NASA

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston--Combining robotics with a five-hour 32-minute spacewalk, the Endeavour astronauts accomplished the primary goal of their space station assembly mission Saturday, successfully attaching a sophisticated experiment platform to the Japanese Kibo laboratory module.

In the first of five planned spacewalks, astronauts Dave Wolf and Tim Kopra prepped the Japanese Exposed Facility, or JEF, for removal from the shuttle's cargo bay and then went on to other tasks, including the successful deployment of a jammed external storage system.

Koichi Wakata and Douglas Hurley, meanwhile, operating the space station's robot arm, pulled the JEF platform out of … Read more

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston--Manually flying the shuttle Endeavour from the aft flight deck, commander Mark Polansky guided the 120-ton orbiter to a gentle docking with the International Space Station Friday as the two spacecraft sailed 220 miles above northern Australia at five miles per second.

With Endeavour's arrival, the space station now boasts a record combined crew of 13--six full-time station crew members and seven shuttle astronauts. One of them, Timothy Kopra, officially joined the Expedition 20 crew a few hours later, replacing outgoing flight engineer Koichi Wakata.

"The crew is very happy to welcome Endeavour's crew … Read more

Forty years after the Apollo 11 voyage to the moon, NASA released photographs from the new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft Friday showing five of the six Apollo landing sites. Shadows cast by the Apollo descent stages are clearly visible and in some cases, the moon walkers' paths can be seen in the disturbed dust.

"We were very interested in getting our first peek at the lunar module descent stages just for the thrill - and to see how well the cameras had come into focus," Mark Robinson, principal investigator of the LRO's main camera, said in a … Read more

Forty years after the first humans walked on the moon, NASA is trying again to reach the Earth's nearest celestial neighbor.

It's not just about retracing 40-year-old footsteps in the lunar dust, though. This time, NASA wants its moonshot to become an outpost and eventually a Mars shot too, if Congress and others can be persuaded to part with the necessary money.

The new attempt is well past the idea stage. Two spacecraft are freshly launched on scouting missions to map the moon and see whether permanently shaded areas in craters on its south pole really do contain … Read more

Post-launch photography of the shuttle Endeavour's external tank shows multiple areas of bare metal where thin strips of foam insulation peeled away during the climb to space, the result of an as-yet-unknown mechanism.

In at least two "events," debris hit Endeavour's heat shield tiles during the early stages of flight when the shuttle is most vulnerable to damage. But mission managers said Thursday there is no evidence yet of any serious problems that would prevent a safe re-entry.

"There is nothing that we have seen on the orbiter that causes us any concern," said … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--Running a month late because of hydrogen leaks and stormy weather, the shuttle Endeavour finally roared to life and blasted off Wednesday on its sixth try, rocketing away through a hazy sky toward a Friday rendezvous with the International Space Station.

Multiple pieces of foam insulation fell from the ship's external tank during the early moments of flight, but it was not immediately clear whether the shuttle's fragile heat shield suffered any significant impact damage.

With commander Mark Polansky and pilot Douglas Hurley at the controls, Endeavour's three main engines ignited in staggered … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--The shuttle Endeavour's external tank was reloaded with a half-million gallons of rocket fuel Wednesday for NASA's sixth attempt to launch a high-priority space station construction mission.

The hydrogen vent line that derailed two launch tries in June worked normally and forecasters were hopeful afternoon showers would clear the area in time for launch at 6:03:10 p.m. EDT, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit.

Rain showers rolled over the Kennedy Space Center shortly after 1:30 p.m. … Read more

Bing's June bump won't be enough to take significant share from Google according to JP Morgan analysts. Of course, analysts will say anything anyway. And apparently so will we. It's kind of a complaining podcast today, but we do find a shining example of good at the end.

Netflix rises on speculation of Amazon.com buyout

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RIM Launching A BlackBerry social network … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--For the second day in a row, approaching thunderstorms near the Kennedy Space Center on Monday forced NASA managers to order another launch delay for the shuttle Endeavour's frustrated crew. It was the fifth delay for the space station assembly mission since a hydrogen leak scuttled the crew's first launch try in June.

"Well Roman, again, the vehicle and our teams were ready," Launch Director Pete Nickolenko radioed the astronauts from the firing room at 6:39 p.m. EDT. "But the weather's just bitten us again with lightning within … Read more