space

A gentleman's timepiece should never be too exuberant, but Crave feels compelled to give a curious nod to the ultra-expensive Pac-Man and Space Invaders watches by Swiss timepiece crafter RJ-Romain Jerome. Each dial features a miniature replica design of the arcade classics set in a pixelated appearance.

Perhaps understated from first glance, these geeky watches (waterproof to 98 feet) with rubber straps contain some real stellar inspirations. For starters, each steel timepiece features real fragments of the Apollo 11 lunar module, and the designer took it a step further by modeling the four joints of the watch after lunar landing module legs. To top off the extravagance, the back of the watches contain low-oxidation silver mixed with real moon rocks, specially patterned like the lunar surface. … Read more

It seems like only yesterday that Angry Birds blasted into space. Now it seems they've made contact with Martians.

Well, sort of. Rovio, in partnership with NASA (no, really), just released a new "Red Planet" update for Angry Birds Space (Android | iOS).

The episode comes as part of a free update that went live yesterday in the App Store and Google Play store.

In these 20 new levels, the pigs have hijacked the Curiosity Mars Rover. As always, it's up to the birds to save the day.

Speaking of which, Red Planet introduces no new fowl … Read more

International Space Station commander Gennady Padalka and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko floated out of the Pirs docking compartment today and had no problems completing the primary objective of a 5-hour 51-minute spacewalk -- moving a telescoping space crane to a different module in preparation for arrival of a Russian laboratory compartment late next year.

The cosmonauts then launched a small science satellite, using a handling tool to manually deploy the 20-pound spacecraft on a trajectory to the rear of the space station.

"Nice throw. Beautiful! Really beautiful!" a translator in the Russian mission control center relayed from air-to-ground radio … Read more

If only we were quantum states, we'd be playing Kirk and Scotty, popping around the universe until the inevitable failure in the transporter circuits.

European and Canadian scientists are pushing the envelope on quantum teleportation after having succeeded in beaming quantum states across some 90 miles in the Canary Islands.

The laser-locked telescopes on the islands of La Palma and Tenerife served as transporter rooms, teleporting information about the state of a pair of "entangled" particles.

The entanglement links the particles such that a change in one is registered in the other despite great distances between them. … Read more

While the world is still basking in the glow of NASA's successful landing of its Curiosity rover on Mars, a flight of the space agency's experimental Morpheus lander had a much more unfortunate ending today.

According to Space.com, the lander crashed and burned at Kennedy Space Center this afternoon after its first free-flight test went badly awry.

"The @MorpheusLander experienced a failure, causing it to catch fire," NASA tweeted. "No one was injured. Information will be released as soon as possible."

But Space.com added that in a statement, NASA said that, "… Read more

After an intense competition, NASA announced contracts Friday totaling up to $900 million to be divvied up between three companies -- SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada -- to continue development of commercial manned spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

While it is far from clear whether Congress will provide enough funding to keep all three companies in the mix, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, a former shuttle commander, said the program was critical to America's future in space.

"Today we are announcing another critical step towards launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on … Read more

Some big stories in Thursday's tech highlights, but stick around for the Olympic LOLs:

Google Wallet now lets users pay with any major credit or debit card. But you still have to have one of the few Sprint devices with NFC to use the service. That's because Verzion, AT&T and T-Mobile rather have you wait for the competing service they invested in, called Isis. But don't hold your breath waiting for Isis.

The Transportation Security Administration has been ordered to address comments and concerns from the public about its airport body scanners. Wired has reported … Read more

Those of you who've never seen an actual space shuttle or Apollo module up close can now get a taste of the real thing courtesy of Google Street View.

Commemorating the past 50 years of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the search giant has unveiled a series of interactive, panoramic Street View photos. Each of the 10 online photos focuses on a different piece of space technology, equipment, or location.

One photo reveals the Atlantis space shuttle from stem to stern. Another highlights the Apollo 14 Command Module. And a third carries you to the top of an … Read more

MOJAVE DESERT, Calif.--It's hard to imagine a more complete -- and impressive -- collection of aviation facilities and aircraft anywhere on the planet than the one in this vast, arid, wide-open wasteland northeast of Los Angeles.

Thanks to its endless amounts of dry, flat terrain, useless to most people, and the fact that there are only a few ways in -- vital for security -- the Mojave is, and has long been, the beating heart of the aviation world. It's here that Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier. And where Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne ushered in … Read more