Space

Danny Pier wants to send a smartphone into space. An Android smartphone.

Why? Well, because. Also, he is concerned that U.S. space exploration might not be progressing apace. His parents and grandparents got to witness an astronaut land on the moon, while Pier, 25, worries that he will have to wait until 2035 to see a man step on an extraterrestrial surface (Mars, according to plans laid out by President Obama).

So while Piers waits for middle age, he wants to try shipping the first smartphone into the stratosphere as a symbol of his belief in the importance of … Read more

I doubt I'll be able to take a cool self-portrait in space like astronaut Garrett Reisman did last month, but NASA is giving me a chance to do the next best thing: put a digital image of my mug on one of the final two Space Shuttle missions scheduled for later this year.

The program's called Face in Space, and it's easy enough to join. You just sign up, pick your mission, upload your photo for free, and you're set.

You'll get a flight confirmation and shuttle updates in your inbox throughout the mission and … Read more

Japanese construction company Shimizu likes to dream big. Big as in ringing the moon with solar panels and beaming the energy to Earth. But in light of Tokyo's plans to build a $2 billion robot moon base, Shimizu's recent ideas for futuristic engineering projects, including the construction of pyramid cities, seem a little less far-fetched.

Shimizu's "Proposals to Benefit Future Generations" include an offshore pyramid city, home to 750,000 people, that was featured in Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering, seen in the video below. The pyramid would be the largest structure on the planet, … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--Powered by 10 engines and the vision of an Internet entrepreneur, an untried Falcon 9 rocket blasted off Friday and successfully boosted a dummy payload into orbit on a maiden voyage intended to help pave the way for commercial missions to the International Space Station.

In a major milestone for the commercial launch industry, the two-stage Falcon 9's nine first-stage Merlin engines, fueled by liquid oxygen and RP-1 kerosene rocket fuel, roared to life at 2:45 p.m. EDT.

After computer checks to verify engine performance, four hydraulic hold-down clamps pulled away and the … Read more

Downplaying expectations, the founder of SpaceX, one of the companies NASA is counting on to help resupply the International Space Station after the shuttle's retirement, said Thursday he believes the maiden flight of the new Falcon 9 rocket Friday has a 70 percent to 80 percent chance of succeeding.

"However, I should point out that is less than the probability of success in Russian roulette," Elon Musk, the co-founder of Paypal, told reporters. "Remember that scene from 'The Deer Hunter'? That's tomorrow. But not quite as likely."

The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a … Read more

The Soyuz TMA-17 crew capsule, carrying outgoing space station commander Oleg Kotov, Timothy Creamer, and Soichi Noguchi, settled to a safe parachute-and-rocket-assisted landing in Kazakhstan on Tuesday after a descent from the International Space Station.

Closing out a 163-day space mission, the Expedition 23 crew members fell through a clear blue sky and touched down on target near Dzhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan at 11:25 p.m. EDT. Recovery crews, including Russian, U.S., and Japanese personnel, quickly reached the capsule to provide assistance.

Television views from the landing site showed all three crew members, still wearing their pressure suits, … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--The shuttle Atlantis closed out its 32nd and final planned mission with a smooth Florida landing Wednesday, wrapping up a quarter century of service with a successful space station assembly mission.

Approaching from the south, commander Kenneth Ham took over manual control at an altitude of 50,000 feet above the spaceport and guided Atlantis through a 320-degree right turn to line up on runway 33.

Diving at a steep 21-degree angle, Ham pulled the nose up, pilot Dominic "Tony" Antonelli deployed the main landing gear, and Atlantis settled to a tire-smoking, on-time touchdown … Read more

NASA's Phoenix Mars lander, subjected to extreme low temperatures and crippling ice buildups it was never designed to endure, apparently suffered severe damage during the Martian winter that ended any chance of additional science operations, officials said Monday.

Designed to operate for just three months, Phoenix exceeded expectations, beaming back a steady stream of scientific data for five months before waning sunlight and the approaching Martian winter prevented its solar arrays from generating enough power to keep the craft warm and electronically conscious.

Engineers did not believe the lander could survive a northern latitude winter on Mars, but the … Read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.--The shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station on Sunday, wrapping up a week of assembly work to install a new Russian module, a backup Ku-band antenna, six new solar array batteries, and more than three tons of other equipment and supplies.

With pilot Dominic "Tony" Antonelli at the controls, the shuttle's payload bay docking mechanism disengaged its counterpart on the space station's forward port at 11:22 a.m. EDT as the two spacecraft sailed 220 miles above the southern Indian Ocean southwest of Perth, Australia.

"Houston and station, … Read more