The space agency is looking to maintain human presence in the microgravity environment as it transitions to commercial stations.

The otherworldly helicopter, with its 36 blades, is the size of an SUV—a major upgrade from Ingenuity's four blades.

SpaceX is gearing up to send a duo of landers to the Moon this January.

As a result of the failure, Japan's private sector has yet to independently place a satellite in Earth orbit.

The incident raises concerns about companies failing to disclose issues during commercial spaceflight missions.

Our rocky satellite's real age is concealed by a "remelting" event that caused its surface to liquify, distorting the story told in lunar rocks.

An ancient black hole had to take it easy after gorging itself on its local galaxy, offering hints at the exotic objects' evolution.

The crew launched to the ISS in June for a week-long mission but will end up spending an unplanned nine months in space.

From black hole jets to auroras on Mars, this year had plenty of astrophysical wonder.

The Dwingeloo telescope, designed to observe signals at low frequencies, detected the farthest human spacecraft when it went dark earlier this year.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is petitioning a county in the Texas Rio Grande Valley to incorporate its launch site into an official town called "Starbase, Texas," to serve as the company’s headquarters and "gateway to Mars."

Months after announcing he was moving SpaceX’s headquarters out of California, Musk exclaimed in an X post last week that "SpaceX HQ will now officially be in the city of Starbase, Texas!"

Located within Cameron County in far-south Texas, Starbase is currently an unincorporated community that serves as the hub for much of SpaceX’s rocket manufacturing, launches and operations, including the historic "rocket catch."

SPACEX LAUNCHES MISSION TO SPACE STATION THAT WILL BRING BACK STRANDED NASA ASTRONAUTS NEXT YEAR

The rocket catch is part of SpaceX’s "Starship" program, which is housed in its Starbase facilities and is seeking to make the first fully reusable rocket designed to propel manned missions to establish a human presence on the moon and Mars.

But to get to Mars, SpaceX says it needs Starbase, Texas, to become official.

"To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community. That is why we are requesting that Cameron County call an election to enable the incorporation of Starbase as the newest city in the Rio Grande Valley," Starbase general manager Kathryn Lueders said in a letter to Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino.

ROCKET LAUNCH ATTENDEES SHARE HOPES ABOUT ELON MUSK’S PREDICTION FOR MARS TRAVEL BY 2026

To be incorporated into a city in Texas, a county judge must order a special election in the community.

According to Lueders, incorporating Starbase will streamline the process to make Starbase a "world-class place to live" and enable the Starship program to "fundamentally alter humanity’s access to space."

Musk announced SpaceX was moving its former headquarters in Hawthorne, California, to Starbase in July. The reason for the move cited by Musk was California’s SAFETY Act, which prohibits schools from requiring teachers to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender.

"This is the final straw," Musk said on X. "Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas."

ELON MUSK GOES OFF ON GENDER SURGERY THAT CAN STERILIZE MINORS: ‘SHOULD GO TO PRISON FOR LIFE’

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Now, Lueders said that SpaceX is investing billions in infrastructure in Cameron County and generating hundreds of millions in income and taxes for local businesses and government, "all with the goal of making South Texas the gateway to Mars." 

In her letter to Trevino, Lueders called Starbase a one-of-a-kind location for SpaceX’s future.

"Starbase is a one-of-a-kind location for manufacturing, testing, and launching the most advanced rocket and spaceships ever conceived – a fully and rapidly reusable system that paves the way for humanity’s return to the Moon and eventual travel to Mars," she said. "We look forward to continuing its transformation into a world-class hub for the men and women working to make life multiplanetary."

This year, private space companies were put to the test. Some thrived under pressure, while others crashed and burned.

The research team says it’s time to “think outside the box” since nothing else is working.

Researchers from the Juno mission have finally solved a mystery that has puzzled scientists for over four decades.

The rover trekked nearly 2,000 feet to get out of the crater, where it will explore a 4-billion-year-old environment.

M87 was the first black hole to be imaged, and now it's revealing details of how some elementary particles are accelerated by the universe's most extreme environments.

A survey of Sun-like stars found that they produce a superflare roughly once per century.

The spunky Lucy mission will make a second gravity assist of our world tonight as it heads off on its hunt for the solar system's origins.

Starship's upper stage survived reentry and splashed down in the Indian Ocean following the rocket's sixth test flight.

ORLANDO, Florida—On Wednesday, Jared Isaacman made his first public appearance since his nomination earlier this month to become NASA's next administrator. Although his remarks were short on specifics, Isaacman endorsed a vision that would signal radical departures from the way NASA does business.

He talked of commercial investment, a thriving space economy, and going fast and taking risks. These talking points are familiar to anyone who has listened to NASA's leadership in recent years, and there has been tangible progress in the agency's partnerships with commercial companies. However, NASA is leaving some commercial expertise on the field, or in this case, on the ground.

"I love all about the commercial space industry right now," Isaacman said in a discussion at the Space Force Association's Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida. "They’re all generally doing the same thing, which is putting a lot of their own dollars on the line because they believe in the future that it holds."

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