NASA plans to repair a Mars spacecraft that was grounded in December because of a leak in its primary science instrument, putting the mission back on track for another launch attempt in 2018, the U.S. space agency said on Wednesday. The spacecraft, a satellite... More »
KENT, Wash. Privately owned Blue Origin is years ahead of competitor Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Ltd (AJRD.N) in developing a rocket engine to replace now-banned Russian engines used on rockets launching U.S. military missions, company founder Jeff Bezos said ... More »
KENT, Wash. Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin expects to begin crewed test flights of its reusable suborbital New Shepard vehicle next year and begin flying paying passengers in 2018, Bezos told reporters on Tuesday. Bezos’ remarks, made during the first e... More »
WASHINGTON Orbital ATK Inc on Monday said it hopes to announce within the next six to eight weeks its first contract for a new “in space” service aimed at extending the life and uses of aging commercial satellites in geosynchronous orbit. Tom Wilson, vice pres... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. At the last second, Elon Musk’s SpaceX scrubbed plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, again delaying an attempt to put an satellite into orbit and then land the vehicle’s first stage intact on a sea platform, a step that may eventua... More »
BEIJING China will put a second space laboratory in orbit in the third quarter of this year, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday, part of the country’s plan to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022. Advancing China’s space program is... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. SpaceX on Thursday called off its second attempt in as many days to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on a satellite-delivery mission because of a technical difficulty, a launch commentator said. The rocket was less than two minutes from liftoff fr... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who returns next week after nearly a year aboard the International Space Station, said on Thursday the secret to enduring the longest U.S. spaceflight is marking individual milestones, not ticking days off the c... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. SpaceX on Wednesday postponed for at least 24 hours the scheduled Florida launch of a Falcon 9 rocket on a satellite-delivery mission and attempted return-landing at sea to allow extra time to chill the rocket’s propellant, the company sai... More »
SYDNEY An Australian telescope used to broadcast live vision of man’s first steps on the moon in 1969 has found hundreds of new galaxies hidden behind the Milky Way by using an innovative receiver that measures radio waves. Scientists at the Parkes telescope, ... More »
PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. Satellite operator SES SA is interested in buying a used Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, for a future launch, the chief technology officer for SES said on Tuesday. “SES would have no problem in f... More »
MOJAVE, Calif. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic venture unveiled a new passenger spacecraft on Friday, nearly 16 months after a fatal accident destroyed its sister ship during a test flight over California’s Mojave Desert. The rollout of the gleaming craft, d... More »
WASHINGTON The U.S. Air Force would ground the Russian-built RD-180 engines that power its Atlas 5 rockets if a U.S. government review determines that several sanctioned Russian individuals have too close a relationship with the engine maker, a top U.S. genera... More »
WASHINGTON North Korea’s latest rocket launch might kick off a buildup of U.S. missile defense systems in Asia, U.S. officials and missile defense experts said, something that could further strain U.S.-China ties and also hurt relations between Beijing and Seo... More »
SEOUL/UNITED NATIONS North Korea launched a long-range rocket carrying what it called a satellite, drawing renewed international condemnation just weeks after it carried out a nuclear bomb test. Critics of the rocket program say it is being used to test techno... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Two veteran Russian cosmonauts returned to the International Space Station on Wednesday after replacing experiment equipment that is testing how materials and biological samples fare in the harsh environment of space. Station flight engine... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Two veteran Russian cosmonauts floated outside the International Space Station on Wednesday to replace experimental equipment that is testing how materials and biological samples fare in the harsh environment of space. Station flight engin... More »
WASHINGTON Ancient Babylonian astronomers were way ahead of their time, using sophisticated geometric techniques that until now had been considered an achievement of medieval European scholars. That is the finding of a study published on Thursday that analyzed... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Thirty years after the space shuttle Challenger exploded during liftoff, a new generation of spaceships continues to build on changes made after NASA’s fatal accident. Challenger blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the ... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space transportation company, Blue Origin, successfully launched and landed a suborbital rocket for a second time, a key step in its quest to develop reusable boosters, the company said on Friday. The New Shepar... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The solar system may host a ninth planet that is about 10 times bigger than Earth and orbiting far beyond Neptune, according to research published on Wednesday. Computer simulations show that the mystery planet, if it exists, would orbit b... More »
