Articles

Jason Davis

The White House's 2018 federal budget request includes $19.1 billion for NASA, which is a 3 percent drop from 2017. We broke down the details.

Jason Davis

Company officials say they have no plans to retire Antares, which has secured its first mission order under the second round of NASA's commercial cargo flights, known as CRS-2.

Jason Davis

Rocket Lab's Electron, a light-lift launcher for small satellites, is ready to make its debut test flight from a peninsula in New Zealand.

Larry Crumpler

Opportunity has arrived at the head of Perseverance Valley—a possible water-cut valley.

Emily Lakdawalla

Emily shares another of her popular size comparisons of solar system bodies, taking advantage of Cassini's recent views of Saturn's tiniest moons.

Ian Regan

Amateur image processor Ian Regan shares a stunning mosaic of Saturn in all its ringed glory.

Alex Parker

Using new image processing techniques, Alex Parker brings new life to an old image of Jupiter captured by the New Horizons mission on its way to Pluto over a decade ago.

Heidi Stauffer

Stratigraphic columns are a basic tool in geology, used on both Earth and Mars to tell the story of a location. But what are they really?

Jason Davis

The Space Launch System and Orion won't fly until 2019, and NASA is sticking with its original plan not to include astronauts for the maiden mission. Here is a timeline of some of the programs' major twists and turns over the years.

Heather Hunter

Heather Hunter brings us the next installment in her series on radio detection and ranging.

Jason Davis

Despite being funded to fill a perceived gap in U.S. launch capabilities, Orbital ATK's Antares rocket has yet to find a customer besides NASA. Did the space agency get its money's worth?

Erin Greeson

Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” In a nod to Sagan (Bill’s Astronomy professor at Cornell University), Bill unveiled his own shiny version of a crude model.

Peter Rosén

Peter Rosén shares an amazing animation of Jupiter made from more than 1,000 images taken by 91 amateurs from around the world.

Emily Lakdawalla

An unusual photo of Saturn by astrophotographer Damian Peach shows the planet and its largest moon nestled among the star-filled lane of the Milky Way.

Casey Dreier

The President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017, funding the U.S. government for the remainder of the fiscal year. NASA got a boost to $19.65 billion, and its Planetary Science Division saw a budget increase to $1.846 billion—its best budget in more than ten years.

David Shortt

In the second and final chapter of our series, we’ll explore what the rocket equation has to say about travel through the solar system, using the example of launching a rocket to Pluto.

Tim Evans

Tonight, a four-person crew will seal themselves inside a three-story habitat at NASA's Johnson Space Center, kicking off a simulated 45-day mission to an asteroid. One crewmember shares his thoughts before entering.

Adam Block

Astrophotographer Adam Block captures 46 geostationary satellites, plus some unnamed stragglers, in one 10-frame image mosaic.

Jason Davis

The Planetary Society's LightSail project has roots in a late-1970s NASA plan to send a giant solar sail spacecraft to Halley's Comet. Now, a cache of archival documents adds new depth to the audacious plan.

Casey Dreier

Last week, the planetary science community lost Nathan Bridges, a leading scientist whose work studied how wind sculpts the surface of Mars. Nathan was a prolific scientist involved in many Mars exploration missions, a charter member of The Planetary Society, a friend, husband, and father.