Space

A Pegasus rocket containing eight mini-satellites is air-launched on Thursday.

WATCH: NASA Rocket Deploys 'Satellite Constellation' After Unique Air-Launch

4:12pm December 15, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

NASA has just launched eight micro-satellites that will allow scientists to make better predictions about hurricanes. They deployed from a rocket that was launched from an aircraft.

The rover took this photo of purplish rocks at the base of Mars' Mount Sharp on Nov. 10.

Curiosity Rover Encounters Technical Difficulties On Martian Mountain

10:12pm December 13, 2016

by Rae Ellen Bichell

NASA engineers are trying to figure out why a part of the rover's robotic arm keeps stalling just as it's about to drill into Martian rock.

A rendering in a video by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows an electrodynamic tether being deployed to help reduce the amount of space junk in orbit.

Science

Japan Sends Long Electric Whip Into Orbit, To Tame Space Junk

5:23pm December 09, 2016

by Bill Chappell

A cable that's as long as six football fields has been launched into orbit — and when it's deployed, it'll test an idea to knock out debris that threatens astronauts and spacecraft.

Encore: Astronaut John Glenn Recalls Historic Orbit Of Earth

4:40pm December 09, 2016

Astronaut John Glenn — who was one of NASA's original Mercury Seven — was the first American to orbit Earth. He flew the mission in just under five hours, circling the globe three times in a capsule named Friendship 7. Glenn, who says he recalls the mission as if it were just last week, told NPR's Audie Cornish he doesn't want the U.S. to lose sight of the future and America's role in outer space. This story originally aired on Feb. 20, 2012 on All Things Considered.

Glenn checks over notes with backup pilot Scott Carpenter after a simulated flight in 1962, prior to the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission at Cape Canaveral. The object of the mission was to put the first American spaceman into orbit around the Earth.

National

John Glenn, First American To Orbit The Earth, Dies At 95

6:14pm December 08, 2016

by Russell Lewis

After a career as a Marine pilot, Glenn was chosen as an astronaut. He was the third American in space, went on to have a successful career in politics and then returned to space on shuttle Discovery.

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Former U.S. Senator And Space Pioneer John Glenn Dies At 95

4:40pm December 08, 2016

John Glenn, former astronaut and U.S. senator, has died. He was 95 years old.

Science

If You're Looking For Alien Life, How Will You Know If You've Found it?

10:22am December 05, 2016

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Searching for alien life is harder than you might think, because whatever is out there might be really odd. So leading astrobiologists are meeting to advise NASA on how to go about looking for it.

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Data collected between Nov. 17-28 by NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, or AIM, spacecraft Antarctica covered in glowing electric blue due to the start of noctilucent, or night-shining, cloud season.

The Electric Blue Polar Cloud Season Came Early This Year

5:05pm December 02, 2016

by Rebecca Hersher

Noctilucent clouds, high-altitude clouds that appear to glow in the sky at night, usually show up in the Southern Hemisphere summer. Satellite images showed them covering Antarctica in early November.

A Russian resupply rocket launched Thursday morning from Kazakhstan. The flight initially went as planned, but the rocket broke up in the atmosphere about six minutes after it took off.

Russian Supply Rocket Breaks Apart En Route To Space Station

5:59pm December 01, 2016

by Rebecca Hersher

The unmanned rocket stopped transmitting data about six minutes after it took off from Kazakhstan and never made it to space. This is the third botched launch of a Russian spacecraft in two years.

The U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica as seen in 2002.

Buzz Aldrin Is Medically Evacuated From Antarctica

5:08pm December 01, 2016

by Rebecca Hersher

The second man to walk on the moon fell ill during a trip to the South Pole and was flown to New Zealand. Aldrin is 86 years old.