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, 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 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 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...

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...

After waiting for a break in cloudy weather, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off and boosted a powerful communications satellite into orbit Monday, the first relay station built for the government of Turkmenistan.
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A quarter of a century since its launch in April 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope is operating in near flawless fashion, and engineers are optimistic the observatory will remain on the forefront of astronomy at least through 2020 -- its 30th anniversary -- if not beyond.
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A dramatic new photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to mark the observatory's 25th anniversary shows a cluster of hot young stars shining in the heart of a nursery-like nebula some 20,000 light years from Earth. Read More...

Repairing the Hubble Space Telescope’s famously flawed vision required ingenuity and perseverance. But in the end, the herculean effort paid off, lifting Hubble from the ashes of failure to the pinnacle of scientific success. Read More...

Twenty-five years after launch, the Hubble Space Telescope remains at the forefront of modern astronomy, an unrivaled discovery machine and cultural icon with rock star status in the world of Big Science. Read More...

A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship loaded with more than two tons of equipment and supplies rendezvoused with the International Space Station early Friday and was captured by Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, using the lab's robot arm, to wrap up a smooth three-day rendezvous.
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosted a Dragon cargo ship into orbit Tuesday on a three-day flight to the International Space Station, but an attempt to land the booster’s first stage on an off-shore barge was not successful. Read More...

United Launch Alliance unveiled a new rocket system Monday that eventually will replace the company's workhorse Delta and Atlas boosters, ending reliance on Russian-built engines.
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Electrically active anvil clouds approaching the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Monday forced SpaceX to order a 24-hour delay for launch of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.
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Blue Origin, the historically secretive rocket company owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, has completed development of a new hydrogen-fueled engine and plans to begin unmanned test flights of its reusable New Shepard sub-orbital spacecraft later this year. Read More...