Topic: Manned Space Flight

China Plans Its Own Space Station, Starting Next Year

That China has plans for a space station is not much of a surprise--the nation's space tech has been steadily advancing since its first satellite Dong Fang Hong 1 launched in 1970. But the fact that it's planning to launch the first ...READ»

Performance Anxiety

The report from the commission investigating the space shuttle Columbia accident is a classic autopsy of workplace delusion. It's not just that NASA played self-defeating budget and bureaucratic games, management at the space program ...READ»

To The Moon! (In a Minivan)

How NASA and Lockheed Martin are building a successor to the Space Shuttle--using off-the-shelf technology and plain old pragmatism.READ»

The Race for Space

Kudos to the team behind SpaceShipOne, the first private-enterprise manned rocket to make it to the boundary of Earth's atmosphere and outer space. Whether the three-seat rocket and its backers, who include Paul Allen, will qualify ...READ»

First Images From Revamped Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope has always been an amazing machine, but it was recently made even more amazing with some repairs and optical upgrades in daring spacewalks. The first pics are out now, and they're stunning. The HST was ...READ»

The Tools You Need to Fix the Hubble Telescope

Today, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis spacewalked to the Hubble Telescope and kitted it with a new camera. Should everything go right--and so far, the mission has been a success--the Hubble should be good until ...READ»

Fish on Friday: 'I want to get some stardust on me'

Next Wednesday, if everything goes according to plan, NASA will launch a teacher into space. Not just any teacher: the woman who was the backup for Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher headed for space, who was killed in the ...READ»

Obama Team to Revise NASA Moon-Shot Program, May Delay Shuttle Launches

NASA's plan to replace the Space Shuttle and return astronauts to the Moon and possibly Mars has been controversial right from the start. And now there's a strong hint that the Obama administration will directly intervene and ...READ»

Astronaut Will Upstage Ashton Kutcher by Tweeting from Space

A mission specialist on the space shuttle Atlantis announced this week that he will use Twitter from space during the shuttle's next mission in May. If you're wondering whether NASA has some kind of built-in tweet software on ...READ»

Virgin Galactic Planetary

Earlier this year, SpaceShipOne, a commercial space flight venture backed by Paul Allen, tried for the skies, aiming to qualify for the Ansari X prize. The team is trying again early tomorrow -- and now they're joined by a leader who ...READ»

First Satellite Fender-Bender Shows Why Space Needs a Clean-Up

Tuesday saw a strangely historic event occur--the first accidental collision in space of two orbiting satellites: a 1,200-pound communications satellite in full-working order, and a 1-ton aging Russian satellite that's been presumed ...READ»

Will NASA Reinvent Its Lunar Rocket Program?

NASA's ambitious design to return humans to the lunar surface has been controversial right from the get-go. It calls for ditching the Space Shuttle entirely and abandoning nearly all of its technology except for the solid rocket ...READ»

NASA Declares Successful Ares Launch 'Friggin' Fantastic!'

Delay followed delay followed delay yesterday, but this morning the NASA's new Ares I-X finally lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a bang. With massive smoke plume trailing, the rocket soared into the atmosphere at ...READ»

How You Can Land on the Moon Today, July 20 2009

It's forty years since Neil Armstrong sundered humankind's history in two: The era before the Moon landings, and after. Here are a couple ways for you to get involved in Lunar fever online today. Walter Cronkite's Famous TV ...READ»

NASA Outsources Billion-Dollar ISS Missions To Private Companies [video]

The International Space Station is nearing completion, and with the looming demise of the Space Shuttle program and significant gap before the next-gen Constellation-class rocket is available, a replacement set of launchers is needed. ...READ»

Obama Funds NASA's Return to the Moon

Just the other day, an influential group of ex-astronauts--including Buzz Aldrin--publicly called for a new direction in the U.S. space effort, demanding more human space flight and even a Department of Space. And it's just possible ...READ»

Astronauts Get Augmented Reality Headsets

Dutch AR developer Layar announced a 3D API today--but this AR headset dwarfs their Android app. The Wearable Augmented Reality (or WEAR) headset was developed for astronauts to view schematics and specifications while ...READ»

Why the Shuttle is Left-Handed

On the space shuttle, even a phantom starboard manipulator arm has a small lesson to offer.READ»

A Final Thrilling Assignment: The Job of Your Life

A lot of ink was spilled recently on Wednesday's less than dramatic announcement of President Bush's space exploration agenda. Author and professor Paul Davies has among the most original suggestions for livening up the ...READ»

A Pill With Brains

Swallow hard: Here's a nanotech biosensor that will monitor our bodies from the inside.READ»

The Man on the Moon Goes Green in the Face

NASA has proposed a livable lunar structure by 2028 where astronauts will be able to live on the moon for periods of six months at a time. In preparation for this trip, NASA has developed a guide, 181 Things to Do on the Moon, which ...READ»

Presentations: The Good, the Bad, and the Awful

The perils of Powerpoint afflict everyone. A few successes and failures...READ»

• Made to Stick: Presentation Pep Talk

Fancy a Space Shuttle? NASA's Giving Some Away

The end of an era is rapidly approaching: Soon the skies will shake no more to Space Shuttle stacks rocketing into orbit, and the world's first real space ship will go gently into retirement. It's so soon, in fact, that NASA's beginning to plan ...READ»

Virgin Galactic Spaceships to Be Powered by Algae-Based Biofuels?

Earlier this month, Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn tried to convince us that space travel will turn us all into environmentalists by showing us our big blue ball from a distance. Now it looks like the space travel arm of ...READ»

NASA Rides the Moon-Bomb Wave and Releases an iPhone App

We were all pretty tired of NASA and its endless shuttle missions--until, of course, it bombed the moon. Now the agency is capitalizing on that good PR with a new iPhone app, perhaps hoping that some more public interest will help it ...READ»