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Cargo ship begins flight to the space station
A Russian freighter packed with fresh supplies for the international space station successfully rocketed away from Earth on Wednesday and immediately began plotting a two-day trek to the orbiting outpost.
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Discovery of most recent supernova in our galaxy
The most recent supernova in our galaxy has been discovered by tracking the rapid expansion of its remains. This result, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array, will help improve our understanding of how often supernovae explode in the Milky Way galaxy.
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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NASA study links Earth impacts to human-caused climate change -- A new NASA-led study shows human-caused climate change has made an impact on a wide range of Earth's natural systems, including permafrost thawing, plants blooming earlier across Europe, and lakes declining in productivity in Africa.
Scientists test lunar breathing system -- Imagine yourself hip-to-hip, shoulder-to-shoulder, inside a room the size of a walk-in closet for eight hours with five people you just met. Does that make you sweat? Or maybe make your breathing a little more animated?
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Taking the temperature of the cosmic background
Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have made the first detection of a carbon monoxide molecule in a galaxy almost 11 billion light years away, a feat that has resulted in the most precise measurement of the cosmic temperature at such a remote epoch.
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Intense testing paved Phoenix road to Mars
When NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander descends to the surface of the Red Planet on May 25, few will be watching as closely as the men and women who have spent years planning, analyzing and conducting tests to prepare for the dramatic and nerve-wracking event known as EDL -- Entry, Descent and Landing. Less than 50 percent of all previous lander missions have made it safely to the surface.
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Additional coverage for subscribers:
 VIDEO:
PRE-LANDING PREVIEW BRIEFING PART 1 | PART 2
MORE:
MARS LANDER PHOENIX VIDEO COVERAGE
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Part of missing matter in the universe discovered
Europe's orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has been used by a team of international astronomers to uncover part of the missing matter in the universe.
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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New water reclamation system headed for duty on station -- International Space Station crews soon will have a new water reclamation system that will recycle wastewater, allowing up to six crew members to live aboard the orbiting laboratory.
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Hubble sees the Antennae Galaxies moving closer
New research on the Antennae Galaxies using the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the Hubble Space Telescope shows that this benchmark pair of interacting galaxies is in fact much closer than previously thought - 45 million light-years instead of 65 million light-years.
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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Send your name to the moon with new lunar mission -- NASA invites people of all ages to join the lunar exploration journey with an opportunity to send their names to the moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Kepler planet mission to send names into space -- How cool would it be to have your name on board the spacecraft that discovers the first known Earth-like planet beyond our solar system? Well, here's your chance.
NASA awards contract for Ares mobile launcher -- NASA's Kennedy Space Center has awarded a contract to Hensel Phelps for the construction of the Ares I mobile launcher for the Constellation Program.
Test for commercial space habitat reaches milestone -- Genesis I, the first test module launched by commercial space habitat developer Bigelow Aerospace, has completed its 10,000th orbit around the Earth. The unmanned module is about to start its third year in space since it ushered in a new era of private space development following its July 12, 2006 launch.
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Astronauts board Discovery for countdown rehearsal
The crew of the shuttle Discovery strapped in Friday for a dress-rehearsal countdown that sets the stage for launch May 31 on a long-awaited flight to deliver Japan's huge Kibo laboratory module to the space station.
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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO:
ASTRONAUTS PRACTICE EVACUATION OF SHUTTLE PLAY
VIDEO:
CREW BOARDS DISCOVERY FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY
VIDEO:
TRAINING SESSIONS AT LAUNCH PAD AND BUNKER PLAY
VIDEO:
CREW NEWS CONFERENCE AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY
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STS-124 VIDEO COVERAGE
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NASA calls on APL to send a probe to the sun
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is sending a spacecraft closer to the sun than any probe has ever gone - and what it finds could revolutionize what we know about our star and the solar wind that influences everything in our solar system.
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Iron 'snow' helps maintain Mercury's magnetic field
New scientific evidence suggests that deep inside the planet Mercury, iron "snow" forms and falls toward the center of the planet, much like snowflakes form in Earth's atmosphere and fall to the ground.
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Saturn does the wave in upper atmosphere
Two decades of scrutinizing Saturn are finally paying off, as scientists have discovered a wave pattern, or oscillation, in Saturn's atmosphere only visible from Earth every 15 years.
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Discovery crew at the Cape for practice countdown
Shuttle Discovery's astronauts flew into Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday afternoon for this week's countdown dress rehearsal and emergency training drills at launch pad 39A.
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STS-124 VIDEO COVERAGE
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Old globular clusters surprisingly young
New results from NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory suggest that globular clusters, the dense bunches of stars found in all galaxies, may be less evolved than previously thought.
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Astronomers discover a new breed of star
Using the Otto Struve Telescope at McDonald Observatory, astronomers at the University of Texas have predicted and confirmed the existence of a new type of variable star: a pulsating carbon white dwarf.
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Stellar time bomb makes scheduled explosion
An international team of astronomers using observations from NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer has discovered a timing mechanism that allows them to predict exactly when a neutron star will unleash its wrath.
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Check out some panoramas created Saturday morning after Discovery arrived atop Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A.
