This image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the first sample of powered rock collected from the rover's drill. (Image: NASA)
NASA's Curiosity rover today relayed images obtained from drilling into the interior of Martian rock, the first such sample obtained from another planet. Read more
Don Pettit, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station, is preparing to photograph the transit of Venus. On June 5 and 6, Venus will pass directly between Earth and the Sun. Venus will appear as a small black dot moving across the face of the Sun. This rare event will not happen again until 2117.
Pettit will become the first human to witness and take pictures of the transit of Venus from space. Check out Pettit on Twitter and Facebook and Google+ for photos and videos from the ISS.
NASA is hosting a live webcast of the 2012 Venus transit.
Astronomers Without Borders and Dutch schoolteacher Steven Van Roode have created a VenusTransit app, which is available on both the Apple iOS and Google Android platforms, reports Scientific American. Astronomers who watched transits in the 19th century took fairly accurate measurements of the distance between Earth and the Sun. The app attempts to recreate those measurements.
The transit of Venus has historical importance. James Cook's ocean voyage to Tahiti to observe the 1769 transit of Venus is still a source of inspiration for explorers.
The transit of Venus is trending on Twitter and Google+.
NASA is preparing to launch its Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. The next generation telescope has a complex set of mirrors that enable its X-ray vision and allow it see hidden black holes. Read more
Aboard the International Space Station, a NASA and European Space Agency team opened the hatch of the SpaceX cargo spacecraft and entered Dragon capsule on May 26.
In case you missed it, the NASA video below shows the May 22 SpaceX launch of its Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule on its ISS mission.
When the final NASA space mission ended last July, for the first time in three decades, the United State had no way to launch astronauts into space, reports CBS News. It was the end of one era and the beginning of another. Instead of NASA designing the next manned spacecraft, the White House decided that private industry should design, build and fly it -- opening space to commercial development. One of the companies vying for that contract is SpaceX. Elon Musk is the founder and CEO.
President Barack Obama called the crew of of NASA's final space shuttle mission today to say that he was "personally proud" of the astronauts and the space program's accomplishments.
President Obama talks with astronauts from Oval Office.
Obama spoke with the combined crew of the space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station. The Atlantis will return from its 14-day mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station next Thursday. The mission marks the end of the 30-year NASA space shuttle program.
The Paul McCartney and Beatles hit "Good Morning Sunshine" greeted the Atlantis crew of Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim on the eighth day of their space mission.
Private companies will takeover orbital flights and missions to the space station in the future. NASA is developing plans to put an astronaut on Mars.
A 2-second, July 14 ignition test of the next-generation J-2X rocket engine. Click image to enlarge.
NASA yesterday conducted a 1.9-second ignition test of the J-2X rocket engine that it hopes will eventually carry humans into deep space. The J-2X engine, which is being developed for NASA's Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, is being tested at the John C. Stennis Space Center.
The final episode in the Sagan Series produced by Canadian Reid Gower pays tribute to the 12-day Atlantis trip to the International Space Station, which marks the end of the NASA Space Shuttle Program. Gower, a 25-year-old from Victoria, independently produced his own NASA series on YouTube and Facebook, reports Motherboard.
The Atlantis crew believes the International Space Station is an important stepping stone for future human space travel.
The future of U.S.-based space exploration is in and around Los Angeles. Prior to the end of the Cold War, the aerospace industry, not Hollywood, was the chief economic foundation of the sprawling metropolis.
"Innovation tends to be caused by new entrants to a field," says Elon Musk, head of SpaceX in Los Angeles.
In December, the SpaceX Dragon capsule became the first commercially built spacecraft to orbit the earth.
SpaceX hopes to deliver supplies to the International Space Station, possibly by the end of the year. The company plans to put astronauts into orbit by 2014.
At least 12 companies are making rockets and space vehicles in the desert town of Mojave near Los Angeles.
XCOR is one of the private companies building space ships in the Mojave desert near Edwards Air Force base.
Space shuttle commander Chris Ferguson and crew members Doug Hurley, Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim are speeding toward the International Space Station after blasting off yesterday from the Kennedy Space Center, an island refuge near Orlando, Florida that serves as NASA's launch headquarters.
The 12-day Atlantis mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station will mark the end of the NASA Space Shuttle Program
Twitter is playing a big part in NASA's efforts to keep the public up-to-date with the agency's upcoming space missions. The space shuttle Endeavor's launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 29 will be broadcast via Twitter by 150 people chosen by lottery to attend a two-day "Tweetup" event hosted by NASA.
"It's the opportunity of a lifetime," said Heather Good, the editor of a space news website who was one of those chosen to broadcast Endeavor's mission to the International Space Station. Good wants to streams some of the launch live on her Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Click on this NASA Tweetup link to find out more about the Endeavor flight.
Meanwhile, NASA has put together an animated video which simulates the flight and landing next year of its Mars rover Curiosity.
Astronaut Douglas Wheelock became the first person to use Foursquare to "check in" from space. The check kicked off a partnership between NASA and Foursquare, encouraging people to check in to sites such as the NASA Ames Exploration Center in Mountain View, California and learn about the country's space program.
