There is this idea in the space exploration industry that planets and moons can easily be used to make course corrections and accelerate spacecraft. In official speak, that's called gravity assist ...

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are expected to return to Earth in March. Photo by MIguel J. Rodriguez CarrilloAFP via Getty Images March will bring both celestial and human ...

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. Reading time 2 minutes The asteroid hunting spacecraft Lucy ...

It's called the Europa Clipper, and by all accounts it is the largest spacecraft NASA ever designed for planetary exploration. After it was launched in October 2024 on board a SpaceX Falcon Heavy ...

Today's story is being told because of a boring night on Twitter when I came upon this. It's graceful. It's beautiful. It's physics. Three random planets each with a different mass are placed on the ...

Mission engineers will track NASA's Lucy spacecraft nonstop as it prepares to swoop near Earth on Oct. 16 to use this planet's gravity to set itself on a course toward the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.

Lucy fired its main engines for more than 36 minutes on Saturday (Feb. 3). When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. NASA's ...

A celestial visitor from beyond our solar system has become the unwitting protagonist in a global test of humanity's ability to spot potential threats from the deep. While the interstellar comet ...

The European Space Agency's (ESA) solar polar probe, the ‘Solar Orbiter,’ which was launched this February, successfully completed its first gravity assist as it passed over Venus on the 27th (local ...