At 3:42 p.m. on Friday, March 27, 2015, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly embarked on a journey no NASA astronaut has ever before undertaken. Along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, Kelly headed to the International Space Station to start a — the longest continuous amount of time any American has ever spent in space.Gennady Padalka, also of the Russian Federal Space Agency, launched with Kelly and Kornienko, but will not stay aboard the ISS for a full year. The two travelers...

No doubt you've witnessed thunderstorms here on Earth: the flash of lightning, the rumble of thunder, the dark skies that birth heavy rain and gusty winds. (MORE: ) But have you ever seen thunderstorms...in space? While satellites in space have given researchers a first-hand look at "the other side of the storm" for a few decades, the ocial media has allowed astronauts to give an out-of-this-world view of nature's electric show. snapped a video of this cluster of thunderstorms developing...

An artist concept of the test vehicle for NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, designed to test landing technologies for future Mars missions. On March 31, 2015, NASA tested the machine's balance. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) Early this summer, reports of flying saucers may spike — and observers wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. That’s when NASA plans to fly its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), which looks eerily like a UFO, over the Pacific Ocean outside of Kauai, Hawaii. Yesterday, March 31, the agency spun all 15...

Blink and you might have missed it. According to NASA, astarted at 6:16 a.m. EDT on Saturday and lasted only five minutes, making it the shortest eclipse in the 21st century. The eclipse was visible in places around the world, including western North America, eastern Asia, the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Full lunar eclipses are often called "blood moons," because of the red tint they adopt as sunsets and sunrises seen from the Earth reflect onto the surface of...

Eleven Hyundai drivers helped 13-year-old Stephanie send a message to her dad, an astronaut orbiting Earth in the International Space Station. A fleet of cars etched Stephanie's etched Stephanie's message into the desert floor. (Hyundai) In an , , who says she misses her father, and worked with her to etch "Steph Loves You" into Nevada's Delamar Dry Lake in tire tracks. Although Stephanie's father wasn't identified in the ad, ABC News says that astronaut Terry Virts, known for his...

After years spent orbiting Mercury collecting data, NASA's Messenger spacecraft will crash into the planet's surface later this month. No need to worry, though, it's all part of the plan. In a statement, NASA says the spacecraft, which was launched in 2004, will April 30. (MORE: ) At more than 8,000 miles per hour, Messenger will strike Mercury's surface, but scientists won't be able to view the event because it will land on the side of the planet facing away...

You've seen thunderstorms before, but have you ever seen one like this? Filmed from the International Space Station in 2012, this video offers a whole new perspective on the common thunderstorm. The time lapse imagery was compiled from 49 separate photos taken with the European Space Agency's night pod camera. Astronauts were over 250 miles away when they captured the storm. MORE FROM WEATHER.COM:Incredible Light Trails from Space NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured stunning star trails using a long-exposure technique...

Look up. The Lyrid meteor shower is happening above you right now. This annual night light show is expected to peak just before midnight on Wednesday night, Apr. 22, and into the early morning hours of Thursday, Apr. 23. “The Lyrids themselves are caused by comet Thatcher, which in recorded history was seen around 1861,” Mitzi Adams, an astrophysicist with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, told weather.com. “But the comet has a 415-year cycle orbit. We won’t see it again...

For a quarter century, the has been unlocking celestial mysteries by letting us see space up close. The scope has made more than 1 million observations, answering questions about more than 38,000 objects in space. In October 2014, for example, the Earth-orbiting scope spotted a galaxy 13 billion light-years away — the yet. It’s helped us hone in on the age of the universe (13 to 14 billion years old) and discover dark energy, what NASA describes as “a mysterious...

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite prior to deployment from the orbiter Discovery, STS-48. (NASA) Originally published September 23, 2011 There has been a lot of hype about the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) that will be re-entering Earth's atmosphere, with pieces of the satellite expected to crash land anywhere from South America to Canada. Many are worried whether or not they will be safe outside, or if a giant chunk of space metal will fall from the sky and do...

It was a scene straight out of Gravity or Interstellar, but luckily nobody was on board to witness the thrill ride. Russia's Progress 59 (M-27M), an unmanned cargo ship, launched from Kazakhstan on Tuesday and was bound to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) when it spun out of control hundreds of miles above Earth. Progress 59 spirals out of control -- Earth is visible in the background. (NASA Youtube) The Guardian reports that the Russian space agency Roscosmos lost...

Artist rendering of Messenger above Mercury. (NASA) NASA confirmed Thursday afternoon that its , creating a new crater on the planet. “Going out with a bang as it impacts the surface of Mercury, we are celebrating Messenger as more than a successful mission,” John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate said. “The Messenger mission will continue to provide scientists with a bonanza of new results as we begin the next phase of this mission — analyzing the exciting...