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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- Three days after a last-second launch abort, an unmanned cargo ship designed and built as a private venture blasted off early Tuesday and streaked into orbit, kicking off a complex test flight to pave the way for commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station.

With a replacement valve installed in the engine that derailed a launch try Saturday, all nine of the booster's first-stage powerplants roared to life on time at 3:44:38 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), throttling up to full thrust with a rush of fiery exhaust.

An instant later, after … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--SpaceX engineers have cleared the company's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule for another try tomorrow to kick off NASA's first commercial flight to the International Space Station.

The engineers replaced a suspect valve in an engine that triggered a last-second launch abort Saturday and carried out a data review to make sure there were no other problems, clearing the way for a second attempt.

With forecasters predicting an 80 percent chance of good weather, the 178-foot-tall Falcon 9 is scheduled for liftoff from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL--With its engines throttling up to full thrust, the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a commercial cargo ship bound for the International Space Station was aborted at the last instant early Saturday when telemetry showed higher-than-allowable pressure readings in one of the rocket's nine first-stage powerplants.

A post-scrub inspection revealed the problem was caused by a suspect check valve in an engine turbopump. Engineers with rocket-builder Space Exploration Technologies Corp. worked late Saturday to replace the valve and if no other problems crop up, the company hopes to make another launch attempt Tuesday.… Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--In what proponents hail as the dawn of a new era, Space Exploration Technologies is in the final stages of prepping a low-cost Falcon 9 rocket for launch Saturday on a long-awaited mission to boost the company's unmanned Dragon cargo ship on an inaugural flight to the International Space Station.

The solar-powered capsule is the first of a new breed of private-sector spacecraft built for NASA in a commercial venture to deliver critical supplies to the space station in the wake of the shuttle's retirement and, if the company's founder has his way, … Read more

SpaceX and NASA said today that May 19 is the new launch date for the first-ever attempt to send a private company's rocket to the International Space Station.

Intended as a demonstration flight, the mission is designed to give NASA and SpaceX information that will help them plan future missions to the space station. Weather scrapped the previous attempt at the launch, which had been scheduled for May 7.

Unless weather or other factors intervene, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on May 19. On May … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- Eleventh-hour work to validate critical navigation and control software has forced Space Exploration Technologies to pass up a pair of launch opportunities next week, delaying the maiden flight of a commercial cargo ship bound for the International Space Station to May 19, company officials said today.

Already running about three months behind schedule, SpaceX gave up a May 7 launch slot earlier this week and during a late afternoon teleconference with senior NASA managers today, company officials decided to pass up a May 10 backup opportunity.

"SpaceX and NASA are nearing completion of the … Read more

Space enthusiasts have been looking forward to May 7, the date set for SpaceX to launch its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft for a rendezvous with the International Space Station. Now it appears they'll have to wait a bit longer.

"At this time, a May 7 launch appears unlikely," SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Grantham told the AFP in an interview yesterday. "SpaceX is continuing to work through the software assurance process with NASA. We will issue a statement as soon as a new launch target is set."

SpaceX had originally planned to launch the spacecraft … Read more

A popular choice for VoIP users and those who make international and video calls, Skype (free for iPhone or iPad) received a few improvements that tweak the interface and give you more control over your video calls.

The overall interface has been slightly tweaked to look a bit smoother with a new header and buttons that are more aesthetically pleasing and better match the colors of the rest of the interface. The contact view now shows more contacts on screen, with smaller icons that don't take up as much space as they did in previous versions.

The most noticeable new enhancement is the ability to touch and drag your video preview (the picture in picture view where you can see yourself during a video call) so you can move it anywhere on the screen during a call.… Read more

Strapped into a cramped Soyuz ferry craft, the outgoing space station commander and two Russian cosmonauts undocked from the International Space Station early Friday and plunged back to Earth to close out a five-and-a-half-month stay in space.

Descending through a clear blue sky under a large red-and-white parachute, the Soyuz TMA-22 descent module landed near Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, at 7:45 a.m. EDT (GMT-4; 2:45 p.m. local time) after a 56-minute fall from orbit. Russian recovery forces and NASA support personnel stationed nearby quickly converged on the spacecraft to assist the station fliers as they began their readjustment … Read more