Kids News - Space Articles

Ever since the US shuttle program ended in 2011, astronauts - both American and those from other nations - have been dependent on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to go to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The reliance, which costs NASA $70 million for each trip, is expensive and also leaves astronauts in danger of being stranded in the event of a like the one experienced in October 2018. Now, thanks to SpaceX's successful Crew Dragon test mission, astronauts may soon have an alternate, more affordable, mode of transportation to the ISS....

Virgin Galactic's founder, Sir Richard Branson, has been hoping to make space tourism a reality since 2008. While it has taken a little longer than the 18 months he had originally estimated, the company is getting increasingly closer to accomplishing its mission. On December 13, 2018, Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceliner, VSS Unity, made history with the longest rocket-powered flight when it soared to the edge of space, 51.4 miles (82 km) above sea level. On February 22, 2019, the aircraft repeated the feat, this time with its first passenger – the company's astronaut trainer Beth Moses - on board....

Experts estimate that Earth gets bombarded with thousands of pieces of cosmic debris each year. While most burn up in the atmosphere, a few hundred survive and hit the planet's surface annually. While the impact of the space rocks, which come hurtling down at rapid speeds, has thus far been minimal, the possibility of an asteroid landing in a densely populated area and causing severe damage cannot be ignored....

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, launched in 2006 with a primary mission to perform the first-ever flyby of Pluto, has provided researchers with invaluable information about the dwarf planet. Now, the space probe has made more history with its January 1, 2019 flyby of distant world 2014 MU69. The close rendezvous with the icy rock, located four billion miles from Earth in the Kuiper Belt, is not only humanity’s furthest encounter with a distant object, but also the most primitive one ever visited by a spacecraft....

Though we are treated to several meteor showers throughout the year, most pale in comparision to the grand finale – the Geminids. Expected to be at their peak on Thursday and Friday night (Dec. 13-14, 2018), the dependable meteors rank high in both quantity and quality. Nicknamed the “900-pound gorilla of meteor showers” by NASA, they outweigh other dust streams by factors of between 5 to 500!...

On November 26, 2018, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California held their breath as the InSight spacecraft attempted the most challenging part of its 300 million-mile-long journey to Mars – landing. At 2:53 p.m. EST, following a few nail-biting moments, the room erupted in joy at the sound of the official “beep,” and the grainy photo of the Red Planet which confirmed that the lander had not only touched down but was functioning as expected....

Over the last couple of decades, astronomers have identified thousands of planets outside our solar system. However, they have been unable to find confirmation of a moon revolving around any of the distant worlds, mainly because the generally smaller satellites are harder to spot. Now, some researchers from Columbia University believe they have found evidence of an alien moon orbiting a gaseous exoplanet, which lies almost 8,000 light years away....

It’s creepy, spooky, and scheduled to rendezvous with Earth shortly after Halloween, on November 11, 2018. Before you get your hopes up, we are not talking about an alien, but asteroid 2015 TB145, a skull-shaped space rock nicknamed ”Death Comet.” This is the second appearance of the eerie-looking asteroid that was first observed by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) telescope on October 10, 2015....

A rocket malfunction that forces astronauts to evacuate after its launched may sound like a plot straight out of a Hollywood movie. However, that is precisely what happened to Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and American astronaut Nick Hague on October 11, 2018. Fortunately, the “movie” had a happy ending with both scientists returning to Earth safely....