Human spaceflight

China Sends Astronauts To Nation's Longest Space Mission In History

China just launched Shenzhou 11 carrying two astronauts who will stay on the Tiangong 2 space lab for 30 days.

XPrize Confirms Moon Express Contract Launch

MoonEx will be launching its micro-landers to the Moon in partnership with Rocket Labs as the XPrize Foundation confirms its launch contracts.

'Cosmic Girl' To Launch Satellites In Space

Virgin Galactic's Boeing 747 aircraft named Cosmic Girl will be launching satellites for OneWeb and NASA.

Blue Origin Launches And Lands Reusable Rockets

Upstart rocket manufacturer Blue Origin aims to launch rockets in space with the concept of landing them again successfully to Earth, making them reusable.

SpaceX Launches First Commercial Crew

NASA has guaranteed SpaceX missions as part of the Commercial Crew Program along with Boeing.

Deflector shield to protect astronauts on the way to Mars?

Deflector shields, like those from Star Trek, may soon be real, and part of crewed missions to Mars. A working model has already been created.

Cosmonauts' spacewalk prepares space station for new laboratory

Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin performed a spacewalk June 24 to prepare the International Spapce Station for a new laboratory.

Space Launch System launch artist conception

World's largest rocket just got a big welding toolkit

NASA is developing the Space Launch System, which will be the world's largest rocket. Massive pieces of metal need to be welded together for construction of the rocket, and now the space agency has its tools.

Yuri Gagarin death secrets revealed 45 years later

Yuri Gagarin died in a plane crash 45 years ago. The official explanation from Soviet officials seemed unlikely - now we know the truth behind what killed the first man in space.

NASA announces new astronauts - half are women

NASA has announced their choices for the next batch of astronauts. For the first time ever, half are women, and three of the eight are scientists.

The buzz about astronaut Aldrin

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, has a new vision for space, and not surprisingly, a new book. But now, he's more media friendly than he was in the days of Apollo 11, when he isn't busy dissing Tang.

Valentina Tereshkova decorated by Vladimir Putin

Women in space - 50 years and counting

From Valentina Tereshkova to Wang Yaping and Karen Nyberg, this week marks the fiftieth anniversary of women in space.

China to blast second woman into space

Shenzhou 10, a Chinese spacecraft, is being sent into space on a 15-day mission. The crew will include Wang Yaping, the country's second female astronaut.