Watch video from the Hubble Space Telescope of Mars and the Siding Spring comet passing each other on Oct. 19.

An innovative partnership between NASA and SpaceX is giving the U.S. space agency an early look at what it would take to land multi-ton habitats and supply caches on Mars for human explorers, while providing sophisticated infrared imagery to help the spacecraft company develop a reusable launch vehicle.

The CubeSat movement may make it to the surface of Mars, possibly within a decade, allowing low-cost, minituarized secondary payloads on missions carry rovers and other high-priced gear.

NASA’s $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope program was rebaselined in 2011 and has since adhered to its revised cost and schedule estimates for a planned launch atop an Ariane 5 ECA rocket in 2018, but technology challenges could threaten the agency’s ability to keep it on track.

Opinion: USAF has the rare opportunity to improve U.S. national security, impose costs on an aggressive foreign power, promote American technological innovation and create jobs at home.

Joe Anselmo and Graham Warwick ask Guy Norris about his story on Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works and their Compact Fusion Reactor.