Rocket science got a bit more science-fiction-like as RocketStar announces it has successfully demonstrated a new ion drive that incorporates nuclear fusion. It's not the sort of fusion that powers ...

Astra Space says it’s made a deal with Tukwila, Wash.-based LeoStella to provide multiple electric propulsion systems for LeoStella’s small satellites, with deliveries due to begin later this year.

What do scanning electron microscopes and satellites have in common? On the face of things, not much, but after seeing [Zachary Tong]’s latest video on liquid metal ion thrusters, we see that they ...

NASA is launching a spacecraft destined to slam into an asteroid as part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission tonight, from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Its purpose ...

The BepiColombo Mercury probe is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The probe is intended to study Mercury's magnetic field, ...

A spacecraft thruster that relies on iodine has been successfully tested in an orbiting satellite (Nature 2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04015-y). The propulsion system is a form of ion drive, which ...

Over 14,000 pieces of junk are clogging up low Earth orbit, but this number could be reduced by a new invention that involves a satellite using the plasma exhaust of its ion engine to knock dangerous ...