Explore Space News

Space exploration news, NASA mission updates, and astronomy discoveries explained clearly.

19 pieces, grouped by destination and working outward from the Sun. Pick a body on the orrery or scroll.

Orbital periods to scale (Moon 27.3 days, Earth 365 days, Mars 687 days). Sizes, distances and positions are not to scale.

The big picture

The Sun is about 150 million km from Earth.

The whole system at once: the year in space, the missions coming up, and how to read the headlines.

5 pieces about this destination

Where every mission starts.

Our own planet seen from above, the field that shields it, the business of low orbit, and the sky from a UK garden.

6 pieces about this destination

About 384,400 km from Earth, on average.

Artemis, the commercial landers, and the contest over water ice and lunar resources.

2 pieces about this destination

Between about 55 and 400 million km from Earth, depending on where both planets are.

What Mars missions bring back to Earth, keeping both planets clean, growing food there, and plans to settle.

4 pieces about this destination

Past the planets, where the probes still travel.

Beyond the planets: how gravity bends light, and the robotic missions that changed what we know.

2 pieces about this destination