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The dawn is breaking on a new era of space exploration, with moon bases and Mars colonies potentially only decades away. Live Science tracks the researchers, companies and countries setting their sights on the stars to bring you the biggest stories in space. Whether it's reporting on concerns that alien organisms could hitch a ride on our spacecraft and contaminate Earth, explaining what 11 billion people means for space travel, sharing a glorious photo of Earth during a total solar eclipse snapped by Japan's lunar lander, or compiling a list of the weirdest things we have launched into space, our expert writers and editors will ignite your sense of interstellar adventure with the latest space exploration news, features and articles.
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Latest about Space Exploration
1,300-pound spacecraft will crash to Earth today following intense solar activity, NASA warns
NASA's Van Allen Probe A is falling to Earth much sooner than expected, though the spacecraft's reentry poses a low risk to humans.
NASA fixes Artemis II rocket for April launch to take astronauts around moon
NASA's Artemis II is on track to shoot for the moon in April after engineers fixed the helium issue that grounded the mission's rocket last month.
NASA announces sweeping overhaul of Artemis return to moon
A major shakeup to NASA's Artemis program will step rocket launches up to an annual basis, and discard a Boeing-designed upper stage.
Chinese astronauts describe moment a crack was discovered on Shenzhou-20 spacecraft
Taikonauts from the ill-fated Shenzhou-20 mission have described what happened when they discovered cracks on their spacecraft as they prepared to depart China's Tiangong space station last year.
NASA set to roll Artemis rocket back for urgent repairs after yet another delay
NASA is about to roll its Artemis II moon rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to fix a helium flow issue that guarantees astronauts won't fly around the moon in March.
Artemis II update: NASA targets March 6 for launch of historic moon mission following successful 'wet dress rehearsal'
NASA is targeting March 6 as the earliest possible launch date for the Artemis II mission to the moon following a successful 'wet dress rehearsal' on Thursday.
Bungled Boeing Starliner mission was the highest order of mishap that put stranded astronauts at risk, report says
The 2024 Starliner mission, which left astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stranded in space for nine months, has received NASA's worst mishap classification in a damning report.
NASA starts countdown clock for second Artemis II wet dress rehearsal after rocky first attempt
NASA will attempt to fuel its Artemis II rocket again tomorrow after hydrogen leaks derailed the first wet dress rehearsal and delayed what is scheduled to be a historic crewed flight around the moon.
Supercomputers simulated the orbits of 1 million satellites between Earth and the moon — and less than 10% survived
Researchers used a pair of powerful supercomputers to simulate the potential trajectories of 1 million satellites in a cislunar orbit between Earth and the moon. Less than 10% of these orbits remained stable throughout the simulations, but this is not as disastrous as it may sound.
