Cutting Edge

A Russian Soyuz capsule docked with the International Space Station Friday, doubling the lab's crew to six in a long-awaited milestone intended to boost productivity and science output.

With second-generation cosmonaut Roman Romanenko monitoring an automated approach, the Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft docked with an Earth-facing port on the Russian Zarya module at 8:34 a.m. EDT as the two spacecraft sailed through orbital darkness 218 miles above the Pacific Ocean east of Taiwan.

"And now, it's perfectly in the center, all the crosses have aligned," someone said, watching a docking target on the space station … Read more

The Large Hadron Collider, currently undergoing repairs, will change its schedule and run through the winter to make sure the experiment provides workable results.

The European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) flagship particle accelerator has been out of action since September, when an electrical fault called a halt to an experiment to understand the fundamental physics of matter. It is scheduled to restart in September 2009.

On Wednesday, James Gillies, head of communications at CERN, said the LHC could carry on running over the subsequent months. Normally, CERN particle-acceleration operations cease in November for the winter, because energy costs throughout … Read more

A Russian Soyuz rocket roared to life and streaked into orbit Wednesday, setting off for the International Space Station in a long-awaited mission to boost the lab's crew from three to six full-time residents.

With Apollo 11 moon walker Buzz Aldrin and a throng of dignitaries and well-wishers looking on, the Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft lifted off at 3:34 a.m. PDT and quickly climbed away from the sprawling Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Live television shots from inside the capsule showed Soyuz commander Roman Romanenko, son of a Russian cosmonaut, at the controls in the capsule's center seat. … Read more

In a long-awaited milestone for the International Space Station, a Russian Soyuz rocket scheduled for launch early Wednesday will ferry three fresh crew members to the lab complex, boosting its crew size to six for the first time.

The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft, mounted atop the same launch pad used by Yuri Gagarin at the dawn of the space age, is scheduled for takeoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:34:49 a.m. EDT.

Soyuz commander Roman Romanenko, son of a Russian cosmonaut, will be strapped into the center seat, flanked by European Space Agency astronaut Frank De … Read more

Delayed two days by stormy Florida weather, the shuttle Atlantis glided to a smooth California landing Sunday, closing out a successful mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope with a picture-perfect Mojave Desert touchdown.

With commander Scott Altman and pilot Gregory C. Johnson at the controls, Atlantis crossed the coast of California northwest of Los Angeles on a steep descent to Edwards Air Force Base, rattling the countryside with twin sonic booms.

Taking over manual control at an altitude of about 50,000 feet, Altman guided the shuttle through a sweeping 200-degree left-overhead turn to line up on runway 22 … Read more

Nineteen years after helping launch the Hubble Space Telescope, Charles F. Bolden Jr. has been nominated by President Obama to serve as NASA's next administrator.

Bolden, a former combat pilot and Marine Corps major general, is also a veteran space shuttle commander.

Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator for policy and plans and a space policy adviser to the Obama campaign, will serve as Bolden's deputy.

"These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics, and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America'… Read more

Faced with dismal weather in Florida on Saturday, the Atlantis astronauts were ordered to back out of landing preparations and to remain in orbit a second extra day in a row.

Their next chance to land comes Sunday.

In Washington, meanwhile, the White House announced that former shuttle commander Charles F. Bolden Jr. will be nominated as NASA's next administrator, along with Lori Garver as his deputy, ending four months of speculation.

"These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the … Read more

Space is an interesting subject. It arguably matters most to our knowledge of life. Understanding issues affecting the universe today will help us recognize them as they impact our lives going forward. And since we simply don't have the ability to explore space the way it would be required to fully understand our history, it's the Hubble Space Telescope that we must rely on to provide that for us.

But it's not without its critics. With each new service mission (including the latest), critics have contended that Hubble simply costs too much for what we're getting. And according to one U.S. legislator, it's to the detriment of other programs.

"We have to make hard choices about whether a Hubble mission is worth it now, when moving ahead is likely to have an adverse impact on other programs, including quite possibly other programs in astronomy," Sherwood Boehlert, a former Republican congressman from New York, said in 2005.

Hubble's cost is certainly high. According to NASA, the telescope has cost the United States $9.6 billion since its launch in 1990. In that time, critics remind us that scientists still haven't determined the real age of the universe; they still don't know, for sure, how the galaxy was formed, and they wonder if all those pictures Hubble sends back are really all that important.

Yes, they are.… Read more

Matthew T. Mason, director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, has won an award for his "pioneering contributions to the fundamental understanding of the mechanics of robotic manipulation and to graduate education in robotics."

The Robotics and Automation Society, which bestowed Mason with its annual Pioneer Award, is part of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE). So while the monetary prize for the lifetime achievement award is only $2,000, a lot of prestige comes with the plaque he was given over the weekend.

Mason's body of work includes robotic juggling, legless robotic … Read more