MIAMI – The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that exploded into a fiery ball just after landing at sea off California on Sunday had descended with pinpoint accuracy onto an ocean barge before a landing leg buckled, causing the booster to tip over, a landing video showed... More »
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to put a climate-monitoring satellite into orbit, NASA said. Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX then planned to attempt to land the rocket on a barge in th... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA cut short a spacewalk on Friday at the International Space Station after one of the astronauts reported a leak in his spacesuit helmet, the U.S. space agency said. Tim Peake, who on the mission became the first astronaut from Britain ... More »
SAN FRANCISCO SpaceX’s successful landing of a reusable rocket booster last month opens a new frontier for commercial space startups by offering tremendous cost savings and attracting venture capitalists who once shied away from spatial ventures. Space startup... More »
SHANGHAI China plans to land the first probe ever on the dark side of the moon in 2018, marking another milestone in its ambitious space program, the official Xinhua news agency reported. China has launched a new round of work focused on lunar exploration, com... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX will attempt to land its next Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the Pacific Ocean, seeking another milestone a month after landing a booster on the ground in a spaceflight first, the company said on F... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Sunday postponed launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket and an attempt to land the booster at the launch site, saying the tricky touchdown would have a better chance of success if delayed for 24 hours. A smooth landin... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Florida on Sunday, sending a long-awaited Orbital ATK cargo ship on its way to the International Space Station for NASA. The Atlas 5, built and flown by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a partnershi... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Rain and cloudy skies delayed Orbital ATK’s planned resumption on Thursday of cargo runs to the International Space Station, a year after the company’s Antares rocket exploded during launch. An Orbital Cygnus spacecraft, perched atop an At... More »
BERLIN A Vega rocket bearing a European prototype satellite blasted into space early on Thursday on a mission to search for ripples in space and across time, a phenomenon predicted but never proven by physicist Albert Einstein 100 years ago. The launch lit up ... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A Colorado-based startup developing a satellite network to predict weather using radio signals will launch its first two spacecraft on an Indian rocket, the company said on Thursday. Privately owned PlanetiQ signed a contract with Antrix C... More »
LONDON Debris from a U.S. rocket, most likely the doomed SpaceX Falcon 9, has been recovered near the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of southwest England, the UK coastguard has said on Friday. It was covered in barnacles and was initially mistaken for a dead w... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said on Tuesday his space transportation company, Blue Origin, plans about two more years of test flights before it will offer rides to passengers. On Monday, Blue Origin successfully landed a suborbital rocket ba... More »
CERRO LAS CAMPANAS, Chile Chilean President Michelle Bachelet put hammer to stone on an Andean mountaintop on Wednesday evening to mark the start of construction for one of the world’s most advanced telescopes, an instrument that may help shed light on the pos... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Scientists have discovered what appear to be ice-spewing volcanoes on the surface of Pluto, raising questions about how the tiny, distant world has been so geologically active, according to research presented on Monday. The findings, relea... More »
LONDONThe man who will become the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station said on Friday he hoped his mission would inspire young Britons to one day journey to Mars. Tim Peake, 43, a former army major, will blast off on a six-month mis... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.U.S. space agency NASA has dropped Boeing Co (BA.N) from a multibillion-dollar competition to fly cargo to the International Space Station and will delay selecting one or more winners for about two months, officials said on Thursday. Losing... More »
(In this version of the Oct. 13 story, first sentence of third paragraph, corrects to ‘upper-stage liquid oxygen tank’ from ‘upper-stage engine’. In second sentence of third paragraph, corrects to ‘causing the tank’ instead of ‘causing the engine’.) By Irene K... More »
WASHINGTON Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has slammed a bid by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, to get a waiver from a U.S. ban on Russian rocket engines for military use. Elon Musk, the billionaire fou... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Three years after landing in a giant Martian crater, NASA’s Curiosity rover has found what scientists call proof that the basin had repeatedly filled with water, bolstering chances for life on Mars, a study published on Thursday showed. Th... More »
NEW DELHI India launched its first space research observatory and several U.S. satellites on Monday, part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s drive to expand his country’s influence in the competitive, $300 billion global space industry. The observatory, named A... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The first manned test flight of NASA’s new deep-space Orion capsule faces a likely two-year-year delay until 2023 due to development and budget concerns, officials with the U.S. space agency said on Wednesday. The capsule, along with its m... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Boeing Co (BA.N) took the wraps off an assembly plant on Friday for its first line of commercial spaceships, which NASA plans to use to fly crews to the International Space Station, officials said. “This is a point in history that reflects... More »
