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Japanese cargo ship reaches space station
A Japanese cargo ship loaded with more than 10,000 pounds of supplies and equipment, including a new set of solar array batteries, was captured by the International Space Station’s robot arm early Thursday to wrap up a trouble-free rendezvous.
SpaceX promises details of “private passenger” moon flight Monday
A year-and-a-half after announcing plans to launch two private citizens on a flight around the moon using the company's Falcon Heavy rocket and Dragon capsule, SpaceX posted a tweet late Thursday announcing apparently revised plans to launch a "private passenger" on a moon flight using SpaceX's new BFR rocket.
Station commander flatly denies any crew involvement in Soyuz leak
The head of the Russian space agency caused a stir last week when he said a hole drilled through the side of a Soyuz ferry ship docked to the International Space Station was the result of a deliberate act, "either on Earth or in space." Station commander Drew Feustel said Tuesday it most certainly did not happen in orbit.
Russians investigate cause of Soyuz leak, focus on human error
Ruling out a strike by space debris or a micrometeoroid, Russian engineers say a small now-plugged leak in a Soyuz crew ferry ship docked to the International Space Station was the result of a hole drilled into the wall of the spacecraft's upper compartment, an apparent case of human error.
Station crew faces busy schedule as commercial crew schedule ramps up
An impromptu repair job Thursday appears to have stopped a leak in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station, and the crew was back on its normal schedule Friday carrying out research and making preparations for the arrival of a Japanese cargo ship next month.
Pence rallies Johnson Space Center workers with promise of moon missions
In what came across as a combination pep rally and old-time revival, Vice President Mike Pence asked flight controllers, engineers and astronauts at the Johnson Space Center Thursday to "rededicate" themselves to carrying out the Trump administration's drive to establish a permanent U.S. presence around the moon in the early 2020s before eventual voyages to Mars.
Engineers still hopeful Mars rover will wake up after dust storm
Flight controllers have not heard from NASA's Opportunity Mars rover since June 10 when an increasingly severe global dust storm blocked out the sun, preventing its solar arrays from recharging the robot's batteries. But the dust storm is finally abating and engineers are hopeful the long-lived rover will wake up and phone home in the next few weeks.
NASA launches Parker Solar Probe on historic mission
Running a day late, a United Launch Alliance heavy-lift Delta 4 rocket thundered away from Cape Canaveral early Sunday, boosting NASA's $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe into space on a daring seven-year mission to "touch the sun" with repeated trips through the star's blazing outer atmosphere.
Parker Solar Probe cleared for launch to ‘touch the sun’
NASA managers Thursday cleared the $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe for launch early Saturday on a daring mission to "touch the sun," repeatedly flying through its outer atmosphere to find out why the blazing corona is millions of degrees hotter than our star's visible surface.
Government study looks to improve planning for possible asteroid impact
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is spearheading a 10-year plan to improve detection of near-Earth asteroids and comets that could crash into Earth and to expand research into possible countermeasures to deflect an incoming body if detected in time, officials said Wednesday.