For more than sixty years, chemical rockets have powered nearly every major space mission, from the Apollo Moon landings to robotic probes exploring the outer planets. These rockets rely on rapid ...

On February 24, 2026, inside a vacuum chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, engineers ignited ...

The first human Mars explorers won’t have it easy. Every additional day in deep space will increase their exposure to deadly ...

New details of the Trump administration’s plans for NASA, released Friday, revealed the White House’s desire to end the development of an experimental nuclear thermal rocket engine that could have ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: Humanity owes a debt of gratitude to the chemical rockets that have launched satellites, astronauts, and entire space stations into space. But if we ...

NASA just tested a blazing-hot plasma engine that could help carry humans to Mars.

Getting to Mars takes a really long time, about nine months using today's rocket technology. This is because regular rocket engines burn fuel and oxygen together (like a car engine), but they're not ...

NASA’s announcement Tuesday that it will “pause” work on a lunar space station and focus on building a surface base on the Moon was no big surprise to anyone paying attention to the Trump ...

Viewed from orbit, Jackass Flats — situated in southern Nevada about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas — could easily be confused for Mars. The alluvial basin is full of tan and gray regolith, hued ...

Jim Bickford is leading the Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER) project to develop a system for propelling a craft through space faster and farther than ever before. This technology has ...

It seems too good to be true, but UK-based Pulsar Fusion has revealed its new Sunbird self-contained nuclear rocket tug that uses a fusion propulsion engine that could reduce a trip to Mars to under ...

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Every year, companies and space agencies launch ...