ALMATY A Russian Soyuz spaceship safely delivered a three-man international crew, including Denmark’s first astronaut, to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, a day after having had to maneuver to avoid colliding with space debris. The Soyuz TMA-18... More »
MELBOURNE, Fla. Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, one of the first Americans to land on the moon, will spearhead a new research institute in Florida aimed at paving a path toward Mars exploration and settlement, officials said on Thursday. The Buzz Aldrin Space In... More »
BERLIN/FRANKFURT European scientists have revised their plans for the comet lander Philae and are now focusing on getting images and drill samples if communications are restored. After coming to rest in the shadows when it landed on a comet in November, Philae... More »
MOSCOW A pair of Russian cosmonauts began their working week on Monday by cleaning the windows of the International Space Station (ISS), floating 250 miles (400 km) above the Earth’s surface. Station commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mikhail Kornie... More »
WASHINGTON A House panel this week asked NASA to explain why it hasn’t launched an independent review of the explosion on June 28 of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as it did after the earlier explosion of Orbital ATK Inc’s Antares rocket on Oct. 28. Both launches w... More »
BERLIN/FRANKFURT The comet lander Philae may be uncommunicative at the moment, but the pictures and measurements it took after it touched down on a comet in November have shown scientists that the comet is covered with coarse material, rather than dust, and is... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla A faulty metal brace in an unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket likely triggered the explosion that destroyed the booster minutes after liftoff from Florida last month, company chief Elon Musk said on Monday. The June 28 accident, which destroye... More »
SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON Scientists are about to embark on the biggest search yet for alien life, sweeping the skies for signals of civilizations beyond our solar system with $100 million from a Russian billionaire and the backing of physicist Stephen Hawking. Whe... More »
NEW YORK New pictures relayed by the first spacecraft to visit distant Pluto show odd polygon-shaped features and smooth hills in an crater-free plain, indications that the icy world is geologically active, New Horizons scientists said on Friday. “We had no id... More »
SYDNEY A space tracking station surrounded by cows in an Australian valley will on Tuesday become the first place in the world to get close-up images of Pluto, the most distant planetary body ever explored. After nine-and-half years of traveling 5.3 billion km... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is closing fast on an unexpectedly spotted Pluto, the most distant planetary body ever explored. From New Horizon’s position more than 3 billion miles (4.88 billion km) from Earth, radio signals, traveling at ... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is poised to become the first probe to visit distant Pluto, capping a reconnaissance of the solar system that began more than 50 years ago. The 3 billion-mile (5 billion-km) journey to Pluto, an unexpectedly p... More »
WASHINGTON A Falcon 9 rocket accident last month should not eliminate SpaceX from the competition to launch a new GPS satellite, U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah James said on Wednesday, since there would be “plenty of time” to test the rocket before any futur... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA said on Monday it expects the New Horizons spacecraft to be back in service on Tuesday after a computer crash over the weekend threatened its upcoming historic flyby of Pluto. Nearing the end of a 9-1/2-year journey to the solar syste... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA scientists were working on Sunday to revive the New Horizons spacecraft after it suffered a computer malfunction just nine days before it was due to fly past Pluto. The probe has been barreling toward the dwarf planet and its primary ... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off on Friday to deliver a cargo ship loaded with food, water and equipment to the International Space Station, breaking a string of launch failures, a NASA TV broadcast showed. The Progress capsule, carrying... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla./WASHINGTON SpaceX can compete to launch a U.S. Global Positioning System satellite despite a Falcon 9 rocket accident this weekend, the Air Force said on Wednesday. “SpaceX remains certified and can compete for the upcoming GPS III launch ... More »
WASHINGTON The failure of a SpaceX rocket over Florida on Sunday should not lead U.S. officials back to Russia to look for a rocket engine that can get military equipment into space, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said on Monday. “This mi... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla SpaceX on Monday was searching for what destroyed its Falcon 9 rocket after liftoff over the weekend, leaving customers still loyal but unsure when their satellites might fly. The privately-held company, owned and operated by technology ent... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – An unmanned SpaceX rocket exploded about two minutes after liftoff from Florida on Sunday, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station in the latest in a string of mishaps in supplying the orbiting outpost. The 208-... More »
