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Managers set Oct. 13 for first Antares launch in two years
NASA and Orbital ATK officials have set Oct. 13 as the target date for the first Antares launch in nearly two years, giving approval for ground crews to load final cargo into the mission's Cygnus supply carrier heading for the International Space Station.
Dramatic views of Hurricane Matthew taken Monday from the space station
The International Space Station flew over Matthew on Monday, the dangerous Category 4 hurricane packing 140 mph winds.
Rosetta’s last photos of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Just before settling to a soft crash landing Friday, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft captured close-range images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, peering into a stadium-sized pit and recording a final dataset to keep scientists busy long after the mission's end.
Rosetta mission ends with comet touchdown
Europe's Rosetta mission ended its 12-year mission Friday with a slow-speed belly-flop on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, concluding an interplanetary odyssey that gave humanity a first close-up introduction to a class of objects which has stimulated imaginations for millennia.
Live coverage: Rosetta’s final hours
Europe's Rosetta spacecraft closed out a historic 4.9-billion-mile journey Friday with a slow-speed crash into the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the tiny world it has studied for the last two years, capturing some of the mission's best science data to help unravel the inner workings of the comet. Confirmation of the crash landing arrived on Earth at 1119 GMT (7:19 a.m. EDT).
Video: Rosetta scientist Matt Taylor on the end of mission
Astronomy Now speaks with Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist, at the European Space Agency's mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, about the plan to crash land the spacecraft on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Rosetta spacecraft heads for comet crash landing
The European Space Agency's $1.6 billion Rosetta spacecraft closed in Thursday for a deliberate crash landing on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko early Friday, a slow-motion kamikaze plunge to bring the enormously successful mission to an end after more than two years of unprecedented close-range observations.
China developing mission to return samples from far side of the moon
If China's lunar exploration program goes according to plan, scientists could send a robotic lander to pick up samples from the far side of the moon and return them to Earth by the early 2020s, a top Chinese space official said.
Possible water plumes spotted above Europa
The Hubble Space Telescope has again spotted what appear to be towering plumes of water vapor erupting from Jupiter's moon Europa, hinting that future spacecraft may be able to sample the hidden sea, a possible abode of life, without having to drill through miles of rock-hard ice, researchers said Monday.
NASA to have limited role in SpaceX’s planned Mars campaign
Expertise, input and advice from seasoned NASA engineers will improve SpaceX's chances of nailing the first commercial landing on Mars as soon as late 2018, a senior space agency official said Wednesday, but Elon Musk's space transport company will likely seek more independence from U.S. government support on later expeditions to the red planet.