Alan Stern

After a few short trips to the edge of space, Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane is set for retirement, making room for a worthy successor. The company’s Delta class vehicle is gearing up for its debut in 2025, promising to bring in some profit with weekly suborbital flights.Inspiration Behind the Reality-TV Style for The Hunger GamesRichard Branson’s space venture launched its commercial trips this summer, with the first crew taking off on June 29. Since then, the company has been hard at work sending more private…

As the International Space Station (ISS) nears the end of its service in low Earth orbit, NASA is grappling with the idea of a short-term gap until a commercial alternative takes its place.Inspiration Behind the Reality-TV Style for The Hunger GamesThis week, NASA officials discussed the possibility of not being able to maintain human presence in low Earth orbit as the space agency’s private partners race to build space stations to replace the ISS. “We might have to accept a gap and, personally, I don’t think that would…

It took nearly 15 years for NASA’s New Horizons mission to reach the point where it is at today, around 50 times farther from the Sun than is Earth. From its unique observational perch, the spacecraft has been studying the frozen depths of the solar system to help piece together the origin story of the planets orbiting the Sun. Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewAs the New Horizons spacecraft continues its journey at the outer edge of the solar system, uncertainty lies ahead.…