space program news stories on Newser

Newt's Lunar Ideas Not Lunacy

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:14:44 CDT

Jeffrey Goldberg is not what one might call a Newt Gingrich fan, but as he sat on the tarmac at Reagan National Airport gazing at the space shuttle Discovery as it prepared for its final flight, he realized something: "On the matter of space exploration … Newt Gingrich is exactly...

For Rent: Slightly Used Space Shuttle Launchpad

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:50:05 CST

Wondering where to park your space shuttle? Consider Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center. "We’re putting out the word officially and unofficially that Kennedy Space Center is open for business," says a chief architect at the facility. "I have a lot of facilities that we, NASA, no longer need," adds Kennedy’s...

Crew Emerges From 520-Day Mars 'Flight'

Kevin Spak — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:28:15 CDT

They’re free—and they don’t appear to have gone crazy. The crew of Russia’s simulated Mars mission has landed, by which we mean, been released from the narrow confines of the “spaceship” they’ve been trapped in for 520 days . The six men, ages 27 to 38, grinned widely as they...

Space Station May Be Forced to Go Unmanned

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:08:32 CDT

The failure of a Russian spaceship, which crashed back to Earth shortly after its launch last week, could lead to the International Space Station being unmanned for the first time since 2001. Russian engineers are trying to determine why the unmanned ship crashed, but they only have a short time...

Russian Spaceship Fails to Orbit, Crashes to Earth

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:36:10 CDT

A Russian space station supply ship failed to reach orbit and crashed with a thunderous boom into Siberia today, rattling NASA and others in this new era without any shuttles to bail out the orbiting outpost. The Soyuz rocket soared right on time from Kazakhstan, and everything seemed to be...

Astronauts Break Record for Longest 'Space' Mission

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:25:05 CDT

A crew of cosmonauts has broken the record for longest space mission, having spent 438 days in a 12-foot-wide capsule. But they'll also break another record when their mission is up—the record for shortest distance traveled on a space mission—because they've never actually left Moscow in all that...

Strangest Passengers in NASA History

Tim Karan — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 08:06:56 CDT

You can probably name the first American sent into space (Alan Shepard), but the first monkey, frog, and jellyfish made the trip with far less fanfare. Space Shuttle Atlantis took off yesterday with a few odd passengers: an iPhone and a mutant strain of salmonella. But they're not the only...

Iran Launching Monkey Into Space

Rob Quinn — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 03:00:00 CDT

Iran launched its second satellite into space this week and it plans to follow up by sending a live monkey this summer. The head of Iran's space organization says a capsule containing the monkey will be sent to an altitude of 74 miles by the Kavoshgar-5 rocket, AOL reports. The...

Space Station Gets Observation Deck

Jane Yager — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:36:00 CST

After a long night spent struggling with bolts and wiring, astronauts have attached a new observation deck complete with glass lookout dome to the International Space Station. Two of the astronauts used a giant robotic arm to move the observation deck—which is expected to provide unprecedented 360-degree views of...