The first human Mars explorers won’t have it easy. Every additional day in deep space will increase their exposure to deadly ...

A new era for space propulsion? An ion engine twenty-five times more powerful than NASA's current best model has just been ...

A prototype ion engine that uses lithium vapor as a propellant has aced its first tests, achieving 25 times more power than previous ion engines.

Proving yet again that Star Trek was scarily prescient, NASA has announced that its NEXT ion drive -- NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster -- has operated continually for over 43,000 hours (five years).

CLEVELAND — A small robotic surveyor arrives to explore a near-Earth asteroid. Another robotic spacecraft is returning to Earth with a pristine comet surface sample. Meanwhile, a robotic explorer is ...