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The Atlas 5 rocket’s planned Thursday liftoff cleared a final hurdle during a routine pre-launch review today at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Officials confirmed the mission is targeting departure at 3:02 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-3 on South Base. While the window remains classified, the launch could occur anytime before 4 a.m., according to officials. The West Coast’s first Atlas 5 rocket will carry a top-secret satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.

NASA managers today cleared the shuttle Atlantis and its crew for blastoff Dec. 6 on a long-awaited flight to attach the European Space Agency's Columbus research lab to the international space station. With commander Steve Frick and pilot Alan Poindexter at the controls, Atlantis is scheduled to lift off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:31:44 p.m. next Thursday, roughly the moment when Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. "We have had three outstanding flights of the space shuttle so far this year and we're looking forward to a...

NASA this weekend is set to launch a spacecraft that will journey to the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter, a mission that involves a rendezvous with two of the solar system's largest asteroids. Seeking clues about the birth of the solar system, the Dawn spacecraft will first encounter Vesta, the smaller of the two bodies, four years from now. In 2015, it will meet up with Ceres, which carries the status of both asteroid and, like Pluto, dwarf planet. "We're trying to go back in time as well as to go out there in space," said planetary...

08:27 Bill Gates considering space tourist trek to ISS MORE...

WOODY CREEK, Colo. - Iconoclastic journalist Hunter S. Thompson would have loved the 153-foot tower built to blast his ashes into the sky, said one of his many friends and admirers gathered for an unsolemn farewell. "It's a beautiful structure. Of course, he would not have been able to resist putting a few holes into it," said Michael Cleverly, referring to his former neighbor's love of shooting guns. "But it weighs several tons, so it could handle a few holes." The counterculture author killed himself six months ago at his home near Aspen. His ashes, intermingled with fireworks, were to...

China has announced plans to launch a manned spacecraft this year, becoming the third country to send people into orbit. The "taikonauts" - from the word taikong (space) - will be blasted into orbit on board the Shenzhou spacecraft in the second half of the year, China's space agency said. A successful mission would be a propaganda coup for the government, eager to promote China as a technologically advanced nation. The announcement follows the successful launch of an unmanned Shenzhou capsule from the Gobi desert on Monday. Yesterday, with the craft still in orbit, it appeared that the launch was...

Shuttle gets ready to blast off Nasa is hoping for favourable weather conditions Last minute preparations are underway for the United States space shuttle Endeavour to blast into orbit in the early hours of Monday. We're right on schedule and we have no issues Pete NickolenkoNasa test director Endeavour will carry seven astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), three of whom will remain on the station, swapping with three crew members already there. Two of the crew members are last minute replacements for two astronauts who had to be bumped from the mission - the first time Nasa has...