The race to Mars: here's how SpaceX ranks against the competition

On Tuesday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced his ambitious — if crazy — plan to colonize Mars within the next 40 to 100 years. But Musk isn’...

This is what it looks like to crash (very, very softly) onto a comet is fine

Who should go to Mars?

Elon Musk laid out his plan to colonize Mars at a conference on Tuesday, but it was during the Q&A session that a woman asked one of t...

Rosetta spacecraft lands on comet 67P and switches off for good

It's over. After orbiting the duck-shaped comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko for 786 days, the Rosetta spacecraft has landed on its surfac...

When is a crash landing not a crash landing?

More than 12 years after it launched and after 786 days in orbit around comet 67P, the European Space Agency's will make its  final man...

Watch live as the Rosetta probe 'softly’ crashes into comet 67P

The ticker at the top of the European Space Agency's live stream says it all. Days at comet: 786; days until end of mission: 0. After l...

Blue Origin will test its spacecraft’s in-flight escape system on October 4th

Jeff Bezos’ private spaceflight company Blue Origin has announced that the next launch of its New Shepard rocket will take place on Octobe...

Measles are gone from the Americas

The Americas are now free of measles and we have vaccines to thank, the Pan American Health Organization said earlier this week. This is ...

First Click: The hidden dangers of life on Mars

There are a lot of obstacles blocking Elon Musk’s ambitious plans to colonize Mars . But let’s say we do get a hundred people to the Red P...

The UN plans to launch its first space mission five years from now

The United Nations will launch its first-ever space mission aboard Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spaceplane in 2021. The news wa...

3D-printed 'hyperelastic bone' could be the future of reconstructive surgery

A new synthetic material called  hyperelastic bone , or HB, could be "the next breakthrough" in reconstructive surgery, new resea...

Health insurance giant Aetna will pay you to wear an Apple Watch

Health insurance giant Aetna plans to make the Apple Watch cheaper to its customers. The company  announced a partnership with the tech ti...

Elon Musk's ideas aren't enough to turn humanity into an multi-planet species

I admit it: I'm an optimist. I wanted Elon Musk to show me a strong Mars plan with real finances and real life-support design. I was ho...

The biggest lingering questions about SpaceX's Mars colonization plans

On Tuesday, thousands of people stampeded into a lecture hall in Guadalajara, Mexico, to hear SpaceX CEO Elon Musk talk about how he wants ...

Biggest ever quantum chip announced, but scientists aren't buying it

Quantum computing firm D-Wave has announced this month its largest ever quantum chip containing 2,000 qubits — double the capacity of its p...

Elon Musk wants to build a transit system that lets humans tour the entire Solar System

Elon Musk today announced plans for a giant rocket and spaceship that will theoretically be capable of sending humans to Mars. The theory...

Watch Elon Musk explain how SpaceX will colonize Mars in under five minutes

As Elon Musk is wont to do, he took the stage in front of a rabid crowd this afternoon to lay out an extraordinarily ambitious vision of th...

People tried to kiss Elon Musk and give him gifts at his Mars event

Elon Musk's Mars event today, where he outlined plans to  turn the human race into a multi-planetary species , was a serious affair. Us...

Elon Musk might name his first Mars-bound spaceship after Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Today, Elon Musk revealed  his ambitious multi-decade roadmap for human colonization of Mars, including the Interplanetary Transport Syste...

Why didn’t Elon Musk mention where colonists will live on Mars?

During his hour-long announcement of the Space X Mars colonization plan, CEO Elon Musk didn't say where exactly Martian colonists will ...

SpaceX wants to be the railroad of the future

SpaceX's plans for getting people to Mars are big and still a bit vague. Its plan for helping colonists actually live there for long pe...

Elon Musk wants to collect fuel on Mars to send spaceships back to Earth

Elon Musk wants SpaceX to send people to Mars and then bring them back to Earth on the same rocket they came in on. Nothing has ever been l...

Elon Musk: First humans who journey to Mars must 'be prepared to die'

Elon Musk just wrapped up an intricate and thorough presentation that covered his and SpaceX's vision of humans building a city on the ...

Elon Musk made a South Park joke at his Mars colonization announcement

How will Elon Musk and SpaceX fund its ambitious plan to go to Mars? The question was a big one coming into  today's announcement , and...

Elon Musk’s proposed spaceship can send 100 people to Mars in 80 days

Today, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveiled the Mars vehicle — the spaceship his company plans to build to transport the first colonists to Mars. ...

SpaceX’s planned Mars rocket will be reused 1,000 times

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has unveiled the design for the giant rocket booster he wants to build in order to colonize Mars. It is part of what S...

