In more than eight Earth years, NASA's unexpectedly tough Mars rover Opportunity has been stuck in a sand dune, nursed a bad shoulder and endured five brutal winters on Mars.
Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, died Monday after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, her company said. She was 61.
A Russian spacecraft was launched Sunday in Kazakhstan, carrying crew members from three countries to a four-month deployment aboard the International Space Station.
China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft returned to Earth on Friday, completing an ambitious mission that notched up a series of breakthroughs for the country, including putting its first woman in orbit.
China's Shenzhou-9 crew members emerge from a capsule after completing a mission to space.
China's space plans are ambitious, incremental and extensive. Should Americans be worried that China will overtake us in both space exploration and military capability in space?
CNN's Eunice Yoon discusses the mission and the significance of China's first female in space.
China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft successfully docked with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space laboratory on Monday, completing the next step in the country's ambitious space mission.
China plans its first manned docking in space, which former NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao describes as a big step.
China made history Saturday when it launched a spacecraft sending the nation's first female astronaut in space.
China will launch its historic space docking mission Saturday along with its first female astronaut in space.
China's historic spacecraft docking mission this month will involve a female astronaut, state-run Xinhua reported.
China aims to get its citizens one step closer to the moon this month.
The space shuttle Enterprise made its final descent Wednesday, landing at its new home at New York City's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
CNN's aviation correspondent Lizzy O'Leary has the details on the splash-down of the Dragon capsule in the Pacific.
The first commercial mission to the International Space Station ended Thursday with the SpaceX Dragon capsule splashing down after a flight the company's founder declared a "grand slam."
"Like the smell of a brand-new car" were the words of International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit on Saturday after he carefully opened the hatch and entered the Dragon capsule for his first glimpse inside.
A private spacecraft connected to the International Space Station on Friday, a milestone in a new era of commercial space flight.
During SpaceX's berthing, an astronaut onboard the ISS said, "Houston, looks like we've caught a Dragon by the tail."
A new era in space exploration dawned Tuesday as a slender rocket shot into the dark Florida sky before sunrise, carrying the first private spacecraft bound for the International Space Station.
On Saturday, a company called SpaceX was scheduled to launch the first private mission to the International Space Station, demonstrating a freight-carrying capability NASA gave up when it retired its fleet of space shuttles in July. (The flight was aborted at the last second after a faulty valve was discovered; SpaceX officials said the launch was postponed till Tuesday or Wednesday.)
The president of private space company SpaceX says aborting the launch of the Dragon spacecraft was not a failure.
SpaceX's launch of the first private spacecraft bound for the International Space Station has been rescheduled for next week after the mission was aborted Saturday a half a second before liftoff, the company said.
The Soyuz crew successfully docks with the International Space Station and opens the hatch.
A Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from a launch site in Kazakhstan on Tuesday to ferry three new crew members to the International Space Station.
The space shuttle Enterprise, mounted atop a 747 jumbo jet, swooped across the New York City skyline on Friday before touching down at the city's John F. Kennedy International Airport, bringing an end to its final flight.
Space shuttle Enterprise flies past the Statue of Liberty and other landmarks on the way to its new home at the Intrepid.
Eric Anderson and Peter Diamandis pioneered the business of sending millionaire tourists to space. Now they want to mine asteroids for what they say will be tens of billions of dollars worth of resources annually for use on Earth and beyond.
Space shuttle Discovery goes from the Kennedy Space Center to the Smithsonian atop a NASA jetliner.
Space Shuttle Discovery started out as a way to discover what lies beyond us. Its last flight, taken earlier this week, helped to discover what now lies within us.
It was a strange sight indeed -- one large aircraft carrying another large aircraft strapped on top. But that's exactly what skyward-looking folks in Washington saw Tuesday as Space Shuttle Discovery, atop a Boeing 747, made an inspiring pass over the capital in its final flight.
Space shuttle Discovery, mounted atop a NASA jetliner, departs Kennedy Space Center for the last time.
This morning, around 10 a.m., I was 10 years old again.
