In Australia, space defence gets billions of dollars in funding, and commercial projects get hundreds of millions. Space science gets only $2 million a year.
NASA has only mapped 40% of the potentially dangerous asteroids that could crash into Earth. New projects will boost that number, and upcoming missions will test tech that could prevent collisions.
The International Space Station is run collectively by the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada.
NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center/Flickr
What happens to the International Space Station when tensions on Earth rise? A space policy expert explains how the ISS is run and how Russian aggression has threatened its operation in the past – and now.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari (L) and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa perhaps need to extend their hand shakes into the outer space.
Photo by Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images)
With about 200 orbital launches scheduled and ambitious missions on everything from lunar bases to the search for life in the works, there’s a lot to watch in 2022. An astronomer explains the highlights.
Clouds, hellish temperatures, endless nights? Characterizing the atmosphere of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the sun, is a formidable task.
Some stars travel at high speeds through the universe and sometimes leave spectacular clouds of dust and gas in their wake.
NASA, ESA and R. Sahai (NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Hypervelocity stars were discovered only 15 years ago and are the closest things in existence to real shooting stars. They travel at millions of miles per hour, so fast that they can escape from galaxies.
The Earth spins as it orbits the Sun. Elements of this image furnished by Nasa.
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