Today
Musk’s SpaceX fails to catch Starship booster as Trump attends launch
The catch was called off just four minutes into the test flight from Texas for unspecified reasons, and it hit the water three minutes later.
- Marcia Dunn
This Month
Australia’s rocket industry reaches a crucial inflection point
Local space entrepreneurs are attempting to take a slice of SpaceX’s business, as demand for launch services far outweighs supply.
- Tess Bennett
Gold Coast rocket company gets green light for first launch
After a two-year battle with the regulator, Gilmour Space has been granted approval to launch its Australian-made rocket to compete with SpaceX.
- Tess Bennett
October
Space: The final fashion frontier
Prada and Axiom Space unveiled their NASA spacesuits, in the most far-out collaboration yet.
- Vanessa Friedman
- Updated
- SpaceX
Why SpaceX catching this booster means we’re closer to people on Mars
The achievement had Elon Musk’s engineers in tears of “disbelief” as they prepare for commercial operations, which include sending humans to the red planet.
- Updated
- Kenneth Chang
Morrison heads new space job as global rocket industry heats up
Scott Morrison will be the overseas face of Space Centre Australia, charged with urging Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other firms to launch their rockets from Australia.
- Matthew Cranston
The Aussie who helped discover how to weigh the universe
World renowned astrophysicist Professor Matthew Bailes has won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science.
- Julie Hare
September
Billionaire goes from basement to world’s first private spacewalk
Jared Isaacman planted the seeds of payments company Shift4 in his parents’ basement and used to scrounge for pizza dollars. But at 41, he’s just made history.
- Emily Mason
The Sydney-born astronaut who learnt Russian in eight weeks
Katherine Bennell-Pegg is the first person to train and qualify as an international astronaut under the Australian flag. She’s doing it all for her late mum.
- Simon Evans
August
Challenger disaster was the ultimate failure of corporate culture
An inside account of the doomed space shuttle shows why it remains relevant to understanding poor decision-making 40 years later.
- Aaron Patrick
July
Elon Musk wants to colonise Mars, seriously
The billionaire has directed SpaceX employees to design a Martian city, which he expects could have a million residents in 20 years.
- Kirsten Grind
SpaceX rocket fails, breaks apart in orbit
It’s the first failure of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2016, when one exploded on the launchpad during the loading of propellants for an engine firing test.
- Kenneth Chang
June
Boeing’s new crisis: astronauts left ‘stranded’ by its spacecraft
The Starliner ship has suffered helium leaks and thruster problems. Its delayed return from the International Space Station comes at the worst time for the US company.
- Updated
- Peggy Hollinger
‘What if a cruise ship got in the way?’ Rocket wrapped in red tape
Australia’s first home-grown rocket launch has been slowed down by a nervous regulator, says Gilmour Space Technologies CEO.
- John Davidson
May
Extreme solar storm hits Earth, could bring auroras but disrupt power
An unusually strong solar storm hitting Earth could produce southern lights across Australia, including as far north as Queensland.
- Marcia Dunn
America’s new moon race is billionaire v billionaire
Today’s space race looks in some ways like that of the 1960s; instead of the US v the Soviet Union, it’s Bezos’ Blue Origin v Musk’s SpaceX.
- Loren Grush
April
China set to launch high-stakes mission to moon’s ‘hidden’ side
China has made leaps forward in its lunar exploration, narrowing the technological chasm with the United States and Russia.
- Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo
Millions watch total solar eclipse across Americas
Experts called the eclipse “the most viewed astronomical event in history” as the moon blocked out the sun across North America.
- Updated
- Marcia Dunn
March
A sun in our galaxy is about to explode
There hasn’t been a supernova in this vicinity since German astronomer Johannes Kepler saw one in 1604.
- Jeff Allan
‘The ship has been lost’: SpaceX rocket breaks up on re-entry
Starship soared higher and farther than ever before in a near hour-long test flight that bolstered the spirits of both Elon Musk and NASA.
- Marcia Dunn