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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
A long night, and “so long!” to InSight
Celebrate the December solstice, be thankful you’re not on Triton, and say goodbye to the InSight Mars lander.
Capturing the Cosmos
This week we have images snapped the old-fashioned and cutting-edge ways, creative ways of thinking about exploration, and artwork that expresses the beauty of it all.
Out-of-this-world astronauts (literally)
Celebrating 50 years of Apollo 17, the last crewed mission to the Moon.
Best space pictures of the month: November 2022
NASA's chief of exploration mission planning Nujoud Merancy walks us through a picture from the Orion spacecraft.
Artemis I launch guide: What to expect
NASA's Space Launch System rocket is sending the Orion crew capsule to the Moon and back.
Why we have the SLS
The SLS rests on a secure foundation of political support, a consequence of the U.S. framework of representative democracy and discretionary funding.
The Most Important Space Policy Events of the 2010s
The end of the Space Shuttle, the rise of public-private partnerships, and the return to the Moon. As the 2010s come to a close, what were the most impactful events that shaped U.S. space policy?
Orion Completes Critical In-Flight Abort Test
The test showed Orion can blast itself away from the Space Launch System if the big rocket fails while attempting to fly to orbit.
NASA's Orion spacecraft makes progress, but are the agency's lunar plans on track?
Orion's service module arrived in Florida, but some space industry experts question whether NASA's human spaceflight plans are realistic.
Orion's third flight will haul two pieces of a space station to lunar orbit
NASA is planning for a 30-day mission to lunar orbit in 2024.
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.
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.
The anatomy of a delay: Here's a timeline of twists and turns for NASA's SLS and Orion programs
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.
NASA unveiled new plans for getting humans to Mars, and hardly anyone noticed
NASA revealed its most concrete plan yet for sending humans back into deep space, centered around a small lunar space station and a reusable transport ship to carry astronauts to Mars and back.
A repeat of the space shuttle's bold test flight? NASA considers crew aboard first SLS mission
NASA has only flown astronauts aboard a rocket's first flight once, when John Young and Bob Crippen took space shuttle Columbia on the boldest test flight in history. What are the risks of repeating the feat for SLS?
An international outpost near the Moon gets closer to reality
International Space Station (ISS) project partners are inching ever closer toward an agreement to begin the development of a new human outpost in the vicinity of the Moon. If successful, the cis-lunar space station (a space station in the vicinity of the Moon) will be the largest international space project to date, influencing the direction of human space flight for decades to come.
Lockheed Proposes to have Humans Orbiting Mars by 2028
Lockheed Martin proposed a system to send humans to orbit Mars in the year 2028—a concept that shares many core values with The Planetary Society's report, Humans Orbiting Mars, we released last year.
All the way to orbit: After 35 years, is the RS-25 still the Ferrari of rocket engines?
The RS-25 powered the space shuttle for three decades, and will soon be used on the Space Launch System. Is it still the Ferrari of rocket engines? A deep dive on performance, reliability and the politics of rocket science.
In Pictures: Orion Assembled and Shipped to Kennedy Space Center
The shell of NASA's next Orion spacecraft has been welded together and shipped to Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Here's a photo recap of the assembly and transport process.
New Budget Bolsters NASA's Journey to Mars Plans
The recently passed omnibus spending bill directs NASA to work on a new upper stage for the Space Launch System, and begin development on deep space habitat modules.