Wright Shumate sent this picture via Twitter. 'My photo of the Minotaur rocket launch and the moon. Taken from North Carolina.' WASHINGTON -- A rocket has streaked along the eastern U.S. early evening sky in an unusual sight as NASA put a smartphone and 28 other tiny satellites into orbit. NASA and the Air Force launched the private Minotaur rocket Tuesday from Wallops Island, Va., in a test flight. The NASA launch pad is getting more use, giving more Americans...

WASHINGTON -- Comet ISON is teasing the solar system as it dances with the sun and it's giving astronomers mixed signals. Will it meet a fiery death - or survive - when it whips around the sun on Thursday? The icy comet will be only about 1 million miles away from the sun's super-hot surface during its close encounter on Thanksgiving. On Monday, it looked like it was about to die even before it got there. On Tuesday, it appeared...

A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket sits on Launch Complex 40 just before the launch window opened at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. ((AP Photo/John Raoux)) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A new communications satellite that has both public and government applications is still sitting on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. The privately owned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has experienced several technical issues this year and two attempts to launch on Thanksgiving were aborted. SpaceX...

NEW DELHI -- India's Mars orbiter mission left Earth's sphere of influence early Sunday after performing a maneuver to put it on its way to orbit the red planet. The spacecraft fired its main engine for more than 20 minutes to reach the correct velocity to leave the Earth's orbit, the Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organization said. "The Earth orbiting phase of the spacecraft ended. The spacecraft is now on a course to encounter Mars after a journey of about...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- It's all up to Hubble. NASA said Monday that the Hubble Space Telescope is the best bet for figuring out whether Comet ISON disintegrated during its brush with the sun last week. A pair of solar observatories saw something emerge from around the sun following ISON's close approach on Thanksgiving Day. But scientists don't know whether the spot of light was merely the comet's shattered remains or what's left of its icy nucleus. Either way, by...

NASA scientists found faint signatures of water in the atmospheres of five distant planets. All five planets appear to be hazy. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected water in the atmospheres of five planets beyond our solar system, two recent studies reveal. The are all scorching-hot, Jupiter-size worlds that are unlikely to host life as we know it. But finding water in their atmospheres still marks a step forward in the search for distant planets...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A new communications satellite that has both public and government applications has been launched into space aboard a private rocket. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Tuesday evening, carrying the 7,000-pound satellite. It will be placed in geostationary orbit. That means it will orbit at a fixed point above Earth, in sync with the Earth's rotation. The launch was originally scheduled for early this year, but has been delayed...

This view from NASA's Cassini mission is the highest-resolution view of the unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn's north pole known as 'the hexagon.' (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton) NASA is no stranger to brilliant space images, but the space agency's latest may redefine the way we view Saturn. NASA'sCassini spacecraft of Saturn's hexagon—the 20,000 mile wide jet stream swirling around Saturn's north pole that sports a massive hurricane-like storm at its core. "The hexagon is just a current of air, and weather features...

This image is an artist's depiction of Mars One astronauts and their habitat on the Red Planet. Mars One is a not-for-profit organization that will establish a human settlement on Mars. (Bryan Versteeg/Mars One) LONDON — It's a one-way ticket, but don't worry: You'll live there longer than back home on Earth, says Bas Lansdorp. After all, on Mars you can't get hit by a car. And everything you'll eat will be organic — no pesticides, just fertilizer made from,...

This photo, taken from the International Space Station, shows Cape Town, South Africa from space. NASA paid tribute to the late Nelson Mandela by sharing the photo across its social media platforms. (Chris Hadfield) NASA joined in on a chorus of tributes to the late Nelson Mandela Thursday, by sharing an image of Cape Town, South Africa taken from the International Space Station across its social media platforms. "In honor of the anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, who passed away today...

(Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering) Less than five days after leaving Earth atop a blazing Long March launcher, China's Chang'e 3 spacecraft reached lunar orbit Friday to prepare for an historic rocket-assisted touchdown in the moon's Bay of Rainbows later this month. Outfitted with a six-wheeled robotic rover and smarts to avoid hazards in the landing zone, Chang'e 3 is China's boldest unmanned space mission to date, extending feats achieved by a pair of lunar orbiters launched in 2007...

An enormous alien planet — one that is 11 times more massive than Jupiter — was discovered in the most distant orbit yet found around a single parent star. The newfound , dubbed HD 106906 b, dwarfs any planetary body in the solar system, and circles its star at a distance that is 650 times the average . The existence of such a massive and distantly orbiting planet raises new questions about how these bizarre worlds are formed, the researchers...