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VideoFleet of Mars probes set to observe comet flyby
An international fleet of five Mars orbiters and two rovers will have ringside seats when a mountain-size comet streaks by on Oct. 19, passing within a scant 87,000 miles of the red planet at a blistering 126,000 mph.

NASA clears commercial crew contractors to resume work
Boeing Co. and SpaceX, selected by NASA last month to carry astronauts to the International Space Station, can resume development of their human-rated spacecraft after officials ordered a work stoppage prompted by a protest by Sierra Nevada Corp., the company left out of the contracts.

NuSTAR discovers brilliant ‘mighty mouse’ pulsar
A NASA space telescope studying X-ray emissions from a nearby galaxy has discovered the brightest pulsar ever detected, the fast-spinning remnant of a collapsed star that shines so intensely it was initially mistaken for a massive black hole, a possible "missing link" between compact stellar-mass black holes and the unseen monsters lurking at the cores of many galaxies.

Galileo launch failure blamed on frozen Fregat fuel line
A design flaw in a Russian Fregat upper stage was responsible for the botched orbital injection of two European Galileo navigation satellites in August, causing hydrazine fuel to freeze inside the rocket's maneuvering system and rendering it unable to point in the right direction during a critical engine burn.

X-37B space planes to move into shuttle hangars
Boeing engineers are outfitting two decommissioned space shuttle hangars at the Kennedy Space Center for the U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane.

H-2A rocket launch in photos
A Japanese weather satellite launched Tuesday aboard an H-2A rocket, beginning a mission to monitor tropical cyclones and storm systems over East Asia and the Western Pacific.

Station crew completes maintenance spacewalk
Working outside the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency crewmate Alexander Gerst successfully moved a failed ammonia pump module to an external stowage platform, completing a task originally planned for a repair spacewalk last December.

H-2A rocket boosts Japanese weather satellite into orbit
Japan has launched a next-generation geostationary weather satellite on the 25th flight of the country's H-2A rocket, deploying an upgraded meteorological observatory critical to the minute-by-minute tracking of tropical cyclones and other storm systems across the Asia-Pacific.

Upgraded Japanese weather satellite set for launch
A space-based weather monitor, equipped with upgraded instruments for more detailed and timely data on tropical cyclones and thunderstorms, is scheduled for launch Tuesday on top of Japan's 25th H-2A rocket.

H-2A rolls out to launch pad
Photos of the H-2A rocket's rollout to the launch pad at the Tanegashima Space Center with the Himawari 8 weather satellite.