space travel

Stories 41 - 60 | << Prev   Next >>

For Rent: Slightly Used Space Shuttle Launchpad

Kennedy Space Center is looking for tenants

(Newser) - Wondering where to park your space shuttle? Consider Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center. "We’re putting out the word officially and unofficially that Kennedy Space Center is open for business," says a chief architect at the facility. "I have a lot of facilities that we, NASA,...

NASA Probes to Reach Moon Over New Year's

Twin 'grails' will study moon's gravity field

(Newser) - Two NASA probes are poised to reach the moon over the New Year's holiday. After a journey of more than three months, the $496 million Grail probes—short for Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory—will soon be in place, reports AP . Grail A is set to arrive on New...

NASA-Backed 'Space Taxi' to Fly Next Year

Dream Chaser's first test flight scheduled for summer 2012

(Newser) - With the space shuttles retired, NASA currently has to rely on the Russians to ferry astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station. But it hopes to be able to hail a taxi soon. Dream Chaser, one of four "space taxis" being developed by private industry with...

Russian Company Plans Outer-Space Hotel

Commercial Space Station will include gourmet foods and space-age shower

(Newser) - A mere million bucks will soon earn you five days in a futuristic hotel, as long as you enjoy traveling at 17,500 miles an hour and having stellar views of planet Earth. The nimbly titled Commercial Space Station, designed by a Russian company, is the latest in a series...

Space Station Will Plunge Into Pacific After 2020

Station won't be left to become space junk

(Newser) - The International Space Station's grave will be a watery one, not a cosmic one. The colossal orbiting outpost will be deliberately crashed into the Pacific Ocean when it reaches the end of its working life some time after 2020, AP reports. "It cannot be left in orbit, it'...

10 Bizarre Ways Google Spends Its Money

What do windmills and bees have to do with Google?

(Newser) - Google has made billions, and there are only so many YouTubes or Androids you can buy—so why not spend some of that hard-earned cash in some decidedly stranger ways? Business Insider rounds up the 10 weirdest:
  • Windmills: Yes ... windmills. Google spent $40 million on them, probably because it likes
...

NASA Scraps Endeavour Launch Tomorrow

Unsure when next opportunity will come

(Newser) - NASA has scrapped tomorrow's tentative launch of space shuttle Endeavour, reports Space.com, saying that it needs more time to fix the broken auxiliary power unit that delayed the launch on Friday. "We're looking more toward the end of the week, maybe next weekend," says a...

Canadians Aim to Send Hockey Pucks to Moon

Team seeks Google Lunar X Prize

(Newser) - A team of Canadians is aiming to send a few hockey pucks up to join Neil Armstrong's golf balls on the surface on the moon. The Canadians are one of 29 teams from 17 countries competing to win some of the $30 million in prize money Google is offering to...

Radiation Threatens Deep-Space Sex: NASA

Protons could kill embryo's eggs, cut sperm count

(Newser) - Propagating the human race far away from home could be tough: Powerful radiation in space would likely sterilize female embryos conceived there, NASA finds, and it could shrink sperm counts, too. At the moment, we don’t have the technology required to create spacecraft shielding to block the radiation, the...

Vacationed Everywhere? Try the Space Station

10-day trip will set you back $35 million

(Newser) - If you happen to have tens of millions of dollars burning a hole in your pocket, Virginia-based Space Adventures has vacation plans for you. It can arrange a spaceflight via a Russian Soyuz rocket in which you will not only leave the boundaries of our atmosphere, but spend 10 days...

Space Travel May Make It Harder to Have Kids

Sperm, egg counts fall in lab animals

(Newser) - If you’re intent on having kids, you might want to cancel that vacation to Mars you’ve got penciled in. Research from a University of Kansas biologist suggests that long-term space travel might leave people “reproductively compromised,” the Kansas City Star reports. In tests on space-traveling and...

Robonaut Joining Space Station Crew

'A giant leap forward for tinmankind'

(Newser) - International Space Station astronauts won't need to worry about the newest crew member hogging the oxygen or clogging the toilet. Robonaut 2 will become the first humanoid robot in space when he heads to the station this week on the space shuttle Discovery's final mission, AP reports. "R2" will...

Virgin Galactic Spacecraft Makes First Solo Flight

Private spacecraft on course to take paying passengers to space

(Newser) - The world's first manned commercial spacecraft has reached a major milestone. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo was released from the mothership and completed its first solo glide flight over the Mojave Desert yesterday, Wired reports. The craft, which is undergoing rigorous testing ahead of plans to carry paying customers to space and...

Russians Plan to Launch Space Hotel

Firm says 'comfortable' space station will be up by 2016

(Newser) - A Russian firm has good news for would-be space tourists worried about lousy food or getting cramped by astronauts performing experiments. Orbital Technologies says it aims to have a "comfortable" space hotel circling the Earth by 2016, the BBC reports. Chief exec Sergei Kostenko says the hotel will have...

'Virtual Mars' Crew Locked in 'Spaceship' for 18 Months

Russia launches simulated mission in study

(Newser) - A multinational crew of cosmonauts will be embarking on a 520-day mission to nowhere today. The all-male crew—three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian, and a Chinese man—are taking part in a Mars mission simulation at a Moscow medical center locked in capsules, the BBC reports. The experiment aims...

Neil Armstrong Blasts Obama Space Cuts

Loss of space capability will make US second-rate nation, Armstrong warns

(Newser) - President Obama's decision to ax NASA's return-to-the-moon program is a giant leap backwards for America, moonwalker Neil Armstrong charges in an open letter to the president. The letter, released to NBC by Armstrong and two fellow Apollo commanders, says that while some of the NASA budget cuts have merit, the...

California May Claim Moon as 'Historical Resource'

Space fans want to protect landing site

(Newser) - California wants to protect the junk the Apollo 11 astronauts left behind from careless future visitors to the moon. If a state panel approves a proposal to declare the landing site an official historical resource, California would become the first state to protect the location. New Mexico and Texas are...

Russians Aim to Send Monkey to Mars

Robot would look after primate during 520-day round trip

(Newser) - The first Earthling to reach Mars may be a Russian monkey, according to scientists at an ex-Soviet facility. The director of an institute that supplied monkeys to the Soviet space program in the '80s says the facility is in talks with Russia's Cosmonautics Academy over supplying animals for a simulated...

Denver Man Gets Alien Greeting Panel on Ballot
 Denver Man Gets Alien 
 Greeting Panel on Ballot 
KOOKY COLORADO

Denver Man Gets Alien Greeting Panel on Ballot

Goal is to lay groundwork for successful 'diplomatic contact'

(Newser) - Every major US city should have a plan to greet extraterrestrial visitors, and Denver might just get its own come 2010. A local man has scared up enough signatures to have a proposition creating an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission included on the ballot next year. Given that Jeff Peckman assumes the...

Shuttle Atlantis Back Home
 Shuttle Atlantis Back Home 

Shuttle Atlantis Back Home

11-day mission to resupply International Space Station a success

(Newser) - Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts are back on Earth. The shuttle landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning, swooping through a clear sky. The touchdown ended an 11-day flight in which the astronauts spent time stockpiling the International Space Station with big spare parts.

Stories 41 - 60 | << Prev   Next >>