The Future (and Past) of Space

2019 is sure to be a busy and exciting year for space. Catch up on some of the biggest stories in space and astronomy, and sign up for The New York Times's Astronomy and Space Calendar to make sure you don't miss a single eclipse or moon landing (both are happening in the first week of January).

By The New York Times

Rocket Launches, Trips to the Moon and More Space and Astronomy Events in 2019
The New York Times - By MICHAEL ROSTON
Just as we’ve caught our breaths from 2018’s exciting and very busy year in space and astronomy, 2019 is already off to a rapid start. Before we finish the first week of this year, we’ll see a Chinese
January 1
NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Is Triumphant in Encounter With the Most Distant Object Ever Visited
The New York Times - By KENNETH CHANG
LAUREL, Md. — Thirty-three minutes into the new year, scientists, engineers and well-wishers here at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory celebrated the moment that NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft
January 1
A Journey Into the Solar System’s Outer Reaches, Seeking New Worlds to Explore
The New York Times - By KENNETH CHANG
In 2015, a NASA spacecraft snapped spectacular photographs of Pluto, forever changing humanity’s view of that world. On Tuesday that same probe, New Horizons, will provide a closeup of the farthest object
January 1
Sync your calendar with the solar system
The New York Times
Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other astronomical and space event that's out of this world.
January 1
How Many Space Stations Does This Planet Need?
The New York Times - By KENNETH CHANG
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — At one end of Bigelow Aerospace’s factory is a mock-up of a gargantuan home for future astronauts. With a unique design — it could be packed into a rocket, then unfurled in space
Dec 27, 2018
How Do You Find an Alien Ocean? Margaret Kivelson Figured It Out
The New York Times - By DAVID W. BROWN
LOS ANGELES — The data was like nothing Margaret Kivelson and her team of physicists ever expected. It was December 1996, and the spacecraft Galileo had just flown by Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. The
Dec 27, 2018
Augmented Reality: Explore InSight, NASA’s Latest Mission to Mars
The New York Times
On Saturday, the InSight spacecraft will head to Mars to listen for marsquakes and study the planet’s structure.
Dec 27, 2018
Neil Armstrong Walked on the Moon. To These Boys, He Was Just Dad.
The New York Times - By KENNETH CHANG
DALLAS — In the summer of 1969, Rick Armstrong was 12 and whacking the baseball in the Houston-area Little League. He was selected to play in the all-star game — but he had to skip it, because he was Cape
Dec 27, 2018
Trolling the Monster in the Heart of the Milky Way
The New York Times - By DENNIS OVERBYE
In a dark, dusty patch of sky in the constellation Sagittarius, a small star, known as S2 or, sometimes, S0-2, cruises on the edge of eternity. Every 16 years, it passes within a cosmic whisker of a mysterious
Dec 27, 2018