Space

Join us in this Supercut as we follow the extraordinary story of NASA's Spirit rover - a machine that defied all expectations on Mars. Launched in 2003 with a 90-sol mission plan, Spirit explored the Martian surface for an astonishing 6 years, surviving brutal conditions it was never designed for. Discover how this resilient little rover continuously overcame the impossible to make countless remarkable discoveries on the red planet.

A Kiwi-built amateur rocket is believed to have set a record as not just the country's first but one of the fastest launched into space — all with home brewed beer and gin onboard.

Meraki II, a 4-metre long rocket, launched near Arthur's Pass on April 19, reaching a peak altitude of 121.6km.

The two-stage rocket travelled at mind-boggling speeds of up to Mach 5.6, or around 1.9 kilometres a second — fast enough to cover the distance between Cape Reinga and Bluff in just over 12 minutes.

"It's the first successful amateur non-US spaceshot, and the new velocity record-holder"

Is frozen water scattered in systems around other stars? Astronomers have long expected it is, partially based on previous detections of its gaseous form, water vapor, and its presence in our own solar system.

Now there is definitive evidence: Researchers confirmed the presence of crystalline water ice in a dusty debris disk that orbits a Sun-like star 155 light-years away using detailed data known as spectra from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. (The term water ice specifies its makeup, since many other frozen molecules are also observed in space, such as carbon dioxide ice, or “dry ice.”) In 2008, data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope hinted at the possibility of frozen water in this system.

Spacecraft are expensive and intricately engineered machines designed to perform complex missions in harsh space environments. They're costly and require a long time to design and build. Due to their uniqueness and high value, and the need to keep them sterilized, they're assembled in clean rooms that limit the amount of dust and microbes. New research shows that microbes are adapting to these clean rooms and learning how to thrive in them.

Saturn’s moon Titan is an intriguing world cloaked in a yellowish, smoggy haze. Similar to Earth, the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen and has weather, including clouds and rain. Unlike Earth, whose weather is driven by evaporating and condensing water, frigid Titan has a methane cycle.

Analyzing gravity data collected by spacecraft orbiting other worlds reveals groundbreaking insights about planetary structures without having to land on the surface.

Using archival data from the mission, launched in 1989, researchers have uncovered new evidence that tectonic activity may be deforming the planet’s surface.

Assembled from 6 overlapping WATSON images using MS-ICE.

The WATSON camera is mounted on the turret of rover's 2 meter long robotic arm.

A wider view can be assembled, once all the images are returned to Earth.

The images were acquired on sol 1500 (May 10, 2025)

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Part of a Soviet spacecraft is expected to crash back down to Earth this weekend, with experts still unsure of where it will land.

Kosmos 482 was launched in March 1972 on a Soyuz rocket a few days after the Venera 8 atmospheric probe, and was thought to have a similar purpose. Intended to reach Venus, it failed to escape low Earth orbit and instead broke into four pieces.

Now, Kosmos 482’s lander probe is expected to come down to Earth with a bump. Marek Ziebart, professor of space geodesy at University College London, said the situation was unusual, noting de-orbited satellites tended to burn up in the planet’s atmosphere owing to drag.

However, that is unlikely to be the case for Kosmos 482 – a spacecraft that was designed to withstand Venus’s extreme conditions, such as its acidic atmosphere and extreme heat. “Anything we try to send Venus has to be armour plated,” said Ziebart.

It is not the first part of Kosmos 482 to do so: some components landed in New Zealand soon after the launch. According to Nasa, the lander probe contained a heat shield and a parachute to help it land. However, experts said these may have been compromised over time.

While the altitude of Kosmos 482 has gradually decreased, quite when it will crash to Earth remains unclear. Nasa said it was expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere some time from 9 to 10 May.