U.S. space economy set to blast off in 2019

Jan 2, 2019
Will America be leading the way?
Virgin Galactic's SpaceshipTwo takes off for a suborbital test flight of the VSS Unity on December 13, 2018, in Mojave, California. 
GENE BLEVINS/AFP/Getty Images
One of the few photographs of Neil Armstrong on the moon shows him working on his space craft on the lunar surface. The 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission is celebrated July 20, 1999.
NASA/Newsmakers/Getty Images

When Hollywood producers need to get the future right, they call a futurist

Sep 13, 2018
Hulu releases "The First" tomorrow, a series set in the 2030s about the first human mission to Mars.
Hulu's "The First" imagines what the first mission to Mars might be like.
Courtesy of Paul Schiraldi

What "Armageddon" got right about space drilling, and what it (mostly) didn't

Aug 16, 2018
Little about the 1998 blockbuster is true to life, but mining asteroids and comets is "humanity’s future, I’m pretty convinced of that," one expert says.
From left, Steve Buscemi, Will Patton, Bruce Willis, Michael Duncan, Ben Affleck, and Owen Wilson are on a mission to save Earth from an asteroid in “Armageddon.”
Getty Images/Handout

The International Space Station has an AI assistant. No ... it's not evil

CIMON, a floating AI robot will help astronauts on the International Space Station.
Matthias Biniok with CIMON.
IBM

No one knows how a military Space Force would work, exactly

Jun 26, 2018
The Department of Defense is expected to send a report on the structure of the proposed sixth branch of the military by August.
Astronaut Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. salutes the U.S. flag on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969.
NASA/AFP/Getty Images

Launching a satellite? Watch out for space junk

The amount of debris in space is complicating private satellite launches.
A SpaceX rocket awaits launch in 2017 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Scott Kelly's new mission is on Earth

The astronaut talks about his life and work in science.
Astronaut Scott Kelly says he's proof that someone who is “far from a genius” can become a scientist.
Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images
The International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavour orbit Earth during Endeavour's final sortie on May 23, 2011.
Paolo Nespoli - European Space Agency/NASA via Getty Images

Imagining the everyday economy of the moon

Nov 28, 2017
Andy Weir, author of "The Martian" and now "Artemis," on what colonizing space might look like.
A plane flies past the moon at sunset on March 3, 2015, in London.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images