Kids News

NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft returned from its 26-day, record-breaking 1.4 million-mile (2.2 million kilometers) roundtrip to the Moon on December 11, 2022. The uncrewed spacecraft re-entered Earth's atmosphere at an impressive speed of 25,000 mph (40,000 kph). This is 32 times faster than the speed of sound. The capsule's flawless splashdown into the Pacific Ocean marks the first step in returning humans to the Moon again....

On November 23, 2022, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced its first new class of astronaut trainees in 13 years. The 17 candidates were selected from a pool of 22,500 applicants. They include five career astronauts, 11 reserve astronauts, and John McFall — the world's first astronaut with a disability....

On October 5, 2022, NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann became the first Native American woman to launch into space. Mann is also the first woman to command a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The 45-year-old is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes....

The origin of Saturn's beautiful rings and the reason for the planet's unusually large 27 degree-tilt on its axis has puzzled astronomers for decades. Scientists had initially believed that the rings had been a part of the planet since its formation billions of years ago. However, recent research indicates that the planet acquired them sometime between 100 and 200 million years ago....

On September 26, 2022, NASA's golf cart-sized DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft intentionally crashed into a distant asteroid. The spectacular collision, observed by telescopes worldwide, was NASA's first practical attempt to alter the path of an asteroid. The $325 million mission was part of the space agency's overall planetary defense strategy to protect Earth from the impact of an errant space rock....

Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) as they are now called, are finally getting the attention they deserve. On June 9, 2022, NASA announced it had commissioned a study to examine observations of events that "cannot be identified as aircraft or known natural phenomena."...

The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) was launched into space on December 25, 2021, with high expectations. Scientists hoped the $10 billion space observatory would allow them to explore the origins of the Universe, its galaxies, and perhaps even the formation of the first stars. The initial photos, released by NASA on July 12, 2022, indicate that Webb is living up to its promise....

All space missions are significant. However, SpaceX's Crew-4 mission, which docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on April 28, 2022, was particularly historic. The approximately 16-hour flight was SpaceX's fastest Dragon astronaut trip to the space lab yet. More importantly, the crew of four included Jessica Watkins — the first African American woman assigned to the ISS on a long-term mission....

The Hubble Space Telescope's record of impressive celestial finds continues. On March 30, 2022, scientists announced that the powerful astronomical observatory had detected the light of a star located about 28 billion light-years away — making it the farthest individual star seen to date....