Latest fromSpace

Trip to Mars via Big Brother
The creator of 'Big Brother' is to turn the "world's toughest job interview" - for a one-way ticket to Mars - into the ultimate reality show.

To Earth with love: Astronaut's NZ pic
A German astronaut who used to study at a NZ university has tweeted a picture of Banks Peninsula from high above Earth.

SpaceX CEO Musk launches tweet war
SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk has accused one of his main competitors of hiring a high-ranking Air Force acquisitions official in exchange for awarding a lucrative contract without competition.

Space tourists go for G-force test tumble
26 passengers, about to embark on a zero gravity journey aboard a Boeing 727 plunging and soaring in 3660m arcs over the North Atlantic.

Earth under fire from asteroids
Between 2000 and 2013, the Earth was hit by 26 asteroids that exploded with a force of between one and 600 kilotons – an average of one every six months. The asteroids weren't detected in space and only detonated in Earth's atmosphere. The B612 Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes.

What in the world would we do without satellites?
Most people don't realise that mobile phones, the internet, ATM machines and stock markets, many farms, and even emergency services rely on satellites.

Astronauts on new mission to warn of asteroid 'cosmic roulette'
As members of an elite band of cosmic explorers, they are among the few to have gone beyond the final frontier and looked down on the Earth from space.

Blood moon: Best view on East Coast
Star gazers on the east coast of the North Island have had the best view of the blood moon tonight, MetService says.

Planet no longer butt of jokes
Uranus - the planet with the unfortunate-sounding name - has long been the butt of jokes.

Blood moon's lunar loonies
Apocalypse-mongerers are greeting a fairly rare (but foreseeable) astronomical event as the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy of global catastrophe.

Twin mission to study the effects of space travel
Nasa has revealed that one twin will be put in a rocket and the other kept on the ground as part of a study on the effects of orbiting the Earth.

The end is nigh, says Nasa
Modern civilisation is heading for collapse within a matter of decades, according to a scientific study funded by Nasa.

Scientists to use giant lasers to blast away space debris
Scientists in Australia say they have begun work on a project that will see lasers fired from Earth to blast away the thousands of tonnes of space debris orbiting our planet.

NASA's real-life 'Gravity'
Following the release of Oscar-winning film Gravity, NASA has released a series of photographs depicting the 'real-life Gravity'. Including photos on the International Space Station, Space Shuttle, NASA astronauts and various images of Earth captured from space.

Brilliant Venus tricks eye with special glow
Scientists have finally come up with an explanation for a visual illusion that was first identified in the 16th century by Galileo Galilei.

Rocket travel almost ready - Branson
British billionaire Richard Branson said his Virgin Galactic venture is on track to carry its first fare-paying passenger to the edge of space this year.

What's life like on the red planet?
If your body was laid bare to the alien environment of Mars, the vacuum of space would boil every fluid in it, then freeze-dry your remains.

Hubble: Amazing new galaxy
A newly released Hubble Space Telescope mosaic image shows the nearby spiral galaxy M83 in rich detail, Also known as the Southern Pinwheel, the galaxy lies 15 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra. Bold magentas and blues indicate the galaxy blazes with star formation, and the galactic panorama depicts stellar birth and death on a vast scale of 50,000 light-years. courtesy Space.com

Virgin Galactic takes off
On the 10th of January 2014, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo completed it's third powered test flight. In command on the flight deck for the first time under rocket power was Virgin Galactic's Chief Pilot Dave Mackay.

NASA: Tour of the Moon
Although the moon has remained largely unchanged during human history, our understanding of it and how it has evolved over time has evolved dramatically. Thanks to new measurements, we have new and unprecedented views of its surface, along with new insight into how it and other rocky planets in our solar system came to look the way they do.

NASA: Alien Atmospheres
Since the early 1990's, astronomers have known that extrasolar planets, or "exoplanets," orbit stars light-years beyond our own solar system. Although most exoplanets are too distant to be directly imaged, detailed studies have been made of their size, composition, and even atmospheric makeup - but how?

Ants board the International Space Station
A colony of ants have set up home in the International Space Station as part of an experiment to see how their behavior changes in an environment of low gravity.

Space mission like landing a fly on a bullet
It has been "sleeping" quietly in space for more than two and a half years.