Mars

WASHINGTON, May 24 (Xinhua) - California-based private company SpaceX announced Thursday that its Dragon spacecraft completed key on-orbit tests as part of a historic attempt to be the first commercial company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Early Thursday morning, Dragon's thrusters fired, bringing the vehicle 2.4 kilometers below the station.

May 25, 2012 | ANI | Moscow Russian military intelligence has claimed that a US undercover operation could have damaged its new superjet plane that crashed in Indonesia two weeks ago. The aircraft was on a demonstration flight aimed at securing lucrative orders when it crashed into a mountain, which killed all 45 people onboard, the Daily Mail reports. "We are investigating the theory that it was industrial sabotage," a GRU military intelligence source said.

Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov Natasha Metzler Carnegie Institution of Washington 202-939-1142 nmetzler@carnegiescience.edu May 24, 2012 RELEASE : 12-171 NASA Funded Research Shows Existence Of Reduced Carbon On Mars WASHINGTON - NASA-funded research on Mars meteorites that landed on Earth shows strong evidence that very large molecules containing carbon, which is

Associated Press, Los Angeles | Fri, 05/25/2012 7:34 AM Even robots like to have fun. NASA's rover on Mars showed off its playful side by snapping a photo of its own shadow. It's the latest self-portrait since the rover, named Opportunity, landed on the red planet in 2004. The photo was taken in March, and the U.S.

by Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com Contributor A sample of a Mars rock from the Tissint meteorite fall, which dropped chunks of the Red Planet into the Morocco desert in July 2011. CREDIT: б╘ 2011 Darryl Pitt / Macovich Collection View full size image Organic molecules - compounds that on Earth can be linked with life - encased within Martian meteorites now reveal biological activity on the Red Planet could not have formed these materials, researchers say.