After thousands of trips around the Earth, Buzz Lightyear has landed at the Smithsonian.
A piece of a debris from a Russian Cosmos satellite passed close enough to the International Space Station on Saturday that its crew was ordered into escape capsules as a precaution, NASA said.
Watch out, America. China is steadily catching up in space.
Newt Gingrich has absorbed a fair degree of ridicule for his campaign proposal to build an American colony on the moon. Before focusing the laughter solely on Gingrich, however, let's recall that it is the declared policy of the U.S. government to return a human being to the moon by 2020, in preparation for sending a human astronaut to Mars. If Gingrich is wrong (and he is), he's not wrong alone.
The commander of the international space station Friday told CNN that the delay in the arrival of an unmanned commercial vehicle was "a little bit disappointing," but that it would be "unrealistic" to expect a complex and reliable system to be ready to go on the first try.
China plans to put laboratories in space, collect samples from the moon and prepare to build space stations over the next five years, according to an ambitious plan released this week aimed at putting the country on the global map for space exploration.
A Russian rocket carrying three flight engineers heads for the International Space Station.
A Russian rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, with a crew of three bound for the International Space Station.
CNN's John Vause interviews Ken Robinson on the war and the war-weary on the 10th anniversary of the Afghan war.
From the Arab Spring to a global economic crisis to the killing of Osama bin Laden, 2011 has been defined by historic and dynamic events that will shape the world in the years ahead.
A piece of debris hurling through space no longer presents enough of a threat to force the International Space Station crew to move, NASA said late Tuesday.
Three astronauts returned safely to Earth on Tuesday after spending almost six months in space, NASA said.
A Russian rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, with a crew of three bound for the International Space Station.
An unmanned Russian probe launched on a mission to Mars early Wednesday failed to reach full orbit, the nation's space chief said.
China's unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou-8 successfully docked with the lab module Tiangong-1 early Thursday, another milestone in Beijing's plan to build a space station.
NASA announces that Boeing will use Kennedy Space Center to build commercial spacecraft and create more than 500 jobs.
China launches an experimental space platform to test docking systems for a space station. CNN's Eunice Yoon reports.
China on Thursday launched its first space laboratory module, marking another step upward for its space program.
China's first space laboratory module launched Thursday, according to state-run media, an important milestone in China's plan to build a space station.
CNN's Eunice Yoon reports on China's space program and the upcoming launch of an experimental space platform.
A satellite whose orbit is degrading will fall back to Earth Friday afternoon, but only some of its pieces will survive the fiery ride through the atmosphere, NASA scientists said Thursday.
NASA and its partners have worked out a tentative schedule that will send flights back to the International Space Station.
Satellite failures could become more commonplace, scientists have warned, as the amount of space debris reaches a "tipping point."
On August 24, the launch of Progress 44P -- an unmanned Russian space freighter -- failed after the third stage of the Soyuz rocket carrying it suffered an as-yet-unknown problem. Pieces of the failed launch were recovered some 40 miles north of the Chinese-Siberian border in a wooded area.
The Russian space agency on Monday postponed the launch of a new manned mission to the International Space Station due to last week's accident in which an unmanned cargo craft was lost, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
A Russian space freighter carrying cargo to the International Space Station has crashed in a remote area of Siberia, Russian emergency officials said Wednesday.
"Getting away from it all" may be a travel marketing cliché, but the phrase might take on a whole new meaning come 2016.
The recent drought has ruined millions of acres of farmland in Texas, turning lakes into mud puddles, but in the East Texas city of Nacogdoches, authorities say, the drought may have done something good: Unearthed a piece of the space shuttle Columbia.
Space shuttle Atlantis glided to Earth early Thursday, capping a 30-year space shuttle program.
Soaring across the predawn haze, the space shuttle Atlantis glided back to Earth early Thursday -- capping a 30-year program that saw hundreds of astronauts go into space.
NASA celebrates as shuttle Atlantis returns home from its final mission.
Atlantis, the last space shuttle, returned to Earth on Thursday and will go to its post-retirement gig at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. After more than 30 years and 135 shuttle flights by literally hundreds of astronauts, NASA has reason to be proud.
As crew members of the last space shuttle flight hovered over Earth for the final time, they spoke with CNN Wednesday about the next frontier in space flight.
When the commander of Atlantis calls, "Wheels stop," upon landing this week, Ray Zink and Billy McClure will be waiting.
CNN's John Zarrella takes a look at the impact of the end of shuttle programs on the people who were part of it.
For the last time in the foreseeable future, a U.S. space shuttle undocked from the International Space Station.
Space shuttle Atlantis undocks from the international space station, due back to Earth on Thursday.
In honor of the final launch of NASA's shuttle program, we've condensed video of 135 launches into 135 seconds.
Before humans ever went into space, there were books about the possibility.
Talk about an out-of-this-world meal.
NASA extends the space shuttle Atlantis mission by one day.
Floating 245 miles over the Earth Tuesday, NASA engineers Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan tethered themselves to the International Space Station and paused to absorb the view.
The space shuttle Atlantis will be in space for one more day than originally planned, NASA announced Monday.
Atlantis docks with the international space station. CNN's John Zarrella has more.
The International Space Station and space shuttle Atlantis are not in danger from an orbiting piece of debris after all, NASA said Monday.
CNN's Brooke Baldwin takes us behind the scenes of NASA's final shuttle mission.
Atlantis docked with the International Space Station on Sunday for a week-long rendezvous, two days after blasting off on a historic flight marking the final liftoff of the U.S. shuttle program.
Atlantis docked with the International Space Station Sunday morning as part of a historic mission marking the final flight of the U.S. shuttle program.
Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off Friday morning on the final mission of America's 30-year shuttle program, a thunderously poignant moment that drew people from around the world to watch.
The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off Friday morning, marking the last blast-off of NASA's 30-year shuttle program.
Astronaut Robert Crippen on flying the first shuttle mission, and what it's like to see the program come to an end.
Crowds filled the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington on Friday, as they regularly do during the summer months. This Friday, however, was different, as people lined up outside the building, waiting for the last launch in the shuttle program's 30-year history.
The crew of the final shuttle mission talks about the end of the program and how each feels about the historic event.
Early data shows space shuttle Atlantis, poised for launch Friday, escaped damage from two lightning strikes Thursday afternoon, NASA said.
Pioneers in the field of commercial space sit down with CNN's John Zarrella to discuss what's next for space travel.
Candy Torres drove nonstop for 21 hours to see the launch of space shuttle Challenger in June 1983. She had seen shuttle launches before, but this trip from Princeton, New Jersey, to Cape Canaveral, Florida, was different: Sally Ride was about to become the first female U.S. astronaut to leave the Earth's atmosphere.
Space Shuttle Challenger explodes in 1986, killing the seven astronauts aboard.
Days after the 1986 Challenger disaster, Lorna Onizuka's daughter approached her with a strange request.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says that human space flight for America will not end with the retirement of the shuttle program. Instead, the space agency plans to refocus its efforts from lower-orbit vehicles to deeper space probes.
With the end of the shuttle program, NASA is transitioning to deep space exploration. CNN's John Zarrella reports.
Vincent Fournier's photography captures a longing for the space age that lives somewhere between the recently made-possible and the science fiction of the '70s and '80s. Inspired by trips to the Paris museum of science, Vincent has been fascinated by the machine world since his youth and incorporates it into most of his work.
Photographer Vincent Fournier is granted rare behind-the-scenes access to Kennedy Space Center. VBS.TV follows him.
There are no roller coasters near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. No Ferris wheels, either.
The four-member crew that will fly the final space shuttle mission to end an era arrived Monday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Astronauts for Space Shuttle Atlantis arrive at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, ahead of their scheduled Friday liftoff.
Tuesday's space debris incident at the International Space Station was the "closest anything has come to the space station," NASA said Wednesday.
NASA stops an auction of moon dust it says was stolen after the Apollo 11 mission. KSDK reports.
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