CBS News Space Page is Moving!

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

EDITOR’S NOTE: We are in the process of moving stories on this page to the CBS News Sci-Tech page. This site will be taken down in the next few weeks. We appreciate your patience!

Cause of Russian Progress failure still TBD

Four weeks after a Progress space station supply ship spun out of control in a launch mishap, Russian engineers have not yet revealed what might have gone wrong, casting a cloud of uncertainty over downstream flights of unpiloted cargo ships as well as Soyuz crew ferry craft.
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NASA selects instruments for Europa mission

Taking a major step toward an eventual robotic mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, NASA has selected nine sophisticated instruments for a solar-powered spacecraft designed to find out whether the hidden realm could support life of some sort, agency officials said Tuesday.
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SpaceX cargo ship returns to Earth

A SpaceX cargo capsule loaded with 3,100 pounds of research samples, no-longer-needed equipment and trash returned to Earth Thursday after a month-long stay at the International Space Station. Read More...

X-37B spaceplane launched on secret mission

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thundered away from Cape Canaveral Wednesday, boosting an unpiloted military spaceplane into orbit for a secret mission. Read More...

Air Force set to launch spaceplane on mostly secret mission

An Air Force X-37B spaceplane, a mini shuttle making the program's fourth flight, is poised for launch Wednesday on a mostly classified mission featuring an unusual hitchhiker: a small publicly-funded satellite built to test the feasibility of using solar sails for propulsion. Read More...

Brightman steps down from station flight

Soprano and would-be space tourist Sarah Brightman, who was in training for a flight to the International Space Station this fall aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft, will not be chasing her dream aloft after all, the singer's website and Facebook page revealed Wednesday.
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Russia delays upcoming ISS flights in wake of Progress failure

Russia is delaying the return to Earth of three space station crew members by about a month in the wake of the April 18 failure of a Russian Progress supply ship. Launch of three fresh crew members also will be delayed, from May 26 to late July.
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SpaceX stages emergency escape system test

Simulating a launch pad emergency, an unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule was blasted away from Cape Canaveral Wednesday, shooting to an altitude of several thousand feet before arcing over for an offshore splashdown in a dramatic emergency escape system test.
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SpaceX gears up for pad abort test

SpaceX is readying an unmanned Dragon capsule for a simulated launch pad abort Wednesday, a short, high-speed flight to demonstrate an innovative rocket-powered escape system designed to quickly pull a crew to safety in the event of an impending booster failure. Read More...

Messenger probe, out of gas, crashes into Mercury

NASA's hardy Messenger spacecraft, out of fuel at the end of a remarkably successful 11-year mission, ended its life with a bang Thursday, smashing into the hellish surface of Mercury at some 8,750 miles per hour and blasting out a new crater in the process.
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Blue Origin launches sub-orbital New Shepard test flight

Blue Origin, a rocket engine and spacecraft development company owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, carried out an unpiloted maiden test flight of the company's New Shepard sub-orbital launch vehicle Wednesday, the company revealed early Thursday.
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New Horizons detects possible polar cap on Pluto

New photos and animations of Pluto and its large moon Charon taken by the fast-approaching New Horizons probe are revealing distinct surface features for the first time, including a bright area that could be a snowy polar cap, mission managers said Wednesday.
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Russian abandon efforts to salvage wayward cargo ship

Russian flight controllers have given up attempting to salvage a Progress cargo ship loaded with 3 tons of supplies and equipment intended for the International Space Station. Instead, the spacecraft likely will re-enter the atmosphere and burn up within the next two weeks. Read More...

Progress cargo ship spins out of control after launch

A Russian Progress supply ship loaded with more than 3 tons of supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station apparently spun out of control shortly after reaching orbit Tuesday, putting the resupply mission in jeopardy. Read More...