Browse Resources by Year

Dueling technologies would harness atoms for faster spaceflight

An artist’s illustration shows Ultra Safe Nuclear’s concept for a fission-powered spacecraft engine. Credit: Ultra Safe Nuclear

After decades of dormancy, the concept of spacecraft nuclear propulsion has returned to prominence. Projects from NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in partnership with the Department of Energy are looking to test the technology in space as soon as 2027.

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Space-based research brings billions in value to medicine

NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor mixes protein crystal samples onboard the ISS in the search for new medicines. Credit: JAXA/NASA

Every year, NASA turns $10 billion in research and development funding into roughly 1,000 technology reports and 100 new patents.

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INSIGHT: White House strategy key to future space workforce

Courtney Stadd

It is the year 2044 and you have been assigned to help manage the extraction of rare earth elements (REEs) including neodymium, dysprosium, and europium from an approaching asteroid.

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Liftoff: Q1 2024 Highlights

A rendering of Boeing’s WGS 12 satellite. Credit Boeing

The space industry is advancing faster than ever before with continual progress in the government, military and private sectors. Here are noteworthy business highlights from this quarter.

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SNAPSHOT: New launch vehicles

The launches included successful maiden flights for three new launch vehicles. With a dozen more new launch vehicles expected to debut, 2024 appears poised to be a game-changing year in orbital flight.

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Space Development Agency’s Tournear still has need for speed

The Space Development agency has launched satellites to track missiles. Credit: SDA

Four years into his tenure atop the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency, Derek Tournear saw key goals realized in 2023. The first small, commercially built satellites for missile warning and communications are set to change how the Pentagon detects missile threats

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SNAPSHOT: Human spaceflight

Cumulative human spaceflight, 1961–March 18, 2024

As of mid-March, 685 astronauts have reached at least 80 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. This total includes 86 private astronauts, 22 times as many as there were two decades ago.

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INSIGHT: LunA-10 – DARPA’s bridge to the lunar economy

Kelli Kedis Ogborn

For space programs and companies, the Moon looms large as a contested frontier of space access and commercialization. The cadence of attempted Moon landings is increasing.

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Commercial offerings continue to grow, shape future of space

Introduction | Commercial space has come of age, offering cheaper alternatives to civil government and military satellites while delivering services ranging from secure communications and battlefield intelligence to pinpoint weather…

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After Russian ASAT leak, superpowers back away from showdown

Growing threats from anti-satellite weapons were spotlighted in February when U.S. officials warned Congress about a Russian weapons development program targeting spacecraft with nuclear weapons.

Growing threats from anti-satellite weapons were spotlighted in February when U.S. officials warned Congress about a Russian weapons development program targeting spacecraft with nuclear weapons.

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