AP
NASA scientists say tests on a Mars rock show the planet could have supported primitive life.
The analysis was done by the rover Curiosity, which drilled into the rock, crushed it and tested a tiny sample. The rover was the first spacecraft sent to Mars that could collect a sample from deep inside a rock.
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AP
A former space shuttle commander whose twin brother is married to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will attempt the longest spaceflight ever by an American.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend an entire year aboard the International Space Station beginning in 2015.
Both countries’ space agencies announced the names of the two veteran spacefliers on Monday. The extended mission was approved almost two months ago to provide a medical foundation for future missions around the moon, as well as far-flung trips to asteroids and Mars.
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AP
His blood could boil. His lungs could over inflate. The vessels in his brain could burst. His eyes could hemorrhage.
And, yes, he could break his neck while jumping from a mind-boggling altitude of 23 miles.
But the risk of a gruesome death has never stopped “Fearless Felix” Baumgartner in all his years of skydiving and skyscraper leaping, and it’s not about to now.
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AP
NASA says the Dawn spacecraft is journeying to its next destination after spending a year at a giant asteroid.
The space agency said Wednesday it received a signal from the spacecraft confirming that it left the asteroid Vesta and is cruising toward the dwarf planet Ceres where it will arrive in 2015.
Launched last year, Dawn is poised to be the first spacecraft to orbit two solar system bodies.
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NASA
Thirty-five years after leaving Earth, Voyager 1 is reaching for the stars.
Sooner or later, the workhorse spacecraft will bid adieu to the solar system and enter a new realm of space – the first time a manmade object will have escaped to the other side.
Perhaps no one on Earth will relish the moment more than 76-year-old Ed Stone, who has toiled on the project from the start.
“We’re anxious to get outside and find what’s out there,” he said.
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NASA
Stargazers around the world are setting up special telescopes and passing out cardboard eclipse glasses to view the once-in-a-lifetime celestial cameo of Venus passing in front of the sun.
The transit of Venus – a planetary spectacle that won’t occur again until 2117 – won’t be enough to significantly block the sun’s light, but it will give Earth’s closest star a moving beauty mark. Venus is currently Earth’s closest neighboring planet, although Mars occasionally has that distinction.
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AP
The SpaceX Dragon capsule left the International Space Station on Thursday and aimed for a Pacific splashdown to end its historic flight.
Astronauts set the world’s first commercial supply ship loose after a five-day visit, releasing the vessel with the space station’s robot arm. The Dragon slowly backed away from the 250-mile-high outpost, on track for a midday return to Earth, six hours later.
The targeted splashdown zone is 560 miles west of Baja California.
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