PANORAMA GALLERY
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Space shuttle Discovery rolls out to the launch pad
With four weeks until its planned launch to haul the Japanese science laboratory module up to the space station, shuttle Discovery traveled overnight from the Vehicle Assembly Building to pad 39A.
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IMAGES: DISCOVERY ON THE PAD
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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO:
TIME-LAPSE OF GANTRY ENCLOSING DISCOVERY PLAY
VIDEO:
PAD'S ORBITER ACCESS ARM SWUNG INTO POSITION PLAY
VIDEO:
TIME-LAPSE OF CRAWLER RETREATING AFTER ROLLOUT PLAY
VIDEO:
SHUTTLE DISCOVERY ROLLED TO PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO:
SHUTTLE AND STATION PROGRAM BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO:
STS-124 MISSION OVERVIEW PART 1 | PART 2
VIDEO:
PREVIEW BRIEFING ON MISSION'S SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO:
THE ASTRONAUTS' PRE-FLIGHT NEWS BRIEFING PLAY
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Astronaut Hall of Fame:
Class of 2008
Four former space shuttle commanders -- John Blaha, Bob Cabana, Bryan O'Connor and Loren Shriver -- were inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame on Saturday. It was the seventh group of shuttle crewmembers named to the hall, which has enshrined 70 astronauts.
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Whitson describes rough Soyuz entry and landing
Plunging back into the atmosphere April 19 after a six-month stay aboard the international space station, Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson and Soyuz commander Yuri Malenchenko realized something was very wrong. One of the two modules attached to the crew cabin had failed to separate prior to entry and the spacecraft, moving at some 5 miles per second, slammed into the discernible atmosphere in the wrong orientation.
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Shuttle boss discusses delay to downstream flights
The shuttle Discovery is on track for launch May 31 on a high-priority flight to deliver Japan's huge Kibo lab module to the international space station. But subsequent flights are slipping four to five weeks each because of external tank production issues, and a flight that had been targeted for late this year will slip into early 2009, a senior NASA manager said Thursday.
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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO:
KIBO LABORATORY TRAVELS TO THE LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO:
TRANSPORT CANISTER WITH KIBO ROTATED UPRIGHT PLAY
VIDEO:
CRANE PLACES KIBO MODULE INTO TRANSPORT CANISTER PLAY
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Europe's cargo ship could stay at station a little longer
A team of earthbound engineers and space fliers is methodically completing a checklist of cargo transfers and tests on the Jules Verne space station resupply ship, while European officials await word on whether the craft's stay at the complex could be extended by a month or more.
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Black hole thrown out of its parent galaxy
By an enormous burst of gravitational waves that accompanies the merger of two black holes, a newly formed black hole has been booted out of its parent galaxy at thousands of kilometers per second, confirming theories that extreme ejection events like this can occur and aren't only plausible in supercomputer simulations.
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NASA spacecraft tracks raging Saturn storm
As a powerful electrical storm rages on Saturn with lightning bolts 10,000 times more powerful than those found on Earth, the Cassini spacecraft continues its five-month watch over the dramatic events.
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Compact galaxies in early universe pack a big punch
Imagine receiving an announcement touting the birth of a baby 20 inches long and weighing 180 pounds. Astronomers looking at galaxies in the universe's distant past received a similar perplexing announcement when they found nine young, compact galaxies, each weighing in at 200 billion times the mass of the Sun.
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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Galaxy Evolution Explorer celebrates 5 years in space -- Since its launch five years ago, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer has photographed hundreds of millions of galaxies in ultraviolet light. M106 is one of those galaxies, and from 22 light years away, it strikes a pose in blue and gold for this new commemorative portrait.
World's largest commercial satellite achieves key milestone -- The ICO G1 satellite's large 12-meter antenna reflector was successfully deployed over the weekend. The reflector size enables the increased performance typically required for mobile interactive media services.
GIOVE-B spacecraft in good health following launch -- Europe's GIOVE-B satellite will shortly start its commissioning phase. An initial underperformance of the spacecraft's reaction wheels was traced to a mismatch in software.
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Old Titan launch pad gantry at Cape knocked down
The landscape of Cape Canaveral is changing, a fact illustrated Sunday when a Titan-era gantry was blasted to the ground to clear the historic Air Force launch pad for new commercial rockets.
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IMAGES: COMPLEX 40 TOWER TOPPLING
ARCHIVE: TITAN COVERAGE
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CLOSEUP VIEWS OF THE TOWER DEMOLITION PLAY
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COMPLEX 40 TOWER COMES TUMBLING DOWN PLAY
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Commercial Land Launch mission lofts Israeli satellite
A Zenit rocket inaugurated a Sea Launch spinoff program to offer land-based launch services to medium-class satellite payloads Monday morning, successfully streaking into space through a cloudless blue sky above the plains of Kazakhstan.
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Indian PSLV booster hauls a load of satellites into orbit
An Indian rocket took a 14-minute trip into orbit early Monday, releasing nine satellites from six countries on missions to observe Earth, demonstrate low-cost space technologies and educate students around the world.
