Designing a Tiny Home to Orbit the Moon

NASA wants to build another space station — except this one won’t live in a close orbit around Earth.

Sep 13th, 2018

Within the last year, NASA has begun planning for a much smaller astronaut outpost, a new destination dubbed the Gateway. The idea is for this space station to serve as a place for astronauts to live and train for excursions to and from the lunar surface. In this episode of Space Craft, Loren Grush heads to Lockheed Martin to visit a mockup of one of these space habitats and see what living in it might actually feel like.

A 2016 photo of a diabolical ironclad beetle.

Beetle Armor Gives Clues to Tougher Planes

The diabolical ironclad beetle can withstand being crushed by forces almost 40,000 times its body weight.

The Osiris-Rex spacecraft touches the surface of asteroid Bennu, Oct. 20, 2020.

Spacecraft Sent Asteroid Rubble Flying

Footage of the touch-and-go operation raised hopes that Osiris-Rex successfully collected samples.

United Airlines planes at Newark Liberty International Airport, Newark, N.J., July 1, 2020.

Nonprofit App Aims to Help Unblock Global Air Travel

CommonPass could make it easier for international passengers to show they've complied with COVID-19 testing requirements.

The Osiris-Rex spacecraft's primary sample collection site, named 'Nightingale,' on the asteroid Bennu.

Spacecraft Touches Asteroid for Rare Rubble Grab

If successful, Osiris-Rex will return the samples in 2023.

A crowd gathers outside Spaceport America for a dedication ceremony.

Window Opens for Virgin Galactic's Final Round of Testing

The upcoming test will mark the third space flight for Virgin Galactic and the first from New Mexico.

General manager of the Nokia factory in Romania.

Nokia to Build Cell Network on the Moon

The 4G communications system will be deployed on a lunar lander to the moon's surface in late 2022.

A Boeing 737 Max jet.

American Plans Flights with Boeing 737 Max by Year-End

The airline may soon find out how many travelers are reluctant to fly on the 737 Max.

Satellite dishes inside Kevlar domes at the Kester Satellite Ground Station in Kester, Belgium, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. This week, the site at Kester, which has been in use for decades but was totally overhauled in 2014, is set to fall under a new orbit, when NATO announces that it is creating a space center to help manage satellite communications and key parts of its military operations around the world.

NATO to Set Up New Space Center

The agency hopes to stay ahead amid concerning reports of increasingly aggressive behavior in space by China and Russia.

This artist’s rendering shows OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descending toward asteroid Bennu to collect a sample of the asteroid’s surface.

How Difficult is NASA's Asteroid Attempt?

It's like parallel parking a 15-passenger van into a pair of parking spaces surrounded by two-story boulders.

Apian founders Hammad Jeilani (right) and Christopher Law.

Space Agency Backs Medical Drone Delivery Project

The hybrid drones can carry up to 4.4 pounds and fly about 60 miles.

The asteroid Bennu seen from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

Spacecraft Attempts to Sample Ancient Asteroid

Osiris-Rex will descend to the treacherous, boulder-packed surface of asteroid Bennu.

Image taken by the Mercury Transfer Module’s Monitoring Camera 2 showing its closest approach to Venus.

Space Probe Makes Venus Fly-by on Way to Mercury

BepiColombo took a black-and-white snapshot of the planet from a distance of more than 10,000 miles.