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As it looks to successfully complete the first of at least 12 regularly scheduled missions to the International Space Station, SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule will leave the ISS tomorrow morning and head back to Earth, with NASA broadcasting the return live.

Commercially manufactured, Dragon became the first such craft to link up with the ISS, during a test mission in late May when flight engineer Donald Pettit used the ISS's robot arm to pluck the vessel out of "the sky." The craft successfully splashed down on May 31 and returned to the station on October 10 … Read more

Two rookie cosmonauts and a NASA shuttle veteran rocketed into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft today and set off for the International Space Station.

Joining them were 32 medaka fish, bound for a zero-gravity research aquarium aboard the lab complex.

Under a clear afternoon sky, the workhorse Russian rocket roared to life at 4:51 p.m. local time (3:51 a.m. PT) and smoothly climbed away from its launching pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

It was the first manned flight from the remote Site 31 pad since July 1984, a departure from the usual … Read more

Perhaps the Red Planet isn't quite so red as we thought. NASA's Curiosity rover has been digging up some unusual bits in the soil of Mars. A couple weeks ago, the rover found a strange bright object which later turned out to be a part of the rover itself. Now we have a new mystery object to contend with.

Curiosity took a few scoops of Martian soil from a patch called "Rocknest." That activity uncovered a bright particle in the pit it created. Unlike the earlier object, NASA has confirmed the new piece is of Martian origin. There are others like it scattered around.… Read more

Space shuttle Endeavour's final mission may not have been its most glamorous. Trucking through the streets of Los Angeles certainly counts among the shortest trips for a spacecraft that racked up more than 25 million miles since its first launch in 1986.

But "Mission 26" may be Endeavour's most watched journey. The throngs of people hoping to get one last glimpse of the spacecraft are one of the many elements that make this visually impressive time-lapse video so moving. … Read more

The X1 Robotic Exoskeleton looks like a cross between the legs of a Stormtrooper and a Transformer. The suit is a spinoff from NASA's Robonaut 2 humanoid robot project.

The X1 is focused on either helping or hindering a person's legs, depending on its job description. When it's set to inhibit, the X1 resists movement and could be used to help astronauts exercise in space. When it's set to help, it could be used to assist paraplegics and others with lower body injuries with walking.

Four motorized joints and six passive joints give the 57-pound suit a good range of motion. It also gives it some nice Iron Man flavor, minus the propulsion feet.… Read more

While Big Bird might be feeling a bit vulnerable to winding up on a list of endangered fictional species of late, "Sesame Street" colleague Cookie Monster appears to be expanding its range by at least 48 million miles, showing up recently on Mercury.… Read more

After getting off to a rocky start with an engine failure during launch Sunday, a commercial cargo capsule loaded with a half-ton of equipment and supplies -- including ice cream -- carried out a flawless final approach to the International Space Station early Wednesday, pulling up to within 60 feet so Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, operating the lab's robot arm, could pluck it out of open space for berthing.

Making the first of at least 12 cargo deliveries under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA, the SpaceX Dragon capsule, after a successful test flight last May, is the … Read more

It looks like the latest Mars mystery has been solved. Dashing the hopes of the many people who thought the Curiosity rover had located their lost keys or earrings, NASA has decided that a strange, bright object found on the surface is actually a piece of plastic.

According to a NASA status report, "The rover team's assessment is that the bright object is something from the rover, not Martian material. It appears to be a shred of plastic material, likely benign, but it has not been definitively identified."… Read more

Soprano Sarah Brightman, believed to be one of the world's wealthiest classical crossover performers, has booked a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a 10-day visit to the International Space Station.

The launch schedule has not been announced, but the first available flight is believed to be in mid- to late-2015.

"As I'm sure you may know, I'm planning to become a spaceflight participant and have been recently approved to begin my spaceflight training by the Russian space federation, having passed the necessary medical and physical tests," she said today, reading prepared remarks at … Read more