International Space Station

Falcon 9 rocket destroyed in launch mishap

June 28, 2015 William Harwood

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo ship loaded with more than 4,000 pounds of supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station — including a critical docking adapter needed by future U.S. crew ships — broke apart in a shower of debris shortly after launch Sunday.

Falcon 9 rocket passes last major preflight test

June 26, 2015 Stephen Clark

Ground crews plan to load the final cargo into SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship Saturday after the capsule’s Falcon 9 rocket booster briefly fired up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral for a flight readiness check.

Cosmonaut from Kazakhstan to fly on Soyuz in September

June 25, 2015 Stephen Clark

Russia’s space agency says a Kazakh cosmonaut will fly to the International Space Station on 10-day mission in September, replacing British singer Sarah Brightman, who backed out of the mission in May.

Astronaut Scott Kelly looks down on aurora lights

June 24, 2015 Stephen Clark

From a perch more than 250 miles up, astronaut Scott Kelly got a bird’s-eye view of this week’s spectacular auroral display that enraptured skywatchers around the world.

Photos: Space crew welcomed home after 199-day mission

June 12, 2015 Stephen Clark

Three space station residents crammed inside a capsule smaller than a compact car landed on the austere plans of Kazakhstan on Thursday, returning to Earth for their first taste of gravity and whiff of nature in nearly seven months.

U.S.-Russian-Italian crew returns to Earth

June 11, 2015 William Harwood

A Russian cosmonaut, a NASA astronaut and an Italian wrapping up her first space flight boarded a Russian Soyuz ferry craft early Thursday, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth, landing safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out an extended 200-day mission.

Three station fliers set for return to Earth

June 10, 2015 William Harwood

Three space station crew members packed up for a fiery return to Earth Thursday, wrapping up a nearly 200-day mission that was extended one month at the last minute because of a Russian rocket failure in April that threw a wrench into the lab’s crew rotation schedule.