The quickest way to recognize how rad Earth is, is to leave it. Every time we send a spacecraft into space, we have to send it with everything it will ever need riding on its back or in its belly.

Voyages into space are among the most iconic endeavors of the 20th and 21st centuries. Spacecraft that have ventured out to this “final frontier” have relayed stunning images and enlightening ...

Radioactive materials have enormous potential as a source of energy, but some isotopes are available in such small quantities that their use as an energy source is limited. In the 1950s, scientists at ...

The US government says a new robot is poised to help it create a reliable, long-term supply chain of plutonium-238, a radioactive material NASA requires to explore deep space. NASA uses Pu-238 to ...

NASA is giving scientists more choices for how to power their future spacecraft to explore the Solar System. Researchers proposing spacecraft ideas for NASA’s Discovery program — an initiative to ...

Biweekly news and analysis from SpaceNews correspondent Andrew Jones on business, politics and technology in the Chinese space industry.. By submitting this form, you ...

WASHINGTON — NASA is facing the prospect of trying to explore deep space without the aid of the long-lasting nuclear batteries it has relied upon for decades to send spacecraft to destinations where ...

A shortage of the particular type of plutonium needed to power deep space probes may stall planned NASA space exploration. Some scientists insist that the U. S. must urgently restart production of ...

Deep space exploration, in which spacecraft travel to the outer reaches of our solar system or beyond, requires a whole lot of power. For NASA, a valuable source of this power is a radioactive ...

It appears that the U.S.'s plutonium-238 shortage is coming an end. The radioisotope is crucial for fueling long-term deep space missions, but as of 2017, a shortage was on the horizon. But ...

NASA's Cassini probe at Saturn will be destroyed on September 15. The mission is ending to prevent losing control of the robot and contaminating watery moons that might harbor alien life. A rare and ...

A Russian atomic scientist surrendered eight containers filled with arms-grade nuclear material to police on Tuesday after keeping it in his garage for eight years, Russian media reported. Now he ...