Missions

The latest news from the spacecraft helping us explore the cosmos, and the historical missions that paved the way.

Could humans be too heavy to land on Mars? Credit: NASA

Could humans be too heavy to land on Mars?

Artist's illustration of NASA's WMAP mission mapping the Cosmic Microwave Background. Credit: NASA / WMAP Science Team

Astronomy History How WMAP mapped the early Universe

Planetary scientist Emily Lakdawalla

Radio Astronomy Podcast Emily Lakdawalla talks Mars exploration

US president John F Kennedy addresses Congress on 25 May 1961, announcing his administration's intention to put human beings on the Moon. Credit: AFP via Getty Images

Astronomy History How JFK kickstarted the race to the Moon

NASA WMAP mission podcast

Radio Astronomy Podcast 20 years of NASA's WMAP mission

China's Tianwen-1 rover has released its first images of Mars. Credit: CNSA

Mars exploration China rover returns first images of the Red Planet

The Long March 5B rocket, lifts off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, 29 April 2021. Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT via Getty Images

China rocket debris could hit Earth this weekend

Michael Collins' official Apollo 11 portrait. Credit: NASA

Former Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins dies aged 90

Stephen Walker Yuri Gagarin lecture BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Webinar Yuri Gagarin - the untold story

Ingenuity looks down at its own shadow

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter makes first powered flight from Mars

The Parker Solar Probe is one of many spacecraft studying the Sun. Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins APL, Steve Gribben

Solar missions: How scientists study the Sun

Artist's illustration of the Mariner 9 spacecraft, which studied Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mariner 9: the spacecraft that revealed the secrets of Mars

Yuri Gagarin inside the Vostok 1 space capsule just before the flight that would make him the first human in space. Photo: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Radio Astronomy Podcast 60 years since Yuri Gagarin's historic flight

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, pictured in the capsule of his Vostok 1 spacecraft, 12 April 1961. Credit: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Spaceflight history Yuri Gagarin: the first human in space

Russian rocket engineer Sergei Korolev. Credit: Keystone-France / Getty Images

Spaceflight history Who was Sergei Korolev?