Space and Astronomy News Headlines

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio plans to fly to space on Virgin Galactic's new commercial spaceliner, along with the winning bidder in a charity auction at the Cannes film festival, according to news reports.

North America will be well positioned to see a lunar eclipse late tonight (May 24), but it might not be worth waiting up for.

Sally Ride, the United States' first woman in space, will be posthumously honored with the country's highest civilian commendation and the renaming of a high-flying camera.

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. — The chopper descends towards a giant runway surrounded by scrubby, red earth of the New Mexico desert. At the center sits a hangar as big as a city block that looks like the launching pad for an alien fleet.

Three astronauts who recently spent months together aboard the International Space Station reunited on Earth today (May 23) during a Google+ Hangout to talk about their experiences aboard the orbiting lab and the challenge of readapting to life with gravity.

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Corporate researchers may be living on the moon by the time NASA astronauts head off to visit an asteroid in the 2020s, a study of future human missions unveiled on Thursday shows. The study by Bigelow Aerospace, commissioned by NASA, shows "a lot of excitement and interest …

Human exploration of deep space is looking more and more like a tag-team affair, with NASA jetting off to asteroids and Mars while the private sector sets up shop on the moon.

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Surrounded by engineers, NASA chief Charles Bolden inspected a prototype spacecraft engine that could power an audacious mission to lasso an asteroid and tow it closer to Earth for astronauts to explore.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Nearly two years after space shuttle Atlantis blasted off for the last time, NASA on Thursday put out a "For Lease" notice for one of its shuttle launch pads in Florida. In a notice posted on its procurement website, the U.S. space agency said it was looking for one or more companies …

Some people may find it hard to believe that a private mission will succeed in landing four astronauts on Mars in 2023, but several state-run media outlets in China are targeting the project with even harsher terms like "hoax" and "hype."

The iconic Ring Nebula may seem like just a stunning circle of wispy interstellar gas, but new images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal it to be more like a deep-space jelly doughnut, scientists say.

A strange pair of stars is much closer to Earth than scientists ever thought, a discovery that finally helps explain a puzzling mystery behind the stellar twins, scientists say.

An interplanetary weather app, a spot-the-space-station tool, and a Mars greenhouse concept are among the winners of the 2013 International Space Apps Challenge. The contest solicited mobile apps and technologies that aid space exploration and enrich life here on Earth.

Europe has a new hub that will help coordinate scientists' efforts to detect and track potentially dangerous asteroids.

An amazing photo of a stellar nursery located 6,500 light-years away from Earth marks the 15-year cosmic anniversary of a telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.

The venerable Mars rover Opportunity, the older and smaller cousin of Curiosity, has discovered another water-weathered rock hinting that the Red Planet could have supported life in its ancient past, NASA officials said.

Vials of moon dust brought back to Earth by the first men on the moon have been found inside a lab warehouse in California after sitting in storage unnoticed for more than 40 years.

China’s growing space prowess shows no signs of slowing, the U.S. Department of Defense said in its annual report to Congress on military and security developments involving the People’s Republic of China.