Nasa, Space Shuttle | featured news

Less than a year after NASA ended its shuttle program, players in America's space business are casting around for new direction.

Space shuttle Discovery, NASA's fleet leader and the world's most flown spacecraft, lifted off for the last time on Tuesday (April 17) to be delivered to the Smithsonian for its permanent display.

NASA says an object found and East Texas lake is from the shuttle Columbia that broke up in space in 2003, CNN reports.

Though thunderstorms threatened, Atlantis