NYT > Science > Space & Cosmos

  • A Billionaire Names His Team to Ride SpaceX, No Pros Allowed
    by Kenneth Chang on 2021-04-23 in Space and Astronomy, High Net Worth Individuals, Private Spaceflight, Contests and Prizes, Content Type: Personal Profile, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Arceneaux, Hayley, Isaacman, Jared (1983- ), Musk, Elon, Proctor, Sian, Sembroski, Christopher (1979- ), Philanthropy, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital

    Meet the four people who will take the first all-civilian rocket trip to orbit Earth.

  • SpaceX Test Rocket Goes Up and Explodes Again
    by Kenneth Chang on 2021-04-23 in Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Rocket Science and Propulsion, Private Spaceflight, Space and Astronomy, Innovation, Texas, Explosions (Accidental)

    Something went wrong early for Starship, with shards of metal raining down around the launch site including debris that hit one of the cameras.

  • SpaceX Wins NASA $2.9 Billion Contract to Build Moon Lander
    by Kenneth Chang on 2021-04-23 in Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Moon, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Government Contracts and Procurement, Private Spaceflight, Rocket Science and Propulsion, Space and Astronomy, Musk, Elon, Bezos, Jeffrey P, Blue Origin

    Elon Musk’s company bested Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and others in the contest to carry American astronauts to the lunar surface.

  • NASA’s Mars Ingenuity Helicopter Completes Second Flight
    by Kenneth Chang on 2021-04-23 in Mars (Planet), Helicopters, Perseverance (Mars Rover), National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Engineering and Engineers, Space and Astronomy, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

    The experimental vehicle named Ingenuity flew higher and longer in its second flight on Mars.

  • It’s Dinner Time on the Space Station. Lobster or Beef Bourguignon?
    by Kenneth Chang on 2021-04-22 in Space and Astronomy, Cooking and Cookbooks, French Food (Cuisine), Pesquet, Thomas (1978- ), European Space Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ducasse, Alain, Marx, Thierry

    Earth’s gastronomical delights are being adapted to life in orbit.

  • The International Space Station: 20 Years of Promise, Peril and Fun
    by The New York Times on 2021-04-22

    Humanity has never built anything like the outpost that orbits Earth about 240 miles above the planet. These are some moments that have defined the two decades it has been our home in space.

  • Watch Video of NASA Mars Helicopter Ingenuity’s First Flight
    by Kenneth Chang on 2021-04-22 in Mars (Planet), National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Perseverance (Mars Rover), Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Space and Astronomy, Computers and the Internet

    The brief test of the experimental vehicle called Ingenuity shows how explorers can study the red planet from the sky as well as the ground.

  • What Do You Call a Bunch of Black Holes: A Crush? A Scream?
    by Dennis Overbye on 2021-04-22 in Space and Astronomy, Event Horizon Telescope, Messier 87 (Galaxy), Stars and Galaxies, Telescopes and Observatories, Doeleman, Sheperd S, your-feed-science

    There are pods of whales and gaggles of geese. Now astronomers are wondering which plural term would best suit the most enigmatic entity in the cosmos.

  • Lyrid Meteor Shower 2021: How to Watch
    by Nicholas St. Fleur on 2021-04-21 in Space and Astronomy, Meteors and Meteorites, Content Type: Service, Earth, Solar System

    Meteor showers can light up night skies from dusk to dawn, and if you’re lucky you might be able to catch a glimpse.

  • The Space Launch System: NASA’s Last Rocket
    by David W. Brown on 2021-04-16 in Rocket Science and Propulsion, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Space and Astronomy, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Moon, United States Politics and Government, Private Spaceflight, Artemis Program

    The United States is unlikely to build anything like the Space Launch System ever again. But it’s still good that NASA did.

  • SpaceX Rocket Debris Seen Over Seattle and Portland, Astronomers Say
    by Mike Ives on 2021-04-16 in Seattle (Wash), Portland (Ore), Pacific Northwestern States (US), Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Space and Astronomy

    A Harvard astronomer said the objects were debris — or “space junk” — from a SpaceX rocket. Not everyone got the memo.

  • Dazzling Skies, U.F.O. Sightings and Real-Life Monsters: The Week in Narrated Articles
    on 2021-04-16 in Race and Ethnicity, OxyContin (Drug), Sackler Family, Pacific Northwestern States (US), Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (Book), Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO), Wall Street Journal, Them (TV Program)

    Five articles from around The Times, narrated just for you.

  • How a Burst of Light in the Sky Illuminated Something Primal
    by Brooke Jarvis on 2021-04-15 in Rocket Science and Propulsion, Social Media, Video Recordings, Downloads and Streaming, Space and Astronomy, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, Pacific Northwestern States (US)

    Videos of a mysterious celestial phenomenon captured a once-common human emotion: awe at the wonder of the heavens.

  • Make a Parachute Out of Newspaper
    by Godwyn Morris and Paula Frisch on 2021-04-11 in Quarantine (Life and Culture), Newspapers, Content Type: Service, New York Times

    With a little ingenuity, your sheet of newsprint can float safely to the ground.

  • A Tiny Particle’s Wobble Could Upend the Known Laws of Physics
    by Dennis Overbye on 2021-04-09 in Space and Astronomy, Physics, Particle Accelerators, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Large Hadron Collider, Muon (subatomic particle), your-feed-science

    Experiments with particles known as muons suggest that there are forms of matter and energy vital to the nature and evolution of the cosmos that are not yet known to science.

  • Glynn S. Lunney Dies at 84; Oversaw NASA Flights From Mission Control
    by Richard Goldstein on 2021-04-02 in Lunney, Glynn S, Deaths (Obituaries), Space and Astronomy, Apollo Project, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Haise, Fred W Jr, Lovell, James A Jr, Swigert, John L Jr, Kraft, Christopher C Jr, Accidents and Safety, Rescues

    He was hailed for leading the rescue of Apollo 13 astronauts when their spacecraft was rocked by an explosion en route to the moon, and for helping guide them home.

  • Hunting Ghost Particles Beneath the World’s Deepest Lake
    by Anton Troianovski and Sergey Ponomarev on 2021-03-30 in Neutrinos, Lake Baikal (Russia), Telescopes and Observatories, Research, Physics, Space and Astronomy, Stars and Galaxies, Ice, Domogatski, Grigori V, Russia, Siberia

    A neutrino-spotting telescope beneath the frozen Lake Baikal in Russia is close to delivering scientific results after four decades of setbacks.

  • An Astronaut’s Heart Shrank From Space Travel, Study Finds
    by Kenneth Chang on 2021-03-29 in Space and Astronomy, Space Stations, Gravitation and Gravity, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Kelly, Scott J, Heart, Circulation (Journal), International Space Station

    After almost a year in space, Scott Kelly’s heart diminished, but he remained reasonably fit.

  • Oumuamua: It Came From Another Solar System
    by Dennis Overbye on 2021-03-29 in Space and Astronomy, Solar System, Nitrogen, Comets, Asteroids, your-feed-science, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets

    A piece of an extrasolar Pluto may have passed through our cosmic neighborhood, a new study suggests.

  • Life on Venus? The Picture Gets Cloudier
    by Kenneth Chang and Shannon Stirone on 2021-02-08 in Venus (Planet), Extraterrestrial Life, Space and Astronomy, Telescopes and Observatories, Microbiology, Research, Nature Astronomy (Journal), Sousa-Silva, Clara, Greaves, Jane

    Despite doubts from many scientists, a team of researchers who said they had detected an unusual gas in the planet’s atmosphere were still confident of their findings.