space exploration news stories on Newser

Neil Armstrong: Moon Landing Had 50-50 Chance

John Johnson — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:55:22 CDT

Fans of the space program are in for a treat: The normally reticent Neil Armstrong sat down for an hourlong interview about that moon landing of his with, of all outlets, the Certified Practicing Accountants of Australia. Some highlights: 50-50: "I thought we had a 90% chance of getting back...

NASA's Goal: Man Near Mars in 21 Years

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:35:47 CDT

NASA wants to put humans into Mars' orbit by 2033, with the goal of having astronauts return to Earth with a canister of Mars rocks that would have been collected earlier and put into orbit. The goal was unveiled this week by an internal NASA study group working on the...

SpaceX Flight Aborted at Last Second

Mark Russell — Sat, 19 May 2012 05:02:19 CDT

History is on hold , at least until Tuesday, as SpaceX's maiden flight was aborted at the very last second this morning, reports CBS News . The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket was poised to become the first by a privately funded company to try to send a capsule to the International Space...

European Mission: Can Life Exist on Jupiter's Moons?

Rob Quinn — Thu, 03 May 2012 02:10:57 CDT

The first Europe-led mission to the outer solar system will explore the icy moons of Jupiter. The European Space Agency approved the JUICE—JUpiter ICy moons Explorer—mission yesterday. The project's solar-powered spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 2022 and arrive in the Jovian system by 2030 to spend three...

James Cameron's Next Trick: Mining Asteroids?

Mark Russell — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:20:05 CDT

After hanging out in the deepest depths of the oceans , how does a Hollywood super-director top himself? By space mining, of course. James Cameron has teamed up with two Google billionaires, several ex-NASA officials, and some other ambitious investors to form Planetary Resources Inc., a space exploration company that seems...

Long Missions May Wreck Astronauts' Vision

John Johnson — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:09:05 CDT

NASA has been worried for a while now about astronauts returning from space with blurred vision and other eyesight problems. A new study in the journal Radiology might help explain why: Brains scans of 27 astronauts who had been on missions longer than a month showed that they had abnormalities...

Japanese Firm Plans Space Elevator

Kevin Spak — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:42:49 CST

Obayashi Corp. likes building tall towers—it's days from completing a 2,080-foot skyscraper in Tokyo— and now it's working on the granddaddy of them all: A "space elevator" that could carry people 22,370 miles into the air. On Monday, the company announced that it was working on a...

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...

Astronomers: Yep, Milky Way Is White

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:10:24 CST

What does the Milky Way look like, from outside the Milky Way? It seems like an impossible question to answer, but astronomers found a way—and discovered in the process that the Milky Way is, as one might have guessed, white. "If you looked at new spring snow, which has...