Kiona Smith-Strickland

 

Kiona Smith-Strickland is a freelance science journalist based in Kansas.

They may be small, but Cubesats launched by the dozen could tackle big jobs.

Coming Soon: Swarms of Space Robots

The next generation of small spacecraft will travel in packs.

Haze layers appear above the horizon of Pluto in this image returned by New Horizons.

New Horizons is Still Only Halfway Through Its Download from Pluto

There are more pictures and data yet to come, as NASA faces a decision on the spacecraft’s future.

Astronaut Ron Garan took this shot of a meteor from the space station during the annual Perseid shower in 2011.

A New Space Station Camera Will Watch Meteors From Above

Looking down on showers like the Perseids can be better than looking up.

A flame in space, as photographed during a BASS (Burning and Suppression of Solids) experiment.

NASA Plans to Light a Fire Inside a Spacecraft, Then Watch What Happens

Relax, it’s being done for science.

Pictures? No problem. But don’t expect much information. A crew tends to the X-37B after it landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in October 2014, after 674 days in orbit.

What’s the X-37 Doing Up There?

The Air Force isn’t saying, so we asked other spaceplane experts.

A little mystery: The Air Force X-37B mini-shuttle gets serviced after its landing at Vandenberg AFB in California last October.

Now We Know at Least Two Payloads on the X-37B

But most everything else about the Air Force spaceplane’s current mission remains secret.

An illumination map of the south polar region of Mercury, based on data returned by MESSENGER. Black areas are in permanent shadow.

MESSENGER Comes To a Crashing End on Thursday

With its mission over, NASA’s Mercury orbiter will slam into the planet it’s been studying for years.

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