NASA plea: Stay home for 1st home astronaut launch in years

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA and SpaceX on Friday urged everyone to stay home for the first home launch of astronauts in nearly a decade because of the coronavirus pandemic.Top officials warned the public against traveling to Florida for the May 27 launch of two NASA astronauts aboard a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station.It will be the first launch of astronauts from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in nine years — ever since the last space shuttle flight in 2011.

Mercury-bound spacecraft buzzes Earth, beams back pictures

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A Mercury-bound spacecraft swooped past Earth on Friday, tweaking its round-about path to the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet.Launched 1 1/2 years ago, Europe and Japan’s Bepi-Colombo spacecraft passed within 8,000 miles (12,700 kilometers) of Earth.

SpaceX launches station supplies, nails 50th rocket landing

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched another load of station supplies for NASA late Friday night and nailed its 50th rocket landing.The Falcon rocket blasted off with 4,300 pounds (1,950 kilograms) of equipment and experiments for the International Space Station.

Mars lander confirms quakes, even aftershocks on red planet

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA's newest Mars lander has confirmed that quakes and even aftershocks are regularly jolting the red planet.Scientists reported Monday that the seismometer from the InSight spacecraft has detected scores of marsquakes.A series of research papers focus on the 174 marsquakes noted through last September.

NASA's record-setting Koch, crewmates safely back from space

MOSCOW — NASA astronaut Christina Koch, who spent nearly 11 months in orbit to set a record for the longest spaceflight by a woman, landed safely Thursday in Kazakhstan along with two International Space Station crewmates.The Soyuz capsule carrying Koch, station Commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, touched down southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 3:12 p.m. (0912 GMT).Koch wrapped up a 328-day mission after her first flight into space, providing researchers the opportunity to observe the effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman.

Spacewalking astronauts tackle final battery improvements

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A pair of spacewalking astronauts tackled one last round of battery improvements outside the International Space Station on Monday.NASA's Jessica Meir and Christina Koch floated out to finish the work they began last week.

Boeing capsule launches to wrong orbit, skips space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Boeing's new Starliner capsule ended up in the wrong orbit after lifting off on its first test flight Friday, a blow to the company's effort to launch astronauts for NASA next year.As the company scrambled to understand what happened, NASA canceled the Starliner's docking with the International Space Station, instead focusing on a hastier than planned return to Earth.

SpaceX delivers 'mighty mice,' worms, robot to space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX made an early holiday delivery to the International Space Station on Sunday, dropping off super muscular “mighty mice,” pest-killing worms and a smart, empathetic robot.The station commander, Italy's Luca Parmitano, used a large robot arm to grab onto the Dragon three days after its launch from Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX delays space station delivery due to high wind

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- SpaceX has delayed its delivery to the International Space Station because of dangerous wind gusts.The Falcon 9 rocket came less than an hour from launching Wednesday.

Mini Mercury skips across sun's vast glare in rare transit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Mini Mercury is skipping across the vast, glaring face of the sun in a rare celestial transit.Stargazers used solar-filtered binoculars and telescopes to spot Mercury — a tiny black dot — as it passed directly between Earth and the sun on Monday.The eastern U.S. and Canada get the whole 5 ½-hour show, along with Central and South America.

NASA launches satellite to explore where air meets space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has launched a satellite to explore the mysterious, dynamic region where air meets space.The satellite — known as Icon, short for Ionospheric Connection Explorer — rocketed into orbit Thursday night.

NASA sets 1st all-female spacewalk after suit flap in spring

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first all-female spacewalk is back on, six months after a suit-sizing flap led to an embarrassing cancellation.NASA announced Friday that the International Space Station's two women will pair up for a spacewalk later this month.

Can a new space race connect the world to the internet?

NEW YORK — It's a 21st-century space race: Amazon, SpaceX and others are competing to get into orbit and provide internet to the earth's most remote places.And like the last century's battle for space supremacy that was triggered by the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1, this one involves satellites.