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Test craft for Europe's navigation system blasts off
Europe's Galileo space-based navigation system took another step toward fruition with the launch of a second prototype satellite Saturday night, less than a week after the European Parliament approved plans to finance the network with public funds.
FULL STORY - updated
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Shuttle moves to assembly building for May 31 launch
Shuttle Discovery was transferred from its hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Saturday morning where the spacecraft will be hooked up to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters in preparation for rollout to the launch pad.
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DISCOVERY HOISTED FOR ATTACHMENT TO FUEL TANK PLAY
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THE SHUTTLE MOVES TO THE VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY
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OTHER HEADLINES Additional stories today
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Chinese data relay spacecraft put into orbit -- China launched a data relay satellite Friday to serve as a communications link between ground controllers and the country's next human space mission later this year.
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Plan to identify watery Earth-like planets develops
Astronomers are looking to identify Earth-like watery worlds circling distant stars from a glint of light seen through an optical space telescope and a mathematical method developed by researchers at Penn State and the University of Hawaii.
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Unlocking the secrets of a massive black hole
The mechanism by which black holes expel powerful jets of particles at nearly the speed of light has long been speculated, but thanks to new observations of a blazar in action, these theories can now be substantiated.
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Shoulder motor balks on Opportunity rover's arm
A small motor in the robotic arm of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity that began stalling occasionally more than two years ago has become more troublesome recently.
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Plethora of wild galaxies on Hubble's birthday
Today, in celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope's 18th launch anniversary, 59 views of colliding galaxies constitute the largest collection of Hubble images ever released to the public. This new Hubble atlas dramatically illustrates how galaxy collisions produce a remarkable variety of intricate structures in never-before-seen detail.
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VIDEO: HUBBLE LAUNCH COVERAGE
VIDEO: CREW MOVIE
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Lunar mapper will lead NASA's return to the moon
A robotic precursor of resuming human expeditions to the moon will likely be postponed by at least a few weeks from its October launch target, but NASA does not foresee any problems launching the lunar orbiter and high-speed impactor before the end of this year.
FULL STORY
LAUNCH WINDOW CHART
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Crashing into the moon in search of frozen water
Relying on heritage technology derived from parts on previous space missions, a spacecraft on a budget will guide a spent rocket stage on a collision course with the moon early next year to search for signs of permanently frozen water hidden inside craters near the lunar poles.
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Possible Soyuz separation problem under scrutiny
The Russian Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft that carried two space station crew members and a South Korean guest cosmonaut back to Earth Saturday may have started its fiery re-entry with a normally discarded propulsion module still attached officials said Tuesday, putting the craft in an unusual orientation and subjecting the returning space fliers to higher than normal stresses and buffeting.
FULL STORY - updated with Whitson quotes
VIDEO: EXPEDITION 16 COVERAGE
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Mars radar sounding opens up planet's third dimension
The European Space Agency's Mars Express radar sounder, MARSIS, has looked beneath the martian surface and opened up the third dimension for planetary exploration. The technique's success is prompting scientists to think of all the other places in the Solar System where they would like to use radar sounders.
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Cause of last month's Proton failure determined
The Russian State Commission investigating the AMC-14 failure of a Proton Breeze M launch has traced the cause to the rupture of the gas duct between the gas generator and the propellant pump turbine in the Breeze M main engine.
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Station crew OK after Soyuz lands short of target
The Soyuz capsule ferrying space station commander Peggy Whitson, Yuri Malenchenko and South Korean guest cosmonaut So-Yeon Yi back to Earth Saturday made a steeper-than-planned descent, landing nearly 300 miles from the targeted site in Kazakhstan.
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First satellite for Vietnam, another for Brazil launched
Continuing what is supposed to be a banner year with an unprecedented flight rate, the commercial Ariane 5 rocket launched again Friday night, lofting a Brazilian broadcast satellite and Vietnam's first communications spacecraft.
FULL STORY
OUR ARIANE ARCHIVE
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Solar flares set the Sun quaking, satellite shows
Data from the ESA/NASA spacecraft SOHO shows clearly that powerful starquakes ripple around the Sun in the wake of mighty solar flares that explode above its surface. The observations give solar physicists new insight into a long-running solar mystery and may even provide a way of studying other stars.
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Additional launch photos from Atlas 5 flight
More spectacular images have been posted showing the Atlas 5 rocket blasting off Monday afternoon carrying the commercial ICO G1 mobile communications satellite.
IMAGES: MORE LAUNCH PHOTOS
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Stellar birth observed in the galactic wilderness
A new image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows baby stars sprouting in the backwoods of a galaxy -- a relatively desolate region of space more than 100,000 light-years from the galaxy's bustling center.
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Satellite launched to predict communication outages
An experimental Air Force satellite designed to monitor the Earth's ionosphere and foresee impending communication disruptions was successfully deployed into space Wednesday by an Orbital Sciences air-launched Pegasus rocket.
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The official astronaut embroidered patch of space shuttle Endeavour' STS-123 mission to the International Space Station is now available to U.S. customers from our store.
The official astronaut embroidered patch of Atlantis' STS-122 mission that launched the Columbus science lab in February is available to U.S. customers from our store.
