NASA

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket lifts off from space launch complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the second Global Positioning System III payload on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Will Space Command help or hurt international relations in space?

The United States recently established Space Command, a military headquarters for space operations to match those in other countries. Northeastern professor Mai’a Cross questions whether the militarization of outer space could create conflict where there hasn’t been any.

by Molly Callahan September 5, 2019

Can you guess which of these items came from the space program? We tried.

Laptops or barcodes? Sneaker insoles or lava lamps? Wireless headphones or GPS? See if you can do better than we did.

by Cam Sleeper July 18, 2019

Mars and beyond

Northeastern students and faculty reflect on the role of humanoid robots in deep space exploration, sending humans to Mars, and the need for reusable spacecraft.

by Gregory Grinnell, Laura Castañón and Hannah Moore July 17, 2019

Is this the Space Race 2.0?

Space exploration “has always been about international cooperation and the betterment of humanity,” says Mai’a Cross, a professor at Northeastern whose newest research focuses on the international collaboration that fostered the Space Race of the 1960s. But some politicians and military officials describe space missions as necessary in order to “prepare for war in space,” she says.

by Molly Callahan July 11, 2019

Here’s how the government shutdown is affecting research at Northeastern

As the United States enters the third week of a partial government shutdown, federally funded research at Northeastern University is so far “minimally affected” and continuing as usual, according to David Luzzi, senior vice provost for research at the university.

by Molly Callahan January 9, 2019

InSight has landed on Mars. Now the real work begins.

The data from InSight will help researchers understand how Mars was formed. These same processes shaped Earth and the other terrestrial planets more than four billion years ago. Northeastern associate professor Taskin Padir walks us through what it means.

by Laura Castañón November 26, 2018

The secret ingredients behind Chicken Lou’s

Northeastern’s signature fast-food restaurant, managed by second-generation proprietor Dave Ferretti, has been feeding students, faculty, and staff for 28 years.

by Ian Thomsen September 12, 2018

Students want to break world record for highest altitude reached by a rocket

The current world record for highest altitude reached by a student-made rocket is 144,000 feet. In August, a team of students, including three from Northeastern, is hoping to break that record and set a new one.

by Sophia Fox-Sowell June 25, 2018

Northeastern students win NASA's Mars Ice Challenge with a robot built to extract water from the Red Planet

For manned Martian missions to be possible, astronauts will need a lot more water than they can carry on a spacecraft. Enter a team of six Northeastern engineering students, whose remote-operated robotic device to extract water from the ice trapped below a simulated surface of Mars brought the world one small step closer to sending people to the Red Planet.

by Allie Nicodemo June 8, 2018

Imagine a human-robot friendship

Doctoral student Murphy Wonsick envisions a world where humans and robots coexist as friends. She spends her days trying to figure out how astronauts and robots can work together to complete dangerous tasks in space. In fact, she’s working on one of the world’s most advanced humanoid robots—Northeastern’s NASA robot Valkyrie.

by Molly Callahan October 19, 2017