According to a press release from NASA, the Mars Rover Spirit sent about 72 megabits of data yesterday in a burst of communication relayed through the orbiting Odyssey spacecraft. It was the first communication through the relay station since communication problems started on Wednesday and contained mostly diagnostic data. In …

With the news (from CNN) yesterday that the Mars Rover Spirit had not been constructively heard from in a day, and the loss of Beagle, the Mars Explorer, and lord-knows what other Mars exploration vehicles, it leaves you to wonder if there are Martians there trying to keep us away …

With astronaut safety concerns as the stated cause, NASA has decided to cancel the 2006 shuttle mission to provide the Hubble Space Telescope with its last parts exchange. This means that it will likely cease operation before its successor (the James Webb Space Telescope) is aloft. Articles from space.com …

According to a press release by NASA, the Mars Rover Spirit moved off of its comfortable landing pad yesterday to the tune of Who Let The Dogs Out (by the Baha Men). The first movements were successful and generated a bunch of cool new photos that can be seen by …

An article from Apple's site describes using Maestro (a program used by NASA scientists) to look at raw data from Mars. Here's the basics of what you need to know to look at the data from a Mac or PC. The Apple article describes doing it for a Mac and …

The so-far-successful Mars rover, Spirit, has been given its marching orders and is set to move out, according to a press release from NASA. Don't forget to check out the cool pictures at the official site.

There was a celebration and no doubt a huge sigh of relief this morning when the first pictures came in from the Mars rover, Spirit. The craft, about the size of a golf cart, will spend its life roaming the red planet, grinding up rock samples and analyzing their contents …

Scaled Composites announced on the 17th of December (thanks, Amanda, for pointing this out to me) that they had broken the sound barrier in SpaceShipOne, the craft they are building to compete for the XPrize.

On the eve of the announcement that NASA plans to run the shuttle again next spring, the Christian Science Monitor has an article about the X Prize, a contest intended to bring commercial entities into the space race.

SpaceShipOne, the XPrize entrant from Scaled Composites, has successfully completed a glide test after separating from its carrier aircraft, White Knight according to an article from SpaceToday.net. Way to go Burt and team!

Armadillo Aerospace (the X-Prize entry lead by John Carmack), has announced that they have successfully tested their re-entry vehicle. Complete (or perhaps replete) with pictures and MPEG video.

An article from SpaceToday.net reports that NASA has finally launched Opportunity, NASA's new Mars rover. Further information about, and pictures from, the launch are available in the NASA feature piece. More information on the MER (Mars Exploration Rover) mission, and about Opportunity's twin, Spirit, are available on the NASA …

Burt Rutan (of Scaled Composites) has filed for a launch license for Space Ship One, according to an article from SpaceToday.net. The application requires a response from the FAA within 6 months. Although Rutan believes that he should be allowed to launch the vehicle because of its experimental status …

The Russian Rockot booster was used Monday to launch a series of 9 small satellites from around the world, according to reports from SpaceToday.net The former ballistic missile (known in the west as the SS-19) is being used by EUROCKET, a pan-European launch group, to perform multiple payload launches …

An article from SpaceToday.net and referencing a press release from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board indicates that the board is requesting NASA put together a plan to check and repair tiles while the Shuttle is on a mission. The plan involves setting up an inspection regime for missions that …

If you have $20M, you can have one of two seats on upcoming Soyuz missions to the ISS. According to an article from the New York Times, Virginia-based Space Adventures and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency have reached an agreement to resume commercial space travel to the ISS. NASA …

According to an article on Space.com, NASA wants to start launching again before the end of the year and finish the US portion of the ISS by 2005. Among the other interesting tidbits: No more nighttime launches Redesign of the external fuel tank (to prevent falling foam incidents) Possible …

An enjoyable article appears in Wired today about Burt Rutan (of Scaled Composites and well known to any experimental aircraft buff) and his quest for space. Burt is working on Space Ship One as part of the competition for the X-Prize.

After two days of weather-related delays, a Boeing Delta II rocket lifted the two rovers from the Earth on their way to Mars. An article from SpaceToday.net points to a number of articles about today's launch. As planned, the first rover (Spirit) separated from the launch vehicle's third stage …

According to an article on Wired, a model rocketry group from Portland State University is putting together a model rocket that is running on Linux. The group is building a sophisticated rocket designed to climb to about 50,000 feet and to carry processors to control flight and send back …