Elon Musk says it would take 40 to 100 years to build a self-sustaining civilization on Mars

Elon Musk thinks that it would take between 40 and 100 years for humanity to go from landing a ship full of colonists on Mars to establishi...

Elon Musk says the only reason he wants to make money is to colonize Mars

Elon Musk's ambitious plan to turn the human race into a multi-planetary species, starting first with the  colonization of Mars , will ...

Elon Musk is talking about going to Mars like it’s an Apple event

Elon Musk says taking a Mars trip should cost the same as buying a house

One day many many years from now, Elon Musk thinks the cost of taking a trip to Mars will ideally cost about the same as buying a house. Du...

Elon Musk’s Mars mission: all the news from the big announcement

On September 27, Elon Musk announced a bold new plan to establish a permanent human habitation on Mars with his company SpaceX. It's on...

Live from Elon Musk’s Mars colonization announcement

Follow along for the big SpaceX announcement Continue reading… Live from Elon Musk’s Mars colonization announcement Continue Reading

SpaceX unveils the Interplanetary Transport System, a spaceship and rocket to colonize Mars

Private spaceflight company SpaceX has released a video that details its long-awaited "Interplanetary Transport System." The vide...

Elon Musk has a lot to prove at today’s Mars colonization announcement

Elon Musk will present the world with SpaceX’s plans for Mars colonization today in Guadalajara, Mexico — what should be the victorious pre...

Elon Musk’s Mars colonization announcement: start time, live blog, and streaming

Today, Elon Musk will finally tell the world how he  wants to colonize Mars — an ambition of his that has served as the foundation for ess...

Riding rollercoasters makes it easier to pass kidney stones

NASA finds more evidence of water plumes on Europa

NASA has discovered more evidence that water erupts from beneath the surface of Europa, one of the many moons of Jupiter. The new findings ...

The US will need to expand its climate change plans to meet Paris agreement goals

Earlier this month, the United States ratified the Paris climate accord . But new research shows that the US will likely fall short of the ...

First Click: Elon Musk's journey to Mars, DJI's foldable drone, and more in the week ahead

This week will be a huge week for flying machines both big and small with SpaceX and DJI hosting events on Tuesday. If the rumors are corr...

SpaceX test-fires the engines that could take humans to Mars

SpaceX has conducted its first firing test of its Raptor engine, the powerful propulsion system that the company aims to use to  take human...

How Europa changed how we saw the solar system

On Monday, NASA is set to hold a press conference about some “surprising activity” on Jupiter’s icy moon of Europa. There’s no indication ...

The best reason to become US president is to get a new species named after you

On Monday night, the two candidates running to be president of the United States will square off in the first debate. Hillary Clinton and D...

Evolution is partly to blame for our obsession with Brangelina

I’ve never seen a movie featuring either Brad Pitt or his soon-to-be ex-wife , Angelina Jolie And yet, I’m not immune to the draw of celebr...

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 explosion likely caused by breached helium system

SpaceX’s recent Falcon 9 explosion seems to have been caused by a break in the "cryogenic helium system" of the vehicle's upp...

These are the kinds of refugees that Europeans want to accept

Europeans play favorites when it comes to refugees — and the ones they prefer are highly skilled, vulnerable, and not Muslim, researchers s...

ULA alludes to SpaceX’s rocket explosion in competition for military contract

The United Launch Alliance is throwing shade at rival SpaceX in the wake of the company’s latest rocket failure, suggesting that ULA’s vehi...

Why banning the opiate-like plant kratom might do more harm than good

The US Drug Enforcement Administration plans to name a new Schedule I drug: a Southeast Asian plant known for its opiate-like effects calle...

Cats crossed continents to be close to us, says gene study

Cats like to think they don't need us, but a new study into feline genetics has indicated that the global kitty population only boomed ...

Want to know how many times ancient humans migrated out of Africa? Check their genes

We know that tens of thousands of years ago, humans migrated out of Africa — but the question is, when, and how many times? By sequencing t...

Landmark Paris climate agreement will go into effect later this year

Enough nations have committed to the Paris climate accord that it will go into effect this year, The New York Times reports. That means t...

China’s Tiangong-1 space station is expected to fall to Earth in 2017, but don’t worry

China’s space station Tiangong-1 is expected to fall to Earth and burn up in the planet’s atmosphere sometime in late 2017, The Guardian r...

Forensic techniques sending people to prison may not be scientifically valid

The White House's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said in  a report released Tuesday that widely used forensic technique...

Elon Musk's Mars colonization plans: what we know so far

In less than a week, SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk will finally explain how he plans to colonize Mars within the next few decades. It’s a goal tha...