NASA has confirmed its Europa Clipper spacecraft will head off to the Jovian moon in search of signs of life and a landing zone for future exploration. Europa has fascinated astroboffins since it was discovered that the moon has an ocean albeit one under a thick layer of ice. The water, it turns out, is heated, and kept liquid …

Round UpWhile India arrived in lunar orbit this morning, bickering over who would lead NASA's next lander flared up, Rocket Lab notched another success and a Chinese satellite appeared to falter. Rocket Lab: 'Look Ma, No Hands' Rocket Lab continued its run of successful launches yesterday as it sent another four satellites into orbit …

Wannabe space station supplier Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has selected ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket to launch its Dream Chaser freighter in 2021. Dream Chaser is a fan favourite, being a lifting body-based spacecraft that can glide to a runway and land in a manner reminiscent of the old NASA Space Shuttles. ICYMI: @ …

NASA made a slew of announcements yesterday aimed at bigging up the agency's efforts to get commercial companies involved with its deep space ambitions – despite one vendor dumping plans for a 2020 lunar landing. The US space bureau began the week by admitting that one of its trio of commercial pals vying to ship payloads to …

RoundupAs the rocket world settled down after the excitement of that Apollo anniversary, there was plenty to keep the faithful entertained last week. Orion is complete and the Green Run is go US Vice President "Iron" Mike Pence whipped the covers from the first complete Orion spacecraft, due for an uncrewed lob around the Moon in the …

ObitChris Kraft, who created the concept of NASA's Mission Control, died yesterday aged 95. Born in Phoebus, Virginia, on 28 February 1924, Christopher Columbus Kraft joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1945 following his graduation. Armed with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Kraft was a good fit …

Tomorrow it will be a full 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon, and nearly 50 years since the annual hand-wringing began over why none have gone back after Apollo 17. For sure, Apollo 11 was a monumental achievement, as the US went from practically zero spaceflight experience to setting Neil Armstrong and Edwin " …

SpaceX has posted an update on the investigation into the destruction of its Crew Dragon test vehicle in April. In short, it was a leak and a dodgy valve wot dunnit. The incident happened at 18:13 UTC on 20 April while SpaceX was conducting static fire engine tests atop a test stand at the company's Landing Zone 1 at Cape …

On 16 July 1969, Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A in Florida on an eight-day mission to the Moon and back. The launch, the sixth of a Saturn V, came less than two weeks after the second attempt by Russia to send its own monster rocket, the N-1, on a jaunt to the Moon. The second N-1 and the …

RoundupWhile some at NASA may still be obsessing over past glories, other eyes remained fixed on the Moon, Mars and beyond in this week's rocket-bothering roundup. Proton: Batteries now included Russia's veteran Proton-M launcher finally left launch pad 81 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 15:30:57 Moscow time on 13 July. The Proton-M …

We may be able to survive and live on Mars in regions protected by thin ceilings of silica aerogel, a strong lightweight material that insulates heat and blocks harmful ultraviolet radiation while weighing almost nothing. Researchers at Harvard University in the US, NASA, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland envision …

The former Mars InSight Lander engineer who won $1.5m from his employer after it sacked him for whistleblowing is now suing NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab for its part in his professional downfall. David Lillie, a Californian who previously worked for NASA contractor Mantech, proved in American federal court that his employer was …

40 years ago today, nearly 10 years after Neil Armstrong plonked a boot on the Moon, another bit of Apollo leftovers came screaming back to Earth: the Skylab space station. Launched in May 1973 aboard the last Saturn V to fly, Skylab consisted of the Saturn S-IVB 212 stage outfitted to be home to visiting crews. Three crews …

The Register took a spin down memory lane to have a look at the just-released-in-the-UK Apollo 11 film and to ask the question: is it any good? We are pleased to report back on our findings. Squeaking in just before the 50th anniversary of the first crewed Moon landings, the documentary pieces together recently uncovered 65mm …

NASA completed the Ascent Abort-2 test of its Orion spacecraft today, deliberately crashing a test version of the capsule into the ocean after successfully demonstrating the Launch Abort System (LAS) would do its thing. The launch, at 0700 EDT (1100 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in …

NASA engineers are trying to fix an instrument on the Mars Insight lander that was supposed to burrow five metres (16 feet) into the Red Planet's surface – and has instead tapped out at just 30 centimetres (one foot.) The device, known as the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), is essentially a very fancy hammer. …

NASA plans to terrorise the skies with a plutonium-powered drone. Thankfully not those above Gatwick, but the dense haze surrounding the Saturn moon Titan. Space boffins at NASA have been pondering where to send the robots next as part of its New Frontiers programme, with ambitious sample return missions also on the cards. The …

Washington DC has been hit with yet another discouraging assessment of the Uncle Sam's IT management and security practices. The bi-annual grading of federal organizations [PDF] was released this week, and, by and large, they show America's government bureaucrats have a lot of work to do when it comes to securing, updating, …