United Launch Alliance wins preliminary approval
Posted: Mon, Jan 9 6:46 AM ET (1146 GMT)
Defense Department officials have given preliminary approval to the proposed merger of Boeing and Lockheed Martin's government launch operations, the Wall Street Journal reported...

Report: Genesis spacecraft test skipped
Posted: Mon, Jan 9 6:39 AM ET (1139 GMT)
Lockheed Martin engineers skipped a test that could have caught a problem with NASA's Genesis spacecraft, according to a newspaper report. The Rocky Mountain...

Astronomers measure size of Charon
Posted: Mon, Jan 9 6:32 AM ET (1132 GMT)
Astronomers announced last week that they used a stellar occultation to measure the size of Charon, Pluto's largest moon, and confirm that the world...

Topex/Poseidon mission ends
Posted: Fri, Jan 6 8:17 AM ET (1317 GMT)
Topex/Poseidon, a joint US-French earth sciences mission, officially ended Thursday because of spacecraft problems. The spacecraft, launched in 1992, was designed to operate...

NASA makes deal for Soyuz rides
Posted: Fri, Jan 6 8:05 AM ET (1305 GMT)
NASA has signed an agreement with the Russian space agency Roskosmos to purchase seats on Soyuz flights for a little over $20 million each, agency...

ORBCOMM raises $110 million
Posted: Thu, Jan 5 7:45 AM ET (1245 GMT)
Satellite communications company ORBCOMM announced Wednesday that it has closed a $110-million round of financing that will allow the company to deploy a new...

Arianespace announces launch contract, 2005 profit
Posted: Thu, Jan 5 7:35 AM ET (1235 GMT)
Launch services provider Arianespace said Wednesday that it has won a contract to launch a military communications satellite and also reported a small profit in...

Pluto colder than expected
Posted: Wed, Jan 4 7:14 AM ET (1214 GMT)
The surface of the distant planet Pluto is about ten degrees colder than its moon, evidence of different compositions for the two objects. Millimeter-wave...

Japan training astronauts for long-term ISS missions
Posted: Tue, Jan 3 8:32 AM ET (1332 GMT)
The Japanese space agency JAXA is training two of its astronauts for long-duration missions on the International Space Station, even though the agency is...

Proton launches communications satellite
Posted: Thu, Dec 29 8:31 AM ET (1331 GMT)
A Proton booster successfully launched an American communications satellite early Thursday. The Proton-M lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:28...