2014 NASA Budget Starts Ambitious Asteroid Mission

President Obama seeks steady NASA budgets of $17.7 billion through 2018 in the funding request he presented to Congress on Wednesday, enough to start the space agency on an ambitious mission to identify and maneuver an asteroid into lunar orbit, where U. S. astronauts...

Commercial Activity Fuels Growth in Global Space Economy

The global space economy is surging, and the commercial space sector deserves much of the credit, according to the Space Foundation, the Colorado Springs-based non profit, in its annual report on the sector for 2013. During 2012, the world’s space sector...

All Aboard! Send Your Name, Message to an Asteroid

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is preparing for launch its Hayabusa2 spacecraft – set to depart in 2014 then land on an asteroid in 2018. Then the mission will return samples of the space rock back to Earth in 2020. JAXA has opened up a Haybusa2 name...

SpaceX Cements U. S. Commercial Role in Support of the International Space Station

SpaceX successfully completed the second U. S. commercial re-supply mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday, as the Hawthorne, Calif., based company’s Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean with nearly 2,700 pounds in scientific gear and...

Planck Mission Finds Universe a Bit Older, Still Mysterious

The European Space Agency’s Planck mission is revealing new details about the early universe, prompting scientists to revise estimates for the age, makeup, material consistency and expansion of the cosmos following the Big Bang. The European space telescope was...