space exploration

In a rare display of continued cooperation amidst a tense geopolitical climate, a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a joint Russian-American crew has successfully launched and docked with the International Space Station (ISS).

An Australian polar adventurer has safely returned to Earth after completing a historic spaceflight over both the north and south poles. Eric Philips, along with three other private astronauts, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast on Friday morning (Saturday AEDT), concluding a three-and-a-half-day mission aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

An Australian company is set to make history by attempting the first-ever cultivation of a mushroom crop in orbit. FOODiQ Global, an innovative firm specializing in sustainable food solutions, will launch its experiment aboard SpaceX’s Fram2 mission, scheduled to lift off from Kennedy Space Center in early April. The experiment will focus on growing nutrient-rich oyster mushrooms in microgravity, aiming to determine whether these versatile fungi can thrive in space conditions.

In the quest to understand life beyond Earth, Venus has long been an enigma. Despite its inhospitable surface conditions, this “sister planet” of Earth may have once enjoyed a more temperate climate—and perhaps even harboured life. Now, a team of researchers has developed a groundbreaking equation that could help us determine the probability that life ever arose on Venus, and what that might reveal about the potential for life on other rocky exoplanets.

A spectacular partial solar eclipse is set to sweep across the Northern Hemisphere this weekend, promising a mesmerizing display as the moon takes “bites” out of the sun. The event will be visible across Europe, western Africa, eastern North America, and northern Asia, with the most dramatic effect expected in the northeastern United States, Greenland, and eastern Canada.

After spending 270 days in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS), veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have safely returned to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule. The splashdown off the coast of Florida marked the end of a challenging, yet groundbreaking, nine-month mission that has provided valuable insights into how prolonged exposure to space affects the human body. While both astronauts emerged from the capsule smiling and waving, experts warn that the readaptation process to Earth’s gravity will be far from smooth.

A groundbreaking new 3D map of the universe is challenging our current understanding of cosmic forces. Developed from data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) at the Mayall Telescope in Arizona, this map—detailing information on more than 14 million galaxies—offers scientists an unprecedented view of the cosmos. The latest observations suggest that dark energy, the mysterious force believed to drive the accelerated expansion of the universe, may be weakening over time, a finding that could upend the long-held Lambda-CDM model of cosmology.

US astronauts Sunni Williams and Barry Wilmore, currently stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for an unprecedented nine months, are finally slated to return to Earth. Their unplanned extended mission, which was originally intended to last only one week, was forced to continue for 290 days after concerns with the return vehicle—the Boeing Starliner-1—led NASA to abort their scheduled return. Although they do not hold the record for the longest continuous stay in orbit (a title held by cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 days on the Soviet Mir station), Williams and Wilmore now set the record for the longest unplanned spaceflight by US astronauts. This unique situation raises critical questions about the potential mental and physical effects that may arise from such an unexpected extension in space.