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Topic: Space Shuttles

  
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Virgin's VSS Enterprise Glides, Moves One Bold Step Closer to Space [Video]

Another starship Enterprise just undertook a bold new mission: This time it's Virgin Galactic's premier space vehicle, which has flown its first manned glide flight. It's another successful step on the road to tourists in space.READ»

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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»

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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»

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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»

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Undead Tech: Space Tourism

Recently, Virgin mogul Richard Branson unveiled the SpaceShipTwo, the world's first commercial space-plane. With three bodies, five hybrid rocket engines, and (apparently) zero room for spaces in its title, the SpaceShipTwo will ...READ»

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Han Solo and Chewbacca Consult on International Space Station Observation Deck

NASA astronauts, spacewalking outside the International Space Station, have just finished installing what's likely to be the best viewing platform ever: A multi-windowed observation deck that offers Earth views from low Earth orbit. ...READ»

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Space Shuttle: No iPad, but Still Awesome

Just a few hours ago NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery sprang from its launch pad on legs of fire, bound for space--for the very final time at night. It's a mark of the end of an era in space discovery...and it'll sadly go unnoticed by ...READ»

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Desirable Rumor: The Space Shuttle May Still Have a Future

Here's a tantalizing but hugely exciting rumor for human spaceflight geeks: NASA and the government are rumored to be talking quietly about extending the Shuttle's technology into the future.The news has popped up on Spaceref.com as a ...READ»

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NASA Gets a $6 Billion Booster for Mars and Beyond

  Find hope in this, NASA, science and Mars fans: President Obama's new stance on NASA's funding will likely pump no less than $6 billion into the agency to create a new heavy rocket sooner than we'd hoped. Mars is its ...READ»

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Moon Men to Obama: Your NASA Plans Suck Asteroids

Not everyone's pleased with NASA's future, as defined by the Obama-led new fiscal plans for the space agency...and three particularly significant chaps would just assume tell him to shove it up Uranus. They're names are Armstrong, ...READ»

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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»

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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»

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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»

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iFive: Microsoft's Debt, Saudi Arabian Arms Deal, Apple iPad Rumors, E.U. Radio Whitespace, Jonas Brothers Redesign the Internet

Curious about the things that'll be in the news today? Let us help.READ»

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Space Shuttle Winds Down, Project Orion Winds Up

Just two scheduled Space Shuttle flights remain before the most complex machine ever made is grounded, and support companies are now restructuring their staffing levels. Good thing, then, that Orion is on track. The United Space ...READ»

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Space Hero Glenn: Save Our Space Shuttles

If, like me, you're a fan of all things space-related, then this year's grounding of the Space Shuttle fleet is a tricky thing--sensible, and yet a poignant tragedy. Now the biggest voice yet has joined the pro-Shuttle debate: John ...READ»

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NASA Fires Off a Test Rocket It Hopes to Never Really Use

Another bit of the canceled Constellation project just actually rocketed into the skies: A testbed Orion space capsule has followed the Ares I-X atop a fiery plume off the launchpad. But unlike Ares, Orion may actually reach space. ...READ»

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Government Wants Astronauts on Commercial Rides, Orders NASA's New Big Rocket Too

The Science and Technology Chairman written has just written $1.2 billion for commercial rockets for astronauts into a new version of NASA's next funding bill. A new giant Shuttle-derived rocket is also ordered, to be ready within six years.READ»

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A Pill With Brains

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

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Visualizing the Economic Stimulus

The Washington Post recently created an essential visualization of the stimulus bill before Congress. Granted, it was created before the trimming that just occurred in the House, but it's illuminating nonetheless (see a portion ...READ»

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Presentations: The Good, the Bad, and the Awful

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

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SpaceX Falcon 9 Successfully Launched Into Orbit [video]

Falcon 9 is SpaceX's flagship rocket, and a great leap forward for President Obama's plans to diversify the space industry (video of launch below). The vehicle will help ferry cargo up to the International Space Station in the ...READ»

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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»

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"Great Leaders Illuminate the Future and Honor the Past."

So said Jay Fishman, chairman and CEO of The St. Paul Cos, earlier this week at Wharton's annual Leadership Conference. "It's too easy (and too wrong) to abandon the heritage of some companies." How true. Yet, so many new leaders ...READ»

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Careers: From Babysitter to Astronaut

Until recently none of my babysitters made much news. I think one turned out to be a minor league baseball player. The others are mostly forgotten. I want to give a shout out today to Barbara Radding Morgan, a babysitter, brilliant ...READ»