It's not the miniature robotic space shuttle that NASA's planning to send into orbit this month, but another of the space agency's unmanned vehicles has edged closer to its beginning its mission, with the "nearly autonomous" Global Hawk aircraft having completed a key test flight bright and early on April 2nd.
ENGADGET: NASA's unmanned Global Hawk completes key test flight
Tuesday's launch marks the culmination of six years of preparation to bring commercial flights to the space station following the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet last year.
Space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 crew carried it into orbit in May 2011, where it was installed on the station's truss structure.
ENGADGET: AMS detects excess of positrons, could suggest existence of dark matter
In Los Angeles, the space shuttle Endeavor's final journey is causing controversy, as more than 400 trees are being cut down to make way for the spacecraft.
Just as CNN has covered every space shuttle launch extensively since the shuttle's first liftoff in 1981, CNN Interactive now covers shuttle launches on its Web site.
Nyberg, 43, spent two weeks in space in 2008 as part of a U.S. space shuttle crew.
Apollo's successor, the Space Shuttle program, failed to capture America's imagination, or attention, except in 1986, when Challenger blew up, killing seven, and in 2003, when Columbia disintegrated on reentry, killing another seven.
It's almost the same mix as in the solid-rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle, and it's powerful stuff.
The space shuttle uses ATK's four-segment solid rocket boosters (SRBs) to do the major part of lifting the shuttle stack off the Earth.
Until the eve of the launch, United States and Russian space officials argued about the overlap of the Soyuz rocket launch and the continued docking of U.S. space shuttle Endeavour at the space station.
The space station crew has been limited to two full-time residents since last year's suspension of space shuttle flights in the wake of the Columbia accident.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Astronauts may get time extension
Just this past month, Vincent finally got permission to shoot in NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, home of the soon-to-be-closed space shuttle program, and Vincent's holy grail.
No attempt will be made to shoot down the satellite until after the U.S. space shuttle lands next Wednesday.
CNN: Attempt to shoot down spy satellite to cost up to $60 million
It marks the end of America's space-shuttle programme, whose last mission is planned to launch on July 8th (see article, article).
The An-225 Cossack aircraft (wingspan 291 feet, 2 inches) was built to transport the Soviet Union's Buran orbiter, their equivalent of the U.S. Space Shuttle.
In 1992, the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour took off with a crew that included Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space.
After 25 years, 32 successful missions, and more than 120-million miles traveled, space shuttle Atlantis made what's likely to be its last landing yesterday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
ENGADGET: Space Shuttle Atlantis ends its run of predicting disaster for other NASA shuttles
On Endeavour's return, the only active ship left in the US space agency's (Nasa) shuttle fleet will be Atlantis.
It concluded that the agency could not move forward "without radical reform" and recommended cuts in the space station's workforce and shuttle missions.
Behnken has inherited the position at a time of transition for the astronaut corps, as NASA looks beyond its retired space shuttle program toward hiring U.S. companies to fly its crews on private spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).
MSN: NASA names space shuttle veteran as new chief astronaut
Much as the war overshadowed the G8 Summit, most as - much as the war seems to have overshadowed news of everything else, including the return of the space shuttle and everything else that's going on in the world, it's going to overshadow everything that's going on in Congress.
While Curiosity's landing is bound to burnish NASA's image and improve its employee morale, the mission may provide only a temporary political boost for an agency that has struggled to chart a new course amid spending constraints, persistent legislative fights and last year's retirement of the space shuttle fleet.
He was also the first Canadian to operate his country's major contribution to the space shuttle - its robotic arm, or "Canadarm".
After the Bush Administration announced last year that the space shuttle would be retired in 2010, NASA's Stennis Space Center, which performs engine testing on it, went into action, wooing more private enterprises to its 140, 000-acre grounds.
It is hoped the return to space after a two-and-a-half-year absence will restore people's faith in the shuttle programme and boost American expectations for further exploration of space.
NASA, America's space agency, will not send another shuttle mission to extend its life.
At Kennedy Space Center, the home base of NASA's shuttle fleet, all employees were allowed to return to work Thursday.
It has been estimated that about 25 tons of helium-3, equal to just one payload of a space shuttle, would provide enough energy for the U.S. for a year at current consumption levels.
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