Welcome Home, Hayabusa!
In a thrilling tale of triumph over adversity, the Japanese probe Hayabusa slammed into Earth's atmosphere over Australia on June 13, 2010.
Japanese Craft Sail Off to Venus
Are volcanoes erupting on Venus? Does lightning zap the planet's atmosphere? A new interplanetary probe aims to answer these questions and many others.
NASA's Administrator Visits Boston
Charles Bolden, who took the reins of NASA last July, made an appearance in Boston last week and offered some views about the space agency's future.
Herschel's Cold, Wonderful Universe
European astronomers are ecstatic about the results they're getting from an infrared space observatory launched a year ago.
Amateurs Alert NASA to Saturn Storm
Thanks to the vigilance of planet-watchers around the world, Cassini scientists have captured key observations of a storm that erupted into view during mid-March.
Happy Birthday, Hubble!
It's been 20 years since the most productive telescope ever built rocketed into orbit. So let's celebrate!
Readying for Hayabusa's Return
When the Hayabusa spacecraft returns to Earth on June 13th, an international welcoming party will be waiting in Australia to spot and recover its sample-return capsule.
Sparks on Saturn
NASA's Cassini orbiter has finally captured images of lightning storms on the ringed planet.
Hayabusa Hits the Homestretch
Against all odds, a crippled Japanese spacecraft has managed to limp back home after its asteroid encounter 4½ years ago. It's now less than three months from a triumphal return to Earth.
A Blast from the Past
An exquisite new image from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the crater gouged out when a Saturn IV-B rocket slammed into Oceanus Procellarum 40 years ago..
NASA to Upgrade, Overhaul Its "Big Ears"
Day in, day out, the radio antennas of NASA's "Deep Space Network" handshake with dozens of spacecraft across the solar system. Now the network's three stations are getting improvements that will keep them operating for decades.
Ski Luna!
Geologists once believed the Moon was utterly dry. But just-announced results argue that abundant water ice lies stashed inside lunar craters near the north pole.
Halfway to Pluto
Zipping outward at more than 36,000 miles per hour, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has reached a point where it's closer to its target, Pluto, than it is to the Sun. Only 1½ billion miles to go!
NASA's New Eye on the Sun
Thursday's launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory gives astronomers the power to reveal the goings-on deep inside our star.
New Plan for NASA
The Obama administration abandons NASA's Constellation Moon program, but sets its sights farther afield.
Spirit Morphs into a Martian Lander
NASA managers have decided to halt attempts to free a Martian rover that's been stuck in sand for 10 months and to concentrate instead on "stationary science" that doesn't require mobility.
WISE Sees First Light
Scientists unveil the first image from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite, which will map the sky in depth and detail at new wavelengths.
Kepler's First Exoplanet Results
NASA scientists announced this morning that the Kepler planet-hunting probe is working great, has produced a slew of results, and is working at high enough precision that it should be able to determine the abundance, or rarity, of Earth-size worlds galaxy-wide.
Saturn's Prometheus: Just Plain Weird!
A remarkable new close-up of a "ring shepherd" reveals muted surface features that make it look more like a giant gray potato than a planetary satellite.
WISE: A Very Cool Space Telescope
Early this morning a Delta rocket soared into the predawn darkness over California. It carried aloft a space observatory designed to map hundreds of millions of hidden cosmic treasures at infrared wavelengths.