Shenzhou 9 should build confidence as China plans to assemble a space station

The independent organization that NASA selected to run National Laboratory work on the International Space Station may be off to a slow start, but outside “pathfinders” on the ISS are demonstrating ways to use its unique environment that already fall outside traditional government methods.

Astronaut Don Pettit is a real Mr. Fixit, and that is just fine with the scientists who trust him to run their experiments on the International Space Station.

As NASA mission planners wait with bated breath for the Mars Science Laboratory to scream into the Martian atmosphere at hypersonic speed on Aug. 5, deploy its braking parachute, fire its retro-rockets and lower the Curiosity rover by tether to a soft landing, thoughts are again turning to exploring the red planet from the air.

Spacecraft engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) hope to land the Mars Curiosity rover closer to its target than originally planned, moving the “sky crane” touchdown about 4 mi. nearer the base of the mountain where scientists seek to explore layers of sedimentary rock for evidence that a wetter Mars could have supported life.

What does the SpaceX flight means for commercial spaceflight in the future?

Sea Launch, Space Systems/Loral at odds over Intelsat-19 failure

John Glenn is the kind of pilot who makes it home. The world held its breath on Feb. 20, 1962, as he reentered the atmosphere after circling the Earth three times. There was an indication that the heat shield on his Mercury capsule Friendship 7 wasn't attached properly, threatening a tragic end to the first U.S. orbital human spaceflight, but he got home safely.