Man on the Moon

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin talks about the moon landings 40 years on and mankind's next frontier.

Space Shuttle Comes To 'Final Stop'

The space shuttle Atlantis and four astronauts returned from the international space station in triumph, bringing an end to NASA's 30-year shuttle journey with a "wheels stop".

Final Shuttle Landing Just Hours Away

On the eve of NASA's historic, wheel-stopping end to the shuttle program, the four astronauts making the final journey and the flight controllers who will guide them home said they're starting to feel a rush of emotions.

Russia Gains Edge In Space Race

As the United States winds down its shuttle programme, in a symbolic twist in a long-running space rivalry, Russia will gain complete control of access to the International Space Station.

NASA Lays Out Plan For Private Partnership

Once the space shuttles are retired following the return of the Atlantis, only the Russians will be able to transport astronauts into space. NASA official Phil McAlister speaks about developments in sector of commercial space flight.

Atlantis Undocks From ISS

Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station.
The two spacecraft were soaring nearly 250 miles above the Pacific when they parted company forever.

Storage Bin Loaded On Space Shuttle

NASA's orbiting astronauts detached a huge storage bin full of trash from the International Space Station and loaded it aboard Atlantis for the last shuttle ride back to Earth.

Space Capsule Lands In Kazakhstan

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts landed safely in snowy central Kazakhstan after a five-month stint on the International Space Station.

Discovery's Last Space Station Visit

Space shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station, making its final visit before being parked at a museum. It blasted off Thursday with just two seconds to spare after being held up by a balky ground computer.

NASA: 54 New Planets Found

An orbiting NASA telescope is finding whole new worlds of possibilities in the search for alien life, spotting more than 50 potential planets that appear to be in the habitable zone.

Japan Launches Rocket to ISS

A Japanese rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station lifted off from a remote island in southern Japan. It is ferrying nearly six tons of food, water, clothing and experimental equipment to the astronauts on the space station.

Indian Rocket Explodes Carrying Comms Satellite

A rocket carrying an Indian communication satellite exploded just after lift-off in the second launch failure for India's space agency this year.

Private Company Launches Test Spacecraft

A private company launched a spacecraft into orbit in a bold demonstration test for NASA that could lead to the first commercial space station supply run next year and eventual astronaut rides.

Spacecraft Beams Back Stunning Pictures Of Comet

A NASA spacecraft has sent back stunning pictures of a comet after a close encounter in deep space.
Mission controllers burst into applause upon seeing images from the flyby that revealed a peanut-shaped comet belching jets of poisonous gases.

The close encounter occurred 13 million miles away from Earth when the Deep Impact craft, hurtling through space, flew within 435 miles of comet Hartley 2.
It is only the fifth time that a comet's core has been viewed up close. Studying them could provide clues to how Earth and the planets formed and evolved.

At roughly one mile wide, Hartley 2 is the smallest comet to be photographed up close. But only time will tell what secrets it will reveal.
Principal investigor Michael A'Hearn said: "The first thing everyone wants to know about the scientific return from a mission is how much it's increased our knowledge, but of course the scientific work is just beginning now. The engineers did a fantastic job of getting us data. Now we have to make sense of it to advance the science."

Asteroid Impact Warning To The World

Experts are calling on the world to recognise the "global threat" of an asteroid hit to earth.
Scientists and astronauts have been holding a three-day workshop in Germany, discussing how countries would react.

Rusty Schweickart is a former Apollo 9 astronaut and now head of the European Sapce Agency's committee on near-earth objects (NEOs): " What we need to do is bring the world together, recognise that this is a global threat. This is not Germany or the United States or ESA or anybody else. This is a global threat."

The conference in the city of Darmstadt is considering theoretical but plausible scenarios of an asteroid impact on our planet.
"The question often arises in the general public: Can we in fact do something about this. And the answer is yes. We don't even have to develop new technologies. Our existing space technology enables us to actually slightly change the orbit of an asteroid that we see headed an impact 15 or 20 or 50 years ahead of us."

The workshop's finding will later be merged with findings of other experts to create a final report to the UN committee. The report will recommend how to react to an impact threat.

Virgin Galactic Dedicates Spacecraft Runway

Virgin Galactic's first spaceship, named VSS Enterprise, and its carrier aircraft, the White Knight Two, were in New Mexico for the dedication of the runway at a commercial spaceport located north of Las Cruces that will become Virgin Galactic's home base.
Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of billionaire Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group, expects to begin suborbital space flights in late 2011 or 2012.

The event drew about 600 people to the southern New Mexico desert, including about 30 of the more than 380 customers who already have paid or put down deposits for the $200,000 suborbital space rides.

Virgin Galactic plans to compete in the upcoming race to develop orbital space vehicles.

Ancient Galaxy Most Distant Object In The Universe

An ancient galaxy has entered the record books after being confirmed as the most distant object in the universe.
The collection of stars, known as UDFy-38135539, is 13.1 billion light years away - meaning its light has taken almost the whole of the life of the universe to reach the Earth.
When the light photons detected by astronomers began their journey, the universe was only 4 per cent of its present age.
The Big Bang which created space, time and everything in the universe occurred only 600 million years earlier.
British astronomers were among a team of European scientists who reported the discovery in the journal Nature. They measured the distance to the galaxy by analysing its faint glow of light using the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.
Splitting infrared light from the object into its component parts, the astronomers searched for the tell-tale signature of emission from hydrogen gas.
This allowed the team to measure the galaxy's "redshift" - the amount by which its light waves are shifted to the red end of the spectrum.
Redshift is similar to the Doppler effect which causes the sound of a police siren to rise and drop in pitch.
As the police car approaches, the sound waves are compressed and shortened relative to a listening observer, causing a higher note to be heard. A lowering of pitch happens when the car recedes and the sound waves are stretched and lengthened.
The same phenomenon occurs on a cosmological scale due to the expansion of the universe. As the distance between an observer on Earth and a far away object lengthens, light from the object is stretched and becomes redder.
In the case of UDFy-38135539, scientists detected a record-breaking redshift of 8.55. Previous record holders were a galaxy at redshift 6.96 and a gamma-ray burst - a massive explosion of gamma rays - discovered last year at redshift 8.2.

Branson Talks Virgin Galactic

Virgin founder Richard Branson discusses the progress of his Virgin Galactic division, which is trying to be the first viable space tourism company. The spacecraft, Spaceship Two, just made a successful free-gliding flight.

2 Russians, 1 American Arrive At ISS

A Russian capsule has arrived at the International Space Station, bringing three new residents. The two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut are joining three others at the space station. Their mission will last 5-and-a-half months.

A Look At Hurricane Igor From Outer Space

NASA has released new photos showing the size of Hurricane Igor after the International Space Station flew over the storm this morning. Igor is currently a Category 4 storm, heading towards Bermuda.

Contact Us

Site Statistics