China’s Tianwen-2 mission has launched to explore an asteroid that may be a piece of the moon, as well as an active asteroid that acts like a comet.

NASA engineers have miraculously revived the Voyager 1 interstellar probe's backup thrusters — components that hadn't been used since 2004 and were long considered fully defunct. This remarkable feat became necessary because the spacecraft's primary thrusters,

Spacecraft burn tons of fuel and leave behind debris—but a clever technique called aerobraking could fix both problems.

NASA engineers have revived old thrusters on Voyager 1 to prevent a clog from endangering the mission during a planned communications blackout.

"Hello from lunar orbit!" the company said in a post on X.

Tianwen-2 is more than just a scientific sleuth. It is also a technological steppingstone for China's ambitious Tianwen-3 mission.

In 2008, NASA's Phoenix spacecraft made a smooth landing on Mars, completing a nine-month, 422 million-mile journey, setting down in the planet's frigid polar region where scientists hoped to find water. In 2011, The Oprah Winfrey Show broadcast its final original episode after 25 years on the air.

NASA OSIRIS-REx sample collection event at Asteroid Bennu saw the spacecraft plunge its arm into the surface. Find out how deep it went. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center