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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Five years after Atlantis' last launch, five favorite stories about the shuttle program
On the five-year anniversary of the final space shuttle launch, Jason Davis shares five of his favorite stories about the program.
That new Soyuz smell: Next ISS trio launches tonight aboard upgraded crew craft
Expedition 48 crewmembers Kate Rubins, Takuya Onishi and Anatoly Ivanishin begin a two-day trip to the International Space Station tonight aboard a newly upgraded Soyuz MS spacecraft.
Multimedia roundup: Flawless ride to orbit for Expedition 48 crew
Expedition 48 crewmembers Kate Rubins, Takuya Onishi and Anatoly Ivanishin are safely in orbit following an early morning launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Big booster blasts Utah hillside, and NASA discusses Journey to Mars
NASA and Orbital ATK successfully completed a qualification motor firing of a five-segment solid rocket booster that will fly on the Space Launch System in 2018.
Watch a test of the world's largest solid rocket booster tomorrow on NASA TV
Tomorrow morning at 10:05 a.m. EDT (14:05 UTC), NASA and Orbital ATK are test-firing the world's largest solid rocket booster in northern Utah. You can follow along live on NASA TV.
Quick multimedia roundup: China's new rocket blasts off on inaugural mission
China's new Long March 7 rocket successfully blasted off on its inaugural mission today at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time (12:00 UTC, 7:00 a.m. EDT).
All about China's new rocket and spaceport, which may see action this Saturday
Sometime between Saturday and Wednesday, China plans to launch a brand new rocket from a brand new launch site, and conduct a small-scale test of its next-generation crew capsule.
Multimedia roundup: Blue Origin completes two-parachute test flight
Yesterday in West Texas, Blue Origin launched its New Shepard spacecraft on its sixth suborbital test flight. The capsule normally descends using three parachutes, but on Sunday, just two were used to show the spacecraft could still land safely in the event of a parachute mishap.
Picture-perfect landing for Soyuz crew on sunny Kazakh steppe
Tim Kopra, Tim Peake and Yuri Malenchenko are back on Earth this morning following a picture-perfect landing on the sunny Kazakhstan steppe.
Night owl? Early bird? Watch a Soyuz crew plunge back to Earth Saturday morning
Tomorrow morning, Tim Kopra, Tim Peake and Yuri Malenchenko are coming home from the International Space Station. But if you live in the United States or Europe, you're going to have to get up pretty early—or stay up late—to see it happen.
Multimedia roundup: Falcon 9 makes dual-satellite delivery run
SpaceX placed two communications satellites into orbit today, but the company's attempt to go four-in-a-row on first stage drone ship recoveries fell short.
Scientists play with fire aboard trash-filled cargo spacecraft
This afternoon, NASA started a fire aboard a trash-filled cargo spacecraft, but it was all in the name of science. Engineers at the agency's Glenn Research Center are studying how large-scale fires spread in space.
LightSail 2 will transmit Morse code from space, and you can make the sound your ringtone
The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft will identify itself from orbit using Morse code, and you can make the sound your ringtone.
Take a look inside the station's new expandable module with astronaut Jeff Williams
BEAM, the International Space Station's new expandable habitat module, is open for business. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka entered the module at 4:47 a.m. EDT (9:47 UTC) this morning.
Follow a space shuttle tank through LA with this timelapse video
This timelapse video follows some of the space shuttle external tank's 19-hour journey from Marina del Rey to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
BEAM expanded and pressurized: Your news, commentary and tweet roundup
BEAM is expanded and pressurized! The International Space Station's newest module, which will serve as a technology demonstrator for in-space expandable habitats, was fully filled with air this afternoon.
With retry scheduled tomorrow, NASA and Bigelow say BEAM will work—it's just a question of when
NASA will try again tomorrow to expand BEAM, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module. During a press teleconference this afternoon, officials said they were confident the module was going to expand—it's just a question of when.
Three-peat! SpaceX sticks another drone ship landing
SpaceX continued its impressive string of first stage recoveries today, sticking a Falcon 9 drone ship landing during the successful launch of THAICOM 8, a communications satellite.
Space station module expansion called off after BEAM doesn't budge
NASA and Bigelow Aerospace weren't able to get the space station's newest module up and running this morning. Another attempt could come as early as Friday.
Tomorrow morning, watch a new space module inflate—er, expand
NASA is set to fill a new space station module called BEAM with air Thursday morning. But does BEAM inflate, or expand?