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VideoVideo: SpaceX Dragon departs space station
The SpaceX Dragon capsule is released from the International Space Station's robotic arm to fly home Tuesday.

NASA presses Congress for more commercial crew funding
The Obama administration has requested more than $1.2 billion from congressional appropriators next year to meet NASA's funding commitments for Boeing and SpaceX's commercial crew ferry spacecraft, and anything less could delay flights of the capsules past 2017.

SpaceX nears pad abort test for human-rated Dragon capsule
SpaceX is finishing up preparations for a major test of a rocket-powered abort system for the company's new Dragon crew ferry spacecraft, targeting launch from Cape Canaveral in March after a pair of Falcon 9 missions in February.

SpaceX confirms first Crew Dragon flights will return to ocean landings
The human-rated Crew Dragon spacecraft being developed by SpaceX will return to Earth under parachutes for splashdowns in ocean, and not execute helicopter-like propulsive touchdowns on land, a SpaceX official confirmed Monday.

Boeing, SpaceX on track for commercial crew flights to station in 2017
NASA expects to spend some $5 billion underwriting development of commercial spacecraft built by Boeing and SpaceX to carry astronauts to and from the space station, ending reliance on the Russians for crew flights and lowering the average cost per seat to around $58 million.
VideoVideo: CATS out of the bag
The CATS payload launched to the International Space Station aboard the most recent SpaceX Dragon cargo craft was installed onto the exterior of the lab complex this week.

NASA outlines why it passed over Sierra Nevada
NASA cited the complexity of Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane and an uncertainty of when the proposed crew transport craft would be ready to fly astronauts to the International Space Station as the primary reasons the agency picked Boeing and SpaceX for lucrative contracts to develop commercial space taxis.

Photos: Lightning shines in the eye of a cyclone
Electrifying photos taken from the International Space Station show flashes of lightning glowing like spotlights in the eye of Tropical Cyclone Bansi in the Indian Ocean.

NASA hopes to replace cargo lost on Antares failure this year
NASA officials say the International Space Station's logistics chain was designed to absorb a launch failure like the mishap that destroyed an Orbital Sciences Corp. cargo craft in October, but pressure is on SpaceX to deliver supplies on time this year.
VideoAstronauts return to US side of space station after leak scare
Concern about a possible ammonia coolant leak Wednesday prompted astronauts on the International Space Station to evacuate the U.S. segment of the complex and shelter in the Russian portion of the outpost while flight controllers scrambled to untangle initially confusing telemetry.