NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake

The space shuttle and International Space Station — nearly the whole of the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades — were mistakes, NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday.

New US-Russian Crew Heads for Space Station With Third Space Tourist

A new crew will soon be on its way to the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spaceship. A Russian cosmonaut and U.S. astronaut will take off Friday from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and are to arrive at the outpost Monday for a six-month stay. Riding with them will be an American space tourist, the third private citizen to take the trip to the ISS.

Joining them on the way up to the station is U.S. scientist and entrepreneur Gregory Olsen, the owner of a New Jersey company that makes electronic optical equipment. He paid the Russian space agency $20 million for the opportunity.

NASA Revives Apollo

More details on the Return to the Moon plans

NASA - How We'll Get Back to the Moon

Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will again explore the surface of the moon. And this time, we're going to stay, building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond.

Deep Impact space collision reveals comets to be fluffy balls of powder

To medieval observers, they were mysterious harbingers of doom, but thanks to an unprecedented act of celestial vandalism, scientists have unveiled some of the innermost secrets of comets!

Most striking is that the comet is not made up of very much at all. "It's mostly empty," said Prof A'Hearn. The fine particles of dust and ice are held together extremely loosely, with pores thought to run throughout. "We have deduced that around 75% to 80% of the nucleus is empty and that tells me there is probably no solid nucleus. That is a significant advance in our understanding," said Prof A'Hearn.

Moon Tennis

Sports in space will have many differences from sports on Earth - Some will make the games much easier, some - much harder. Perhaps we will even create a few new and interesting sports once we get our foothold in space.

Any suggestions?

Astronomers Discover Fastest Intergalactic Space Traveller

In our class on the life of stars, we discussed Neutron Stars and what it would take to send one of these things moving across space.

Astronomers have just discovered a speeding, superdense neutron star that somehow got a powerful "kick" that is propelling it completely out of our Milky Way Galaxy at speeds exceeding 1,000 kilometers per second!!

NASA'S Marshall Center Supports Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts

NASA's Stennis Space Center near Gulfport, Miss., and the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans were hit hard by Katrina.