Emerging Tech

NASA Is Running a 3D Printing Competition to Design Homes on Mars

The idea is to send a robot to Mars to autonomously print a habitat for the arrival of astronauts.

Modernization

GAO urges DOD to share data about commercial satellite programs

Centralizing data related to the Defense Department's work with commercial satellites could be one of the first tasks for a “Space Force.”

Policy

How The Space Force Took Over Washington

Blame a potent mix of national security concerns, space spectacle, and pork-barrel spending.

Emerging Tech

NOAA Creates Workarounds for Malfunctioning Weather Satellite

The GOES-17 still isn’t working the way it’s meant to, but engineers believe they have a way to make it more functional than not.

Emerging Tech

Cargo Bases in Space: Air Force General Wants Them Within a Decade

The service’s mobility chief is already talking with SpaceX and other companies about the possibilities of orbiting supply dumps.

Emerging Tech

Satellite Imagery + Social Media = A New Way to Spot Emerging Nuclear Threats

A research team is training computers to find and fuse clues from wildly different rivers of digital data.

Digital Government

Who Should Pay for the Mistakes on NASA’s Next Big Telescope?

The space agency has always coughed up the extra cash, but some politicians wonder if the contractor responsible for major errors should pitch in.

Emerging Tech

NASA Wants to Know If Space Travel Affects Plant and Animal Evolution

The agency is laying the groundwork for long-term human missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Emerging Tech

NOAA’s Next-Gen Weather Satellite is Still Malfunctioning and May Not be Fixable

The second satellite in NOAA’s $11 billion GOES program continues to experience issues with its most important instrument and officials still aren’t sure what’s wrong.

Emerging Tech

A Toxic Fuel Leak on Boeing’s Spacecraft Will Ground U.S. Astronauts a Little Longer

Boeing believes it understands the cause of the leak.

Emerging Tech

Russia May Put Androids in Orbit Next Year, State Media Says

The mission would be the latest for FEDOR, created for rescue work — and more recently given the ability to shoot guns.

Digital Government

NASA Is Making Troves of Satellite Data More Accessible Than Ever

The open data and new toolkit could inspire a new crop of entrepreneurs.

Digital Government

Donald Trump Nominated a Man With No Space Experience To Be NASA’s Second-in-Command

Trump is passing over Dr. Janet Kavandi, an astronaut and respected leader of one of the space agency’s research centers.

Digital Government

NASA’s Chief Wants Former Astronaut Janet Kavandi to Help Run Things. Trump Is Looking at the Senate’s Admin Guy

The wrong person in that job could create new problems for NASA.

Emerging Tech

Another Shocking Delay for NASA’s Next Big Telescope

If the James Webb Space Telescope wants to get off the ground, it will need a blessing—and more money—from Congress.

Emerging Tech

When a Mars Simulation Goes Wrong

A recent mission atop a Hawaiian volcano shows humans still have much to learn before they set foot on another world.