The Space Shot

SpaceX launch to space station on hold pending final tests

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- The launch of a commercial cargo ship making its first flight to the International Space Station is expected to slip a week or so to give engineers more time to complete pre-flight testing and analysis, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, announced late today.

The company had been aiming to launch its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo capsule on April 30. A second launch opportunity was available May 3.

Last week, NASA managers tentatively cleared the SpaceX rocket and capsule for launch pending completion of testing and a final review of open items and overnight more

Russian cargo ship launched on station resupply mission

An unmanned Russian Progress supply ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Friday, rocketing smoothly into orbit and setting off for the International Space Station.

Loaded with 2.8 tons of supplies and equipment, the Progress M-15M spacecraft lifted off at 8:50:24 a.m. EDT and climbed away through a nearly cloudless sky. Eight minutes and 45 seconds later, the spacecraft slipped into orbit.

"A flawless launch," said NASA mission control commentator Rob Navias in Houston. "The Progress now in its preliminary orbit, headed for the International Space Station."

If all goes well, the spacecraft, loaded more

A conversation with John Glenn

Fifty years ago Monday, a young Marine Corps fighter pilot shoe-horned himself into a cramped Mercury capsule blasted off from Cape Canaveral aboard an Atlas rocket to become the first American in orbit -- and one of the nation's enduring heroes.

John Glenn went on to a distinguished career in the U.S. Senate before making history again in 1998, blasting off aboard the shuttle Discovery to become, at 77, the oldest human to fly in space.

Now 90, Glenn's memories of his historic Feb. 20, 1962, flight aboard Friendship 7 remain razor sharp, "indelibly" etched in his more

Fifty years on, Glenn's flight remains a giant leap

Seconds away from liftoff, astronaut John Glenn monitored the instruments in his cramped Mercury capsule, listening intently as fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter called out milestones in the final moments of a tense countdown.

Earlier attempts to launch Glenn on America's first orbital spaceflight had been scrubbed by technical snags and bad weather. But this time around, the Atlas rocket, the Friendship 7 capsule, and the weather cooperated, clearing the way for the long-awaited, high-stakes attempt to reach orbit.

Millions across the nation and around the world hung on every word from mission control, gathered around black-and-white television sets and more

Glenn worries the U.S. is ceding its space leadership

Fifty years after rocketing into history as the first American in orbit, John Glenn sees America's manned space program at a perilous crossroad.

Thanks to political gridlock, an increasingly tight budget and uncertain congressional support, NASA is facing a best-case five- to six-year gap between the end of shuttle operations last year and the debut of new low-cost space taxis the Obama administration hopes will usher in a new era of commercial spaceflight.

In the meantime, U.S. astronauts have no choice but to hitch rides to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, relying on America's more

50 years ago, John Glenn became America's biggest hero

As far as the United States was concerned, John Glenn's Feb. 20, 1962, flight aboard Friendship 7 could not have been more important.

Less than a year earlier, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human in space, and by the time of Glenn's launch, Americans Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom had already made their way into the heavens, if only briefly.

But with his 4 hour, 56 minute flight, Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, doing so three times at an altitude of up to 162 statute miles and speeds of up to more

NASA budget boosts manned space, cuts Mars exploration

The Obama administration is requesting $17.7 billion for NASA in its fiscal 2013 budget--down slightly from 2012 levels--doubling the amount spent on development of new commercial manned spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station and giving a substantial boost to the delayed and over-budget successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Funding for the space station and ongoing development of new rockets and capsules for deep space exploration remains roughly constant, but the agency's hugely successful Mars exploration program will be sharply scaled back, in large part to offset gains in other areas.

Putting an more

Testing pushes SpaceX cargo flight to at least late March

Launch of a SpaceX commercial cargo ship on an initial test flight to the International Space Station, originally planned for February 7, is expected to slip to at least the end of March, officials said Friday, to give engineers time to complete additional hardware and software testing in the wake of a recent simulation, software analysis, and work in Florida to close out the craft for flight.

The company has not set an official target launch date for its unmanned Dragon cargo carrier, but the long-awaited mission is not expected to fly before March 20 and it could slip to more

NASA's Kepler finds Earth-size worlds orbiting another star

NASA's Kepler space telescope has found the first confirmed Earth-size planets orbiting another star, astronomers announced Tuesday, a major milestone in an ongoing project aimed at finding out how commonplace--or rare--Earth-like worlds may be across the cosmos.

In a solar system 1,000 light years away with at least five planets, the newly confirmed Earth-size worlds orbit too close to their star to support life. But proving the Kepler observatory can, in fact, spot worlds as small as Earth across the vast reaches of interstellar space gives astronomers confidence many more such planets are awaiting discovery among the 2,more

Rocket system could lower cost of access to space, Allen says

SEATTLE--Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan have teamed up on a new winged rocket that would be carried aloft by a gargantuan twin-fuselage mothership and then dropped from 30,000 feet for the climb to orbit, they announced today.

The new rocket will be funded by Allen through a new company known as Stratolaunch Systems and built by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif.

The 1.2-million-pound six-engine carrier aircraft, with a wingspan of 385 feet, will be built by Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., a company founded by Rutan and now owned by more