Tag Archives: Rocket Science and Propulsion

Four astronauts are scheduled to head to the International Space Station on Wednesday night. This otherwise routine rotation of crew on the space station is garnering extra attention because it will at last allow the return to Earth of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, two NASA astronauts whose brief scheduled visit to the space station last June was unexpectedly stretched …

For a decade, Eric Schmidt ran Google as chief executive and as the “adult” in the room, mentoring the internet company’s young founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In 2011, Mr. Schmidt handed control of Google back to Mr. Page. He has not taken another C.E.O. job since. But on Monday, Mr. Schmidt told employees of Relativity Space, a rocket …

For SpaceX, 2025 should have been the best year yet. Elon Musk, the founder of the private space company, is one of the most influential people in the Oval Office, and President Trump has endorsed his vision of sending humans to Mars. But so far, it has not been a great year for the rocket company. The vehicle that is …

Athena didn’t crash. But what did happen to it? Hours after the 15-foot-tall robotic spacecraft arrived at the moon’s surface, closer to the lunar south pole than any spacecraft has been, it remained unclear whether its touchdown was smooth enough to perform its intended work, or if it toppled over in the process, potentially limiting the mission’s scientific achievements. “We’re …

March 6, 2025, 11:15 a.m. ET A team of engineers from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California inspecting the TRIDENT drill shortly after its arrival at the integration and test facility.Credit…Robert Markowitz/NASA Much of the moon’s frozen water is likely below the surface, out of view of orbiting spacecraft. A drill on Athena will …

Intuitive Machines landed a robot on the moon last year. Can the Houston company do it again, but keep the spacecraft upright this time? When the spacecraft, named Odysseus, set down on the moon last February, it managed to communicate with Earth even though it had toppled on its side. It was the first commercially operated lander to reach the …

In a post on X on Tuesday evening, Elon Musk said President Trump had asked his rocket company SpaceX to bring home “as soon as possible” two NASA astronauts who have been on the International Space Station since June. SpaceX, in fact, is already scheduled to bring those two astronauts home, but no earlier than late March, along with two …

In a post on X on Tuesday evening, Elon Musk said President Trump had asked his rocket company SpaceX to bring home “as soon as possible” two NASA astronauts who have been on the International Space Station since June. SpaceX, in fact, is already scheduled to bring those two astronauts home, but no earlier than late March, along with two …

During his Inaugural Address on Monday, President Donald J. Trump again promised to launch American astronauts to Mars. Seated nearby, Elon Musk, a political benefactor of Mr. Trump who founded SpaceX in the hope that it would one day be able to send colonists to Mars, beamed with enthusiasm and offered two thumbs up. The gargantuan Starship rocket that Mr. …

SpaceX is ready for the seventh test flight of Starship — the gargantuan rocket that Elon Musk, the company’s founder, says will take people to Mars someday. Over the first six test flights, SpaceX has demonstrated that it can launch the largest rocket ever into space and more or less bring the pieces back to Earth intact. Over the coming …