Three members of the International Space Station Expedition 35 crew undocked from the orbiting laboratory and returned safely to Earth Monday, May 13, wrapping up a mission lasting almost five months. The departure marks the beginning of Expedition 36.
Human Spaceflight
Spacewalking Astronauts Fix Ammonia Leak On ISS
Expedition 35 Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn completed a spacewalk at 2:14 p.m. EDT Saturday to inspect and replace a pump controller box on the International Space Station’s far port truss (P6) leaking ammonia coolant. The pair began the 5-hour, 30-minute spacewalk at 8:44 a.m. Watch more videos on our YouTube Channel! Friend […]
NASA Rover Prototype Set To Explore Greenland Ice Sheet
WASHINGTON, DC – NASA’s newest scientific rover is set for testing May 3 through June 8 in the highest part of Greenland. The robot known as GROVER, which stands for both Greenland Rover and Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research, will roam the frigid landscape collecting measurements to help scientists better understand changes […]
Orion Continues To Perform As Tests Get More Complex
A test version of NASA’s Orion spacecraft safely landed during a simulation of two types of parachute failures May 1. In the test, conducted in Yuma, Ariz., the mock capsule was traveling about 250 mph when the parachutes were deployed. That is the highest speed the craft has experienced as part of the test series […]
Sierra Nevada Completes Critical Review Of Its Dreamchaser Commercial Spacecraft
Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems of Louisville, Colo., has completed its first major, comprehensive safety review of its Dream Chaser Space System. This is the company’s latest paid-for-performance milestone with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), which is working with commercial space partners to develop capabilities to launch U.S. astronauts from American soil in the […]
Virgin Galactic Adds Fromer Space Shuttle Commander To Its Commercial Flight Team
Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, announced today that pilots Frederick “CJ” Sturckow and Michael “Sooch” Masucci have been selected to join its commercial flight team. As Virgin Galactic clears its final flight test program milestones with powered flight tests now under way, the necessary addition of new pilots will enable the company to […]
Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Breaks The Sound Barrier In First Powered Free-Flight
For the first time, Virgin Galactic’s commercial spaceplane, SpaceShipTwo, fired up its rocket engine in free-flight for 16 seconds during its latest successful drop test which also saw the craft break the sound barrier for the first time. Managed by teams from Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic, the test begins the final phase of vehicle […]
SpaceX Dragon Capsule Returns To Earth After Successful Mission
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft successfully completed the second contracted resupply flight to the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 26, with a 12:36 p.m. EDT splashdown in the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles west of Baja California, Mexico. “The scientific research delivered and being returned by Dragon enables advances in every aspect of NASA’s diverse […]
NASA’s Exploration Design Challenge Offers Students Unique Opportunity
NASA unveiled an Exploration Design Challenge on Monday to give students from kindergarten through 12th grade the opportunity to play a unique role in the future of human spaceflight. The innovative educational opportunity was announced in a special event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The challenge asks students in the U.S. and abroad […]
STS-135 Space Shuttle Atlantis Photo Feature
Click Here to see more photos in our STS-135 Atlantis Photo Feature.