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These stunning images capture the final stage of the construction of the International Space Station. But as they marked the beginning of a new era in space exploration, the spacewalk undertaken by Gregory Chamitoff and Mike Fincke also represented an end - of Nasa's 30-year shuttle programme. All future spacewalks - including one during the final shuttle voyage this summer - will be performed by full-time space station residents.

When the movie Star Wars came out in 1977, remember how many jokes were made about Luke and Han blazing away at Imperial fighters with the ack-ack guns on the Millennium Falcon? In the July 1998 issue of Spaceflight (the popular publication of the British Interplanetary Society), there's an article1 about the military version of the Soviet Salyut space station, which flew as Salyuts 3 and 5 between 1974 and 1977. (The name “Salyut” was applied to two entirely different space station programs, one military and the other civilian, which used completely different hardware built by different design bureaux.2 The...

SNIPPET: "The probe plans to test technology in preparation for an unmanned moon landing in 2012, with a possible manned lunar mission to follow in 2017. China’s other space plans include the launch of the first module of a future space station next year followed by the dispatch of manned spacecraft to dock with it."

An unmanned Russian cargo ship veered out of control near the International Space Station on Friday, sailing clear past the orbiting lab instead of docking on autopilot, as engineers on Earth struggle to determine what went wrong. The robotic cargo ship Progress 38 was slated to dock at the space station at 12:58 p.m. EDT (1658 GMT) but lost its navigational lock on the orbiting lab about 28 minutes before the rendezvous. "The Progress literally flew past the station, but at a safe distance from the outpost," NASA commentator Rob Navias said. "The station crew reported seeing the Progress drift...

The ISS [International Space Station] continues to orbit Earth in almost constant sunlight, setting the stage for multiple bright flybys in the night sky. Some observers are seeing the space station as often as five times a night! There are three easy ways to prepare. First, you can check our online Simple Satellite Tracker for viewing times. Second, if you have an iPhone, download the Simple Flybys app and your iPhone will guide you to the space station. Third, and finally, our flybys app is now available for Android phones, too!

The International Space Station (ISS) is about to put on a remarkable show. For the next few days, the behemoth spacecraft will be in almost-constant sunlight. This means it will shine brightly in the night sky every single time it passes overhead. Some observers can see it 3, 4, even 5 times a night! There are three easy ways to prepare for this "ISS marathon." First, you can check our online Simple Satellite Tracker for viewing times. Second, if you have an iPhone, download the Simple Flybys app and your iPhone will guide you to the space station. Third, and...

The International Space Station (ISS) is about to put on a remarkable show. For the next few days, the behemoth spacecraft will be in almost-constant sunlight. This means it will shine brightly in the night sky every single time it passes overhead. Some observers can see it 3, 4, even 5 times a night! [NOT likely -ETL] There are three easy ways to prepare for this "ISS marathon." First, you can check our online Simple Satellite Tracker for viewing times. Second, if you have an iPhone, download the Simple Flybys app and your iPhone will guide you to the space...

As the Space Shuttle Atlantis closed in on the International Space Station, they were briefly visible to an earthbound photographer with the Sun as backdrop. Thierry Legault, a French astro-photographer, travelled to Madrid to capture this astonishing image, which took him weeks to plan. Atlantis and the space station can be seen in the top right-hand corner, milliseconds before disappearing from the shot. -Excerpt- Mr Legault had to position himself within 500 metres of the centre of a visibility band just five miles wide to have a chance of capturing the shot.

Here's an exclusive video from NASA, which reveals the darkest secret of the space program, one that involves docking and alignment: How do you poop in space? Truly fascinating, but some of the comments in the movie shrivel my testes. "Alignment is important. If they are not sure of the alignment, you turn on the camera [inside of the toilet]" "And you can sit down in that thing and look over here and check your alignment" "We don't want men to dock to the funnel" "Male funnels don't have any venting" "Do you guys use the hand restrains at...

"When the sun sets tonight, go outside and look west. You'll see Venus and the crescent Moon beaming together through the twilight. And don't be surprised if you see a spaceship, too. The ISS and Atlantis are circling Earth and flying over many US towns and cities this evening. A four-way conjunction of planets and spaceships is not out of the question. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for flyby predictions." (simply enter zip code):http://www.spaceweather.com/flybys/?PHPSESSID=1ukve2rqseki17ff29cn687l52&PHPSESSID=r3eer56o4hit72t92i8r6l7u24

NASA has cleared the space shuttle Atlantis for its last planned launch on May 14, the first of three final spaceflights planned for the U.S. space agency's storied space plane fleet. Atlantis is officially set to blast off on May 14 at 2:20 p.m. EDT (1820 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle's six-astronaut crew will deliver and install a new Russian science module called Rassvet, which means "Dawn" in Russian. "We're ready to go next Friday," NASA's shuttle program chief John Shannon told reporters Wednesday. "It's been...

Space station Program Manager Mike Suffredini would prefer a summer 2011 flight if NASA moves forward with an extra shuttle mission using orbiter Atlantis. The timing would permit the shuttle to supply the orbiting laboratory with additional scientific hardware and components for the water recovery system that is recycling condensate from the breathing air and urine into drinking water for the six-person crews, Suffredini said May 3. Nonetheless, there is no funding for a mid-2011 extension, and the shuttle program is proceeding with plans to wind up operations late this year, with the launching of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS)...

Competitiveness: The president spent Tax Day reassuring Florida voters that money will keep flowing to NASA. But in space as well as on Earth, we'll be an unexceptional nation. In space, no one can hear you scheme. President Obama's speech at the Kennedy Space Center will never be confused with President Kennedy's clarion call in 1961 to send an American to the moon within a decade. Rather it was an admission that we will now boldly go where no one wants to go.

The technology and tools already exist to allow people and robots to repair and refuel satellites in orbit. What is lacking is the recognition of that capability by senior government officials and a business model to enable commercial companies to profit from the enterprise, according to government and industry officials attending a workshop March 24-26 sponsored by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and held at the University of Maryland University College in Adelphi, Md. “It’s pretty clear,” said Frank Cepollina, NASA deputy associate director in the space service capabilities office at NASA Goddard in Greenbelt, Md. “The time for...

Yesterday in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, astrophotographer John Stetson and his son Peter observed a very rare event--a sunspot-space station conjunction: Photo details: 5-inch AP refractor, Baader solar filter, Luminera 2-0 camera "We knew when to look thanks to a prediction from CalSky," says Stetson. "The International Space Station transited the solar disk in only 0.62 seconds. We managed to catch the station's silhouette just as it was passing sunspot 1057." Stetson has been photographing solar transits for years; he ranks this one as "the best yet." As far as we know, this is the first time the ISS has been...

The International Space Station (ISS) orbital altitude will be raised by 1.7 kilometers (about a mile) on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control orbital altitude has said. The space station manoeuvre will be carried out with the help of eight boosters on board the Progress M-04M space freighter which is currently docked with the Zvezda module on the ISS, Ria Novosti quoting the spokesman said. "As a result of the operation...the ISS's orbit will be raised 1.7 kilometers, bringing the space station to an altitude of 348 kilometers (about 216 miles) above the Earth's surface," he said. The...

“Wenchang” the fourth space center being built in China will not be ready for service earlier than 2014-2015, a media report said. The construction of the space center was previously expected to be completed by 2013. "The construction of the fourth space center, Wenchang, is ongoing. China's first low-latitude space center will be commissioned in 2014-2015," Ria Novosti quoted a local government official as saying to CCTV on Tuesday. Wenchang, located on the northeast coast of the Hainan tropical island, will be the country's first low-latitude space center. Its latitude of only 19 degrees north of the equator will contribute...

NASA satellite photos from space. In A Flash Presentation. Pictures of earth and the space station.

After more than a decade of construction, it is nearing completion and finally has a full crew of six astronauts. The last components should be installed by the end of next year. And then? "In the first quarter of 2016, we'll prep and de-orbit the spacecraft," says NASA's space station program manager, Michael T. Suffredini. That's a polite way of saying that NASA will make the space station fall back into the atmosphere, where it will turn into a fireball and then crash into the Pacific Ocean. It'll be a controlled reentry, to ensure that it doesn't take out a...

Achievement: The nation that put the first man on the moon may have put its last as budget cuts slash NASA's plans to return. Men will return to the moon, but they will likely speak Chinese. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy announced in front of a joint session of Congress the dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American to the moon by the end of that decade. It was a clarion call to the American spirit and technology to rise up and prove that America's best days were still ahead. Forty-one years after Neil Armstrong set foot on...