Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, is rumored to be under consideration to serve as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 presidential election. Kelly, a 60-year-old former astronaut and U.S. Navy captain, has represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate since 2020. Kelly was elected to the Senate in a 2020 special election...
Already more than a month late getting back, two NASA astronauts will remain at the International Space Station until engineers finish working on problems plaguing their Boeing capsule, officials said Thursday. Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were supposed to visit the orbiting lab for about a week and return in mid-June, but thruster...
A super Jupiter has been spotted around a neighboring star by the Webb Space Telescope — and it has a super orbit. The planet is roughly the same diameter as Jupiter, but with six times the mass. Its atmosphere is also rich in hydrogen like Jupiter’s. One big difference: It takes this planet more than...
A photo from Mars taken by NASA’s Viking 1 spacecraft left people perplexed and wondering about the possibility of extraterrestrial life on this day in history, July 25, 1976. Dubbed the “Face on Mars,” the image appeared to show a carving of eyes, nose and a mouth in the Martian region of Cydonia. “NASA’s Viking...
While the total solar eclipse was the celestial focus in April 2024, the “Devil Comet” also received attention from skywatchers. Known officially and scientifically as Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, the rare comet, with its moniker suggestive of a fall from grace, neared Earth for the first time in 71 years. What makes this comet particularly unique is...
Man walked on the moon for the first time 55 years ago today, July 20, as America’s Apollo 11 mission achieved a dream bigger than Earth itself. The world was riveted by the event. An estimated 650 million people — nearly 20% of the entire human population at the time — watched the moon landing...
NASA said Wednesday it’s canceling its water-seeking moon rover, citing cost overruns and launch delays. The Viper rover was supposed to launch in late 2023 aboard a lander provided by Astrobotic Technology, but extra testing and increased costs kept delaying the mission, threatening other projects, the space agency said. The rover had aimed to explore...
An Italian-led team of scientists say they have confirmed evidence of a sizable cave on the moon not far from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago. The cave is located at the Sea of Tranquility just 250 miles from Apollo 11’s landing site and researchers suspect there are hundreds more that...
The NASA astronauts on Boeing’s Starliner said takeoff was “spectacular,” but the spacecraft suffered a series of issues during day two of the mission. There were helium leaks in the propulsion system, and the thrusters’ “control and capability degraded,” said NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, who spoke to the media from space on Wednesday for the...
APP USERS: Click here to get the quiz! The American Culture Quiz is a weekly test of our unique national traits, trends, history and people, including current news and the sights and sounds of the season. This week’s quiz is headlined by pop stars, sports cars and rock guitars. It also includes questions about apparent...
