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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Cygnus cargo craft will test ability to boost and deorbit the International Space Station
NASA and Orbital ATK are planning a one-minute test burn before Cygnus leaves the station.
The curious case of the Apollo 4 Earth images
Revisiting images of Earth taken from the uncrewed Apollo 4 command module in 1967.
How are we preparing astronauts for a return to the Moon?
Returning to the Moon won’t be easy, even though we’ve been there before.
Is NASA painting itself into a corner with its ISS transition plans?
By 2025, NASA wants to create a new humans-in-LEO market, and then become the non-primary customer for that new market.
A brief history of Resource Prospector, NASA's cancelled lunar mission
The mission survived NASA's Journey to Mars era, only to be axed once short-term goals shifted back to the Moon.
Tiangong-1: How to follow the space lab's decaying orbit and reentry
With the space station likely to fall on April Fool's Day, it's important to know whom to follow for reliable information.
Funpost! The transportation of humans to foreign planets
For this week's Funpost, Jason answers 11 questions about humans exploring Mars.
Book Review: The Space Barons
A new book focuses on the eccentric leaders of SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic.
Throwback Thursday Funpost! That time I created work for the ISS crew
An important American flag is lost and found aboard the International Space Station.
Throwback Thursday Funpost! A spacewalk in deep space
Only three humans have ever been on a spacewalk in the void between the Earth and Moon.
NASA has a Moon landing plan—sort of
It's a gradual, stepped approach, envisioning human spaceflight, planetary science, and commercial partners all working together.
Some snark (and details!) about NASA's proposed lunar space station
So long, Deep Space Gateway. You've been replaced with the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway.
Goodbye, ISS. Hello, private space stations?
The International Space Station may go away in 2025. Will private space stations be ready to fill the gap?
International meetings: Moon initiatives
Interest is rising globally in expanded lunar science, resource exploration and eventually permanent human settlement. Also, the potential for commercial lunar enterprises is being seriously examined.
Let's talk about NASA's latest commercial crew delay
SpaceX and Boeing might not be certified to carry astronauts to the International Space Station until 2019 or 2020.
What changed with space directive #1?
President Trump signed Space Directive #1, formally implementing as policy what Vice President Pence had announced at the first meeting of the National Space Council in October: that NASA will focus its human spaceflight efforts on a return to the Moon, and then onto Mars. What really changed?
What's Up in Solar System Exploration in 2018
Three launches to the Moon and one each to Mercury and Mars; two arrivals at near-Earth asteroids; and an approach to an encounter with a distant Kuiper belt object are highlights we anticipate in 2018.
We choose to go to the Moon and do the other things
Vice President Mike Pence kicked off the National Space Council's first meeting today by declaring Americans will return to the Moon. Casey Dreier and Jason Davis analyze this new direction for NASA's human spaceflight program.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk updates Mars colonization plans
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk presented an updated version of his Mars colonization plans today, during a widely anticipated talk at the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia.
Is Mars habitable? With the right technologies, yes
Making Mars habitable will require us to master the conversion of raw Martian materials into resources we can use to survive. Fortunately, Mars has a wealth of usable materials, making it one of the most human-habitable places in the solar system, other than Earth itself.