space exploration

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NASA Vision Still Cloudy on Post-Shuttle Strategy

Gabby Giffords and President Obama exemplify the split

(Newser) - Whenever Endeavour manages to blast off, it's bound to be a grand spectacle that will no doubt recall NASA's glory days. But the Wall Street Journal warns that the pomp should not obscure fundamental questions about the agency's future. Consider the two most prominent spectators who were...

US, EU May Launch Single Mars Rover

NASA, ESA discuss combining missions

(Newser) - American and European space agencies trying to reconcile their Mars ambitions with their budgets are stepping up cooperation. NASA and ESA had planned to send two rovers to Mars for a tandem mission in 2018, but they're now considering combining functions and sending a single rover. America's Max-C rover is...

Discovery Docks Final Time at Space Station

Shuttle's last mission going smoothly

(Newser) - Space shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station today, making its final visit before being parked at a museum. "What took you guys so long?" asked ISS commander Scott Kelly. Discovery should have come and gone last November, but was grounded by fuel tank cracks until yesterday's liftoff.

Private Firm to Launch Moon Rover

Astrobotic plans to sling robot at moon in 2013

(Newser) - Rovers aren’t just NASA’s purview anymore. In what would be a major milestone for the private space industry, Astrobotic Technology says it’s going to land a solar-powered robot on the moon—a feat that would earn the company a $24 million piece of the Google Lunar X...

NASA Plans to Send Men to Mars, Leave Them There

 NASA Plans to Send 
 Men to Mars, Leave 
 Them There 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 27, 2010 5:00 PM CDT

NASA Plans to Send Men to Mars, Leave Them There

Hundred Year Spaceship could hit other planets, too

(Newser) - NASA is hatching an audacious plan to send astronauts into space to colonize Mars and other planets—and never return. The project, known as the Hundred Year Starship, has already received more than $1.5 million in funding, the Daily Mail reports, though that’s a small fraction of what...

Dad, Son, iPhone Grab Awesome Earth Shots

Jerry-rigged contraption gets out-of-this-world video

(Newser) - A high-flying Brooklyn father-and-son team have captured among the most impressive amateur video ever of the stratosphere using an HD video camera, iPhone, and a weather balloon. Views from as high as 100,000 feet (19 miles) show the curvature of the Earth as the balloon rocks back and forth...

Space Probe Visits Biggest Asteroid Yet

Europe's Rosetta snapping photos of mysterious Lutetia

(Newser) - The European Space Agency is pulling off a nifty feat 280 million miles from home. Its comet-chasing space probe Rosetta is making a flyby of the biggest asteroid ever visited by a spacecraft, reports the BBC . Rosetta will be sending back photos of Lutetia, which was first spotted 150 years...

Yank Blasts Off With Cosmonauts

Team will join crew at international space station

(Newser) - A Russian rocket blasted off from a space center in southern Kazakhstan today, transporting a NASA astronaut, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, and two Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station. The team will join a Russian commander, a NASA astronaut, and a Japanese astronaut on board the station when they dock...

Moon Trash Declared National Treasure

Calif. aims to preserve Apollo urine containers, space boots

(Newser) - California has named the remains of the Apollo 11 mission—including urine containers and space boots—a state historical resource. Experts in the nascent field of space archeology worry that, without preservation, what they call a "sacred site of world history" might be looted by future missions or space...

NASA Moon-Shot Cities Blast Obama Cancellation

Cuts seen as threat to 'American spirit'

(Newser) - In cities where jobs depend on the NASA back-to-the-moon program, outraged locals see President Obama's move to shelve the program as a threat not only to the local economy but also to the American spirit of exploration. "People here care about going to the moon. The last thing they...

NASA Finds Lots of Water on Moon

Rocket probe discovers large amounts of ice

(Newser) - A NASA probe has turned up water on the moon. Lots of water. “We practically tasted it with the impact,” said a geologist. The discovery—made last month after the space agency blasted the probe into the moon to study the debris—raises the chances of one day...

NASA Will Try to Free Rover Stuck on Mars

Spirit has been in a sand trap since April

(Newser) - Help is on the way, rover. NASA will attempt to free the Mars rover Spirit from its sand-trap prison on Monday. The plucky machine got stuck in April—“the equivalent of falling through the ice over a frozen pond," says a NASA official. Spirit has been exploring Mars...

NASA Scrubs Rocket's Test Flight

It may try tomorrow if weather permits

(Newser) - NASA's newest rocket will remain on the launch pad today because of clouds and high winds. Officials are deciding whether to try again tomorrow morning. Launch controllers tried repeatedly to get the Ares I-X rocket flying and got to within two-and-a-half minutes before calling it off. Minor problems stalled the...

NASA Crashes Probes Into Moon

Intentional crashes are part of hunt for water

(Newser) - NASA has successfully bulldozed two spacecraft into the moon's south pole in a search for hidden ice, but without the promised live photos. First, a 2.2-ton empty rocket hull smacked the moon's south pole at 7:31am. Four minutes later, the camera-laden space probe made its plunge to examine...

Send Astronauts to Mars —and Leave Them There

Why a one-way ticket is the best way to the red planet

(Newser) - The most feasible way to get humans on Mars is to offer retirement-age astronauts one-way tickets to live out their last days on the red planet. Say what? It's not as crazy as it sounds, writes scientist Lawrence Krauss in the New York Times, who believes his plan would solve...

NASA Can't Afford to Visit Moon by 2020

(Newser) - With all the hoopla of the Apollo anniversary safely behind us, a White House panel is ready to deliver a sobering assessment of the nation's current moon plans: They're too expensive. The panel, set up by President Obama to review NASA's human space flight program, says the agency's budget is...

International Cast Crowds Space Station

(Newser) - The International Space Station is more international than it's ever been before. With a full 13 astronauts aboard—six regular crew members and seven from the visiting Endeavor shuttle—the station has its biggest human payload ever, including representatives from all five of the top station partners. “It’s...

40 Years On, Armstrong Remains an Enigma

(Newser) - Forty years ago today Neil Armstrong strode across the surface of the moon and became the most famous man in the galaxy. Then he disappeared—leaving NASA for a university job, attending almost no public functions, and refusing nearly all interview requests. "Neil was very much the same person...

At Last, Endeavour Reaches ISS
 At Last, Endeavour Reaches ISS 
Jul 17, 2009 1:58 PM CDT

At Last, Endeavour Reaches ISS

Shuttle arrives nearly a month late for construction mission

(Newser) - Space shuttle Endeavour docked today at the International Space Station, an important milestone in its oft-delayed mission, Space.com reports. The crew is scheduled to board the ISS later today. When the Endeavour's seven astronauts climb on, they will push the station's total population to a record-high 13.

Plan to Crash $100B Space Station Draws Fire

(Newser) - It’s the largest spacecraft mankind has ever built, it’s cost the taxpayers and US allies $100 billion, and in a few years, NASA intends to crash the International Space Station into the Pacific Ocean, letting it burn up in the atmosphere en route. The station is nearly complete,...

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