Fifty years ago this weekend, NASA's Mariner 9 probe went into orbit around Mars. This pioneering mission revolutionized our ideas about Mars and, with humans looking to head that way, is a timely reminder of just how utterly inhospitable a place it is.

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Amazon announced today that it is going ahead with its Project Kuiper, its rival to SpaceX's Starlink orbital global internet service, by launching a pair of prototype satellites into low-Earth orbit under an experimental license from the FCC.

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A team at the Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with a concept that would see bacteria shipped to Mars produce rocket fuel and liquid oxygen from atmospheric CO2 to power a spacecraft on its return journey to Earth.

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NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory may have spotted the first exoplanet outside our Milky Way. Located in M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, the giant exoplanet candidate circles a black hole or neutron star 28 million light years from Earth.

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Blood samples taken from Russian cosmonauts before and after long stints on the ISS have revealed elevations of biomarkers that could indicate brain damage, adding to a growing body of research highlighting the deleterious effects of space travel.

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Jezero crater on Mars was chosen as the landing site for the Perseverance rover because satellite images suggested it was once an ancient lake. More direct evidence has now been found, as photos snapped by the rover reveal signs of flash flooding.

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Nearly three years after lifting off from French Guiana, the BepiColombo space probe has now set its sights on Mercury for the first time, completing a "flawless" flyby over the weekend and collecting its first images.

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Innovation4, the first all-private crewed mission into space, has returned to Earth. The Crew Dragon capsule chartered by billionaire Jared Isaacman splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida after three days in orbit.

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The Inspiration4 mission has lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission differs from any previous crewed mission in that it is the first conducted entirely as a private venture.

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Astronomers have detected a strange radio source from near the center of the Milky Way. The signal repeats seemingly at random and can’t be attributed to any known astronomical object, leading the team to consider that it may be something brand new.

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