CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Getting humans to Mars will require medical research on the International Space Station through at least 2020, said the program’s lead scientist, presenting a time frame five years beyond NASA’s current budget forecast. Extending the life of the station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations that is nearing completion [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA delayed a Tuesday morning liftoff of the space shuttle Discovery by a day because of stormy weather at the Florida launch site. The U.S. space agency said it would try again to launch Discovery on Wednesday at 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 GMT). Rain and lightning moved over the seaside [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA canceled the launch of space shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday for the second time after a potentially dangerous hydrogen gas leak surfaced while the ship was being fueled for flight. An identical problem stymied a launch attempt on Saturday. Technicians had replaced seals in a hydrogen vent line in hopes [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA postponed space shuttle Discovery’s launch to the International Space Station on Wednesday due to a hydrogen leak during fueling and said it would try again on Sunday. Sunday’s liftoff was scheduled for 7:43 p.m. (2343 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The purpose of the flight — [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA on Wednesday moved up the launch date of space shuttle Discovery one day to March 11, confident safety issues over fuel valves that prompted four previous delays have been resolved. The shuttle will carry a final pair of solar wing panels to the International Space Station, which is nearing [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – After four delays, NASA on Wednesday set March 12 as the target date for the next launch of the space shuttle Discovery. The flight, the first of five planned for this year, has been on hold due to concerns that a fuel valve could crack and critically damage the spaceship. [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA delayed its first space shuttle launch of the year for a fourth time on Friday after failing to resolve concerns about a potential problem with fuel pressurization valves. Shuttle Discovery had been scheduled to lift off on February 27 for a 14-day flight to outfit the International Space Station [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA Friday delayed the launch of the shuttle Discovery’s mission to the International Space Station by three more days, to February 22, to allow more time to test potentially troublesome fuel valves. The year’s first shuttle mission had initially been planned for next Thursday, but was already delayed by a [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) — A U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut completed a 5-1/2-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Tuesday to install a device that monitors conditions around the orbital outpost. Engineers believe electrical charges triggered glitches that caused Russian space capsules returning from the station to land hard and off-course during [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA is still unable to say for sure whether its Phoenix lander has found a place where life could have existed on Mars. But scientists working with the U.S. space agency said on Monday computer models they have been using to predict what the weather would be like on the [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – The space tourism race heated up on Tuesday when a second company began offering tickets for suborbital rides at less than half the price of competitor Virgin Galactic’s.   XCOR Aerospace Inc of California said it is partnering with long-time tour developer and operator Jules Klar, co-creator of the 1960s-era [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Future space travelers may be drinking their own urine, thanks to the International Space Station’s new water recycler, but they can now do so with a touch of class. Endeavour astronaut Don Pettit, a self-described tinkerer who served as the space station’s flight engineer in 2003, invented a zero-gravity cup [...]