Dan Koditschek, with the University of Pennsylvania, watches Spirit the robot as it walks from rocks to snow on Mount Hood. (Credit: Courtney Flatt / NWPB) Listen (Runtime 4:20) Read […]Read More
A cross country skier follows a trail on the Sunny M Ranch property in the Methow Valley. (Credit: Courtney Flatt / NW News Network) Listen (Runtime 1:06) Read New tools […]Read More
After nearly 6 months on the International Space Station, Kayla Barron from Richland is back on earth and is visiting her hometown - inspiring kids to think about their future.Read More
The U.S. Forest Service is looking at something different — very different — to improve situational awareness at big wildfires: high altitude balloons.Read More
The storied space telescope that brought you stunning photos of the solar system and enriched our understanding of the cosmos over the past three decades is experiencing a technical glitch.Read More
Stargazers across the Pacific Northwest were treated to quite a light show in late March when the errant reentry of a spent rocket sent fireballs streaking high overhead. The uncontrolled disintegration of the rocket rained debris onto eastern Washington. While the search for mangled rocket parts goes on, the event also provided a great learning opportunity for researchers Read More
Four astronauts who've spent the past six months aboard the International Space Station as part of the first operational mission of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule are back on Earth after splashing down safely on Saturday in the Gulf of Mexico.Read More
An astronaut who flew on one of the most famous space missions of all time has died. Michael Collins, 90, was part of the three-member crew on Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission in 1969. Unlike Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, he never walked on the moon. Collins stayed behind and piloted the command module as it circled above. Because of that, Collins is often Read More
The space agency NASA has chosen a small Tillamook-based aerospace company to design and test robotic balloons for future scientific exploration of Venus. Near Space Corporation is working on the Venus project with some of the same NASA team members currently managing an historic helicopter drone flight on Mars.Read More
A space supply ship carrying some four tons of cargo bound for the International Space Station launched from Virginia on Saturday. The capsule is named for a Black mathematician whose contributions were featured in the Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures.Read More
Perseverance, a six-wheeled, SUV-size vehicle with the most sophisticated robotic astrobiology lab ever launched and an experimental aerial drone aboard, is at the heart of the Mars 2020 mission. It blasted off in July on a 293 million-mile journey. After landing, it immediately got to work, taking a photo of its "forever home."Read More
The test, at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, was part of NASA's Artemis program, a plan to return to the moon in the coming years. NASA's test called for four engines to fire for eight minutes — roughly the time it will take for NASA's long-delayed Space Launch System (SLS) to generate the thrust needed to send the rocket to space.Read More
Four astronauts are scheduled to take a SpaceX capsule to the International Space Station on Saturday. NASA hopes to demonstrate the safety and reliability of regular crew transportation to the ISS.Read More
The breakthrough suggests that water, vital to life on Earth, could be distributed across more parts of the lunar surface than the ice that has previously been found in cold and dark places.Read More
NASA and SpaceX are welcoming home two astronauts who splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico after several months on the International Space Station.Read More
NASA and SpaceX plan to launch astronauts to the International Space Station on Wednesday. It'll be the first time a new kind of spacecraft has launched astronauts into orbit since the space shuttle.Read More
The black hole is roughly 1,000 light-years from Earth — and more than 2,000 light-years closer than the next one known. What's more, scientists say, it may be just "the tip of an exciting iceberg."Read More
The space agency is urging people not to travel to go see astronauts embark on their historic launch from Florida, the first time they will do so in nearly a decade.Read More
The commercial rocket company sent its "Dragon" capsule from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station on Friday for its 20th resupply mission. It's due to arrive at the space station Monday.Read More
Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who was one of NASA's human "computers" and an unsung hero of the space agency's early days, died Monday. She calculated the flight path for America's first crewed space mission and moon landing, and she was among the women profiled in the book and movie Hidden Figures. She was 101.Read More
SpaceX and a rival company are rushing ahead with plans for constellations of thousands of satellites, but regulators might not be ready.Read More
An underwater volcano is thought to have produced a sheet of pumice that stretches 58 square miles.Read More
A half-century ago, America's dreams were realized in space. The power of U.S. innovation and spirit took the Apollo 11 crew to the moon and back. That mission was possible because of a diverse team of engineers, astronauts and mathematicians. It was also possible thanks to the help of one 10-year-old boy who was in the right place at the right time.Read More
Newly restored footage of the historic 1969 moonshot widens the focus to include the hundreds of men and women who made the mission possible. Read More
It's a test flight with only supplies and a test dummy named Ripley aboard. SpaceX wants to demonstrate the potential for a company to carry astronauts into orbit.Read More
The first images of the object, just a few pixels wide, arrived Tuesday morning. Higher-resolution photographs will be sent back to the earth in the coming weeks.Read More
Roman was one of the first female executives at NASA, its first chief of astronomy and she played an instrumental role in making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality. She died on Dec. 25. Read More
The European Space Agency's BepiColombo will take seven years to reach the innermost planet in our solar system, where temperatures at the surface can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit.Read More
When she was a Brownie, Sylvia Acevedo was inspired to earn her science badge. In her new memoir, the Girl Scouts CEO says this experience led directly to her career at NASA.Read More
Russian officials are saying that a tiny leak at the International Space Station was likely caused by a human hand. Now, they're trying to figure out who did it, why they did it and whether it happened in space or on the ground.Read More
The sun is responsible for all life on Earth, but we still have a lot to learn about it. So this summer, NASA is sending the Parker Solar Probe closer to the sun than we have ever been before.Read More
On the evening of March 7, a bright flash, a tremendous boom and a rumble like an earthquake alarmed people in coastal Washington state. Next week, scientists will attempt an underwater recovery of the shattered meteorite that caused all that.Read More
One Northwest researcher is focused on the sustainability of creating a little greenery in the great vacuum of the cosmos. Why? Because with long-term space travel becoming more within reach, astronauts will need to grow food to sustain themselves through long-term travel, and on colonies.Read More
The distance marks a record: the farthest from Earth an image has been taken. Before NASA's New Horizons probe caught these glimpses in December, the 1990 "Pale Blue Dot" image had held the record.Read More
