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VideoVideo: Time lapse of ATV’s final departure from ISS
This time lapse video shows Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle backing away from the International Space Station for the last time Saturday.

Europe’s ATV space freighter bids final goodbye to space station
Europe's fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle departed the International Space Station for the last time Saturday, closing out one of the European Space Agency's flagship programs as the bus-sized spaceship heads for a destructive re-entry Sunday.
VideoRosetta approaches comet 67P for a closer look
The Rosetta spacecraft neared its comet Saturday, targeting a close flyby within four miles of the tiny world's jagged nucleus to gain new up-close views of the comet and taste the growing vaporous cloud surrounding it.

Europe’s last ATV set to depart from space station
A European supply freighter is set to undock from the International Space Station on Saturday, heading for a destructive dive into Earth's atmosphere about 30 hours later after a power system failure forced the cancellation of an experiment to observe the dynamics of the re-entry of a large spacecraft.

Engineers to assess reusability of Europe’s wingless space plane
Back on Earth after a whirlwind journey 20,000 miles around the world, an experimental re-entry demonstrator is on the way to Europe for post-flight inspections aimed at gathering design inputs for future reusable space vehicles.

Photos: Falcon 9 soars into space at sunset
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral on its 15th flight just before sunset Wednesday, putting on a spectacular sky show en route to space with a NOAA satellite to measure the solar wind.

Fire in the hole! Vega fires away from jungle spaceport
Check out photos of a solid-fueled Vega launcher as it zipped away from its launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana, with Europe's IXV mission Wednesday.

Space weather observatory blasts off after 17-year wait
An interplanetary space weather station rocketed away from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday, speeding toward a remote operating post a million miles from Earth to help forecasters warn of intense solar storms.

SpaceX to forgo booster recovery on Wednesday’s launch
SpaceX says it is giving up on landing the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean after Wednesday’s launch of a NOAA space weather observatory due to rough seas in the booster recovery zone off Florida’s East Coast.

European space plane flies around the world on test flight
Europe launched a sleek space plane more than 250 miles above Earth on Wednesday, testing its maneuverability, on-board guidance systems, and a next-generation heat shield as the experimental vehicle glided through the atmosphere toward a pinpoint splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.