NASA

AMSTERDAM — SpaceX’s Starship suffered a loss of attitude control after reaching space on its latest test flight May 27, leading to an uncontrolled reentry and a third consecutive failure.Starship lifted off from SpaceX’s test site at Starbase, Texas, at 7:36 p.m. Eastern. The liftoff was delayed in the final seconds of the countdown because of an issue with a quick-disconnect fitting in ground equipment that required resetting the countdown to the T-40 second mark for several minutes to fix it.This mission, Flight 9, sought to avoid the engine problems on the previous two test flights in January and March that caused the loss of the Starship upper stage during its ascent. All eyes were on the performance of the Starship’s six Raptor engines during a burn lasting nearly six and a ha...

Announces the Top Three Winning Dishes Created by High School Students, One Dish to be Selected for Astronauts Aboard the ISS HOUSTON, TX (MAY 1, 2025) – After weeks of careful evaluation, one of three finalist student teams will have their winning pasta dish selected to be sent to astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to enjoy in orbit. On April 8, Space Center Houston hosted the 10th annual HUNCH Culinary Challenge Finals, where 10 student teams competed to have their pasta dishes judged by culinary experts. HUNCH (High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware) is a national program that engages high school students in developing real-world products for NASA. The Culinary Challenge is one of the many programs under HUNCH, inviting student teams ...

Telescopes located both on the ground and in space continue to dazzle us with incredible images of the universe. We owe these sharp vistas to a series of brilliant astronomers, including Andrea Ghez – an astrophysicist and professor at UCLA – and the “Mother of Hubble,” Nancy Grace Roman.Did you know that stars don’t actually twinkle? They only look like they do because their light has to travel through our turbulent atmosphere to reach our eyes. As the atmosphere shifts and swirls around, the light from distant stars is slightly refracted, or bent, in different directions. Sometimes it’s directed right at us, but sometimes it’s directed a bit to the side.It’s like someone’s shining a flashlight toward you but moving it around slightly. Sometimes the beam is pointed right at you and appear...

ST. LOUIS — Capella Space, the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite company known for capturing high-resolution images of Earth in all weather and lighting conditions, is preparing for a major pivot — one that could redefine how Earth-observation data is delivered and secured.Earlier this month, IonQ, a Maryland-based quantum computing firm, announced its intent to acquire Capella in an all-stock deal valued at nearly $318 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2025, pending regulatory approval. Capella will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of IonQ but continue to run and upgrade its SAR satellite constellation.IonQ CEO Niccolo de Masi, a physicist and entrepreneur, took the company public in 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisiti...

HOUSTON, TEXAS (APRIL 28, 2025) – Since the start of the 2024-25 school year, nearly 2,000 high school teams and 5,000 students from more than 80 countries collaborated across oceans and time zones to develop viable solutions to global challenges in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Competing for first place titles as “Pete Conrad Scholars,” the top 31 student teams convened at Space Center Houston for the Conrad Challenge Innovation Summit and EXPO finals sponsored by Equinor. Founded in 2007 by Nancy Conrad in honor of her late husband, NASA astronaut Charles “Pete” Conrad, the Challenge inspires students to design today’s solutions for tomorrow’s challenges, carrying forward his legacy for innovation and exploration. Nancy Conrad, ...