50 years ago the space race took humans to the moon

In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon. Those first steps were preceded by a fast-paced technological race between the Soviet Union and the USA. Here's how it all started. The story of human spaceflight begins in the 1950s. It was a time...

Moon station 'Deep Space Gateway' to be built by Russia and US

Work on a joint US-Russia space station orbiting the Moon is to begin in the mid 2020s. The base is intended to serve as a launching point for manned missions to Mars. The US and Russia on Wednesday announced plans to cooperatively build the first lunar space station. Roscosmos...

Why aren’t Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk trying to colonize the moon?

In terms of distance, the moon is easier and less expensive for humans to access. So why aren’t we racing to colonize the moon? How come Elon Musk is so obsessed with Mars? The space race between Russia and the United States is over, but that doesn't mean interest...

Why isn't Germany taking over the moon?

By and large, "Made in Germany" is not the driving force behind companies in Europe's powerhouse preparing to go to space. The country spends millions on the industry but not nearly enough, say critics. At a recent gathering in Berlin of space technology businesses...

Astronauts walk on 'Mars' as stress test reaches halfway point

A team of astronauts who boarded a simulated spacecraft in June, 2010, have finally reached 'virtual Mars.' One goal of the experiment is to study the effects of isolation over the 520-day return trip to the red planet. It may have gone largely unnoticed by the outside...

ESA hopes to launch robotic mini-shuttle by 2020

European space authorities are in the very early planning stages of the next generation of unmanned spacecraft. The new mini-shuttle, about the size of a car, would follow an already approved craft, the IXV. The European Space Agency could launch a new unmanned, robotic...

Saturn receiving water from one of its moons, ESA spacecraft finds

The planet's upper atmosphere is marked by the presence of water. But where it comes from has been a mystery until now. The ESA's Herschel spacecraft has identified water shooting from jets on Saturn's Enceladus moon. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel spacecraft...

ESA spacecraft finds first oxygen gas molecules in space

Scientists have detected oxygen molecules in the star-forming region of Orion. Researchers believe frozen dust particles consisting of oxygen atoms evaporated in the heat of budding stars to form molecules. In a new scientific paper published on Monday, the European...

Venus has ozone layer, ESA scientists say

The solar system's second planet's newfound ozone may help to understand other planets. Scientists are hoping for more missions to confirm the presence of simple life on the harsh, turbulent planet. On Thursday, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that its...

NASA finds more Earth-sized planets that could support life

The planets are likely the right size and right temperature to support complex life. The Kepler planet-searching telescope has detected nearly 50 such planets in one small part of the observable universe. NASA said Monday its Kepler Space Telescope mission discovered...

Scientists discover water on planet outside solar system

Astronomers have detected water vapor in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b. They say it is the first planet beyond earth that has the potential to support life. Scientists from University College London (UCL) announced Wednesday that they had detected water...

New planet discovered in orbit of young Milky Way star

A second planet has been discovered circling Beta Pictoris,  a fledgling star in our own galaxy offering astronomers a rare glimpse of a planetary system in the making, according to a study published Monday. We talking about a giant planet about 3,000 times...

UK will lead European exoplanet mission

A telescope to study the atmospheres of planets beyond our Solar System will be launched by the European Space Agency in the late 2020s. The mission, to be known as Ariel, was selected by the organisation's Science Programme Committee on Tuesday.   The venture...

James Webb Space Telescope comes together

The successor to the Hubble observatory has reached a key milestone in its construction. All the elements that make up the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have been brought together for the first time.   It sets the stage for some critical tests that...

Exoplanet discovered around neighbouring star

Astronomers have discovered a planet around one of the closest stars to our Sun. Nearby planets like this are likely to be prime targets in the search for signatures of life, using the next generation of telescopes. The planet's mass is thought to be 3.2 times that...

Water found for first time on 'potentially habitable' planet

Astronomers have for the first time discovered water in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting within the habitable zone of a distant star. The finding makes the world - which is called K2-18b - a plausible candidate in the search for alien life.  Within 10 years,...