space

Inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule (panorama)

Get a feel for what it's like inside the Dragon capsule by panning around the panorama image below.

SpaceX CRS-2, loaded with more than 1,200 pounds of supplies, including science equipment and spare parts en route to the International Space Station, lifted off this morning aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

Just after the carrier rocket delivered the Dragon capsule into its target orbit, however, a problem arose. As the Solar Array was set to be deployed, which is necessary to provide enough energy to reach the ISS, a problem was … Read more

SpaceX scrambles to fix glitches with cargo ship

A SpaceX cargo ship loaded with more than a ton of spare parts, science equipment and crew supplies bound for the International Space Station thundered into orbit Friday, but trouble with the capsule's thrusters forced flight controllers to delay solar array deployment and replan an already complex rendezvous.

"It appears that although it achieved Earth orbit, Dragon is experiencing some kind of problem right now," John Insprucker, SpaceX's Falcon 9 product manager, said during a company webcast. "We'll have to learn about the nature of what happened. According to procedure, we expect a press … Read more

SpaceX supply ship prepped for Friday launch to station

SpaceX engineers readied a Falcon 9 rocket for a launch tomorrow on the company's second operational space station resupply mission, a commercial flight to deliver more than 2,300 pounds of science gear, station equipment, spare parts, and crew supplies to the international lab complex.

If all goes well, the unmanned Dragon cargo ship will return to Earth on March 25 loaded with some 3,000 pounds of no-longer-needed hardware, broken components, and experiment samples bound for laboratory analysis.

"Quite a bit of work has been done to get to this point, by the SpaceX team, by the … Read more

Canada orbits suitcase-size camera to hunt asteroids

Aside from giant laser beams, can eyes in the sky help save us from asteroid hits?

Canada thinks so, and it has launched a space telescope to track hazardous objects including asteroids, space junk, and satellites.

The Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) was launched from an Indian rocket this week as the first dedicated space-based sentinel of its kind.

Managed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), NEOSSat is about the size of a suitcase and orbits some 500 miles above Earth, circling every 100 minutes. … Read more

Trekkies conquer contest to name Pluto moons

Earlier this month, astronomer Mark Showalter and the SETI Institute asked the Internet to help name two Plutonian moons. The results are in after 450,324 votes from around the world on the Web site Pluto Rocks.

Pending authorization from the International Astronomical Union, the new names for Pluto's smallest moons -- currently called P4 and P5 -- could end up changing to Cerberus and Vulcan.… Read more

New titleholders to vye for crown of fastest spacecraft ever

Of all the spacecraft humans have launched, there have been some impressively fast movers. But which holds the record?

It's not an entirely idle question. Apart from the wow factor, it's an interesting yardstick for gauging our capacity to explore the cosmos, from familiar planets to the icy depths of space.

However, as I quickly discovered in writing this post, it's not always an easy quantity to evaluate. For one thing, launch velocities differ from eventual cruise velocities. And fancy interplanetary maneuvers like the " gravity assist" can provide temporary speed boosts that have to be … Read more

Mystery mission of the X-37B now two months old

It's now been a couple of months since the U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane lifted into orbit amid the expected shroud of secrecy. What's remarkable about this third classified mission in the X-37B program is how little the public knows about it. We don't know how long the craft is supposed to orbit the Earth, and we don't know the mission's objectives. The unmanned space plane ventured into orbit twice before on hush-hush missions for the Air Force. One tidbit that is known: the craft now in Earth orbit was also used … Read more

Watch: How to make a peanut butter sandwich in space

Everything is more interesting in space. Even the lowly peanut butter sandwich becomes fascinating when the person making it is an astronaut and the "kitchen" is the International Space Station.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield takes you on a culinary tour of the cosmos in this simple and entertaining video.… Read more

NASA launches new space tech and exploration division

NASA has suffered budget cuts and freezes the past several years, but apparently things are looking up for the U.S. space agency. Today, NASA announced that it was creating a new organizational division geared toward investing in space technology, equipment, and exploration.

"A robust technology development program is vital to reaching new heights in space -- and sending American astronauts to new destinations like an asteroid and Mars," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "A top priority of NASA is to invest in cross-cutting, transformational technologies. We focus on collaboration with industry and academia … Read more