A solar sail is no longer just a graceful idea for propellant-free flight; it is becoming a materials and deployment problem that engineers are finally learning how to solve. That shift matters ...

Portal’s heat exchanger thruster, known as Flare, fires up during a test in a vacuum chamber. (Portal Space Systems Photo) Bothell, Wash.-based Portal Space Systems says it has successfully tested its ...

BROOMFIELD, Colo., August 11, 2025 – MMA Space has developed a low-cost solar array capable of generating tens of kilowatts that can be manufactured in a fraction of the time of conventional solar ...

In spring 2002, Chelsey Bryant Krug flew to Colorado in search of a job. She had just enrolled as a graduate student in aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. She found ...

Scientists at the European Space Agency used a laser to communicate with a spacecraft 165 million miles (265 million kilometers) away in deep space for the first time, marking a major step forward in ...

The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) is being launched later this month to study the outer reaches of the heliosphere which defines where our solar system ends and interstellar space ...

HELSINKI — China has published coordinated papers outlining dual missions to the solar system’s edge, suggesting the long-studied project is nearing formal approval. A lead paper on the design and key ...

The comet is the third object ever confirmed to have entered our cosmic neighborhood from elsewhere in the galaxy. Space telescopes and orbiters have been documenting the rare visit. A mysterious ...