National Aeronautics and Space Administration news and stories

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA releases low-res video of Mars rover descent
NASA's Curiosity rover has transmitted a low-resolution video showing the last 2 1/2 minutes of its white-knuckle dive through the Martian atmosphere, ...
Why Mars again? A look at NASA's latest venture
NASA's new robot rover named Curiosity landed safely late Sunday in a huge crater near the equator of Mars and will soon begin its scientific studies.
NASA rover Curiosity lands on Mars after plummet
In a show of technological wizardry, the robotic explorer Curiosity blazed through the pink skies of Mars, steering itself to a gentle landing inside ...
NASA spacecraft speeding toward a landing on Mars
After an 8 1/2-month voyage through space, NASA's souped-up Mars spacecraft zoomed toward the red planet for what the agency hopes will be an epic ...
Anxiety over rover's Hollywood-style Mars landing
Seven minutes of terror. It sounds like a Hollywood thriller, but the phrase describes the anxiety NASA is expecting as its car-sized robotic rover ...
NASA picks 3 private firms to develop space taxis
NASA picked three aerospace companies Friday to build small rocketships to take astronauts to the International Space Station. This is the third phase ...
NASA to athletic Mars rover: 'Stick the landing'
It's NASA's most ambitious and expensive Mars mission yet — and it begins with the red planet arrival late Sunday of the smartest interplanetary rover ...
Sally Ride, first US woman in space, dies at 61
Space used to be a man's world. Then came Sally Ride, who blazed a cosmic trail into orbit for U.S. women. With a pitch perfect name out of a pop song ...
1st US spacewoman, Sally Ride, pushed frontiers
Sally Ride loved everything about space. What she didn't like was being the first American woman to experience it. It took years — if not decades — ...
NASA builds menu for planned Mars mission in 2030s
Through a labyrinth of hallways deep inside a 1960s-era building that has housed research that dates back to the early years of U.S. space travel, a ...
Space workers struggle a year after last shuttle
A year after NASA ended the three-decade-long U.S. space shuttle program, thousands of formerly well-paid engineers and other workers around the ...
Soyuz spacecraft lands safely in Kazakhstan
A Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-man multinational crew touched down safely Sunday on the southern steppes of Kazakhstan, bringing an end to ...
Asteroid hunters want to launch private telescope
Who will protect us from a killer asteroid? A team of ex-NASA astronauts and scientists thinks it's up to them. In a bold plan unveiled Thursday, the ...
SpaceX founder talks Mars with Caltech grads
Fresh off SpaceX's historic return from the International Space Station, company founder Elon Musk said Friday that he would like to see humans settle ...
NASA chief views history-making SpaceX capsule
Marred by just a few scorch marks from its re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere, the world's first commercial supply spacecraft to visit the ...