, helping launch radio astronomy.

space01 Apr 2026

Lunokhod 1's Reflector Became Useful Again After About 40 Years

Modern lunar imaging relocated Lunokhod 1, allowing scientists to use its onboard laser retroreflector again for lunar laser ranging.

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space31 Mar 2026

A Star's Slight Wobble Helped Identify a Super-Jupiter

HD 10697 (109 Piscium) was found to have a hidden companion whose mass is estimated at about six times Jupiter’s, inferred from the star’s slight wobble rather than direct imaging.

How Chariklo Became the First Small Body Known to Have Rings

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space30 Mar 2026

How Chariklo Became the First Small Body Known to Have Rings

In 2013, astronomers discovered that the centaur Chariklo has a ring system, making it the first known small body in the Solar System found to have rings.

space26 Mar 2026

Salyut 7 Was Thought Lost Until Cosmonauts Brought It Back

Soviet cosmonauts in 1985 successfully reached the silent space station Salyut 7 and manually restored its power and key systems.

space25 Mar 2026

When Kepler Lost Its Aim, It Became K2

Kepler’s reaction wheel failures ended its original steady-staring mission, but engineers repurposed the spacecraft as K2, which used solar pressure to maintain pointing and continue exoplanet observations in a new survey mode.