NASA Opens a Student Challenge for Moon Base Designs
Student teams can propose solutions for living and working on the Moon.
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Space
18 stories, each available in three English reading levels.
Read space news in English
Space stories often mix future plans with results from earlier missions. Look for dates and verbs such as plans, launched and confirmed before deciding what has actually happened. You can read the same story at another level to compare how the ideas are expressed.
A short reading task and useful words
Try this: Draw a short timeline: what has already happened, what is happening now, and what is only planned? Include one phrase from the story as evidence.
- mission
- a journey or task with a particular purpose
- orbit
- the path an object follows around another object in space
- sample
- a small part collected for examination
Start with guided practice
- NASA Opens a Student Challenge for Moon Base Designs — reading questions, word practice and printable worksheets.
- NASA Crew Completes 378-Day Mars Simulation in Houston — reading questions, word practice and printable worksheets.
Browse the reading practice collection. Choose Level 1 for shorter sentences, or compare the same story at Levels 2 and 3. For a step-by-step method, see how to learn English with news.
NASA Crew Completes 378-Day Mars Simulation in Houston
Four volunteers left a Houston habitat after more than a year testing conditions for a possible future mission to Mars.
Virgin Galactic's New Spaceship Reaches Its Test Base
A carrier aircraft brought Apeiron from Arizona to New Mexico before planned flight tests.
A Galaxy-Mapping Telescope Finds an Unexpected Comet
Euclid images revealed a moving object while the telescope studied distant galaxies.
Japan Launches a Mission to Bring Back Soil from a Mars Moon
MMX has launched; its landing and sample return remain future goals.
Could a Computer Help Scientists Protect Earth from Asteroids?
New models explore a possible defence, with important unanswered questions.
Artemis II shield conclusion followed months of analysis
NASA’s October update described imagery after the April splashdown and a subsequent assessment of re-entry performance.
Perseverance passed Opportunity’s total driving distance
NASA reported 45.22 kilometres on 11 October; human planners and onboard navigation had complementary roles.
NASA sought proposals for commercial space stations
The competition concerned future stations, with proposals due in December and awards expected in spring 2027.
Webb studied the galaxy of a distant radio burst
Radio observations detected the burst; infrared observations helped measure its host galaxy and investigate a possible origin.
Crew-12 returned after an orbital research mission
NASA confirmed the 8 October splashdown. Returning the crew and evaluating scientific results are different milestones.
ESA studied an orbital outpost alongside other options
The preliminary work examined feasibility. It did not approve station construction.
Smile began science after checks, with camera adjustments continuing
ESA’s September update described approval for science operations. The mission’s different instruments have complementary roles.
New Glenn contract entry was not a mission assignment
NASA added the 9×4 launch service to its multi-provider framework. Future orders remained separate decisions.
Starship reached orbit, but returned earlier than planned
Flight 14 deployed 26 satellites on 28 September. Its shortened flight should be distinguished from the original six-orbit plan.
Cardiff’s PRIMA contribution remained part of a developing mission
The university described planned filters and calibration sources. NASA’s Phase B selection was a development step, not a completed launch.
NASA’s ASCENT tests preceded an October launch
September ground tests checked a shared propulsion system. NASA later reported the satellite’s 1 October launch; launch and successful in-orbit demonstration are different milestones.
Archive: NASA Sets April 11 Target for Weather-Delayed Cygnus Cargo Flight
The revised plan put supplies on a Falcon 9; a scheduled launch was not yet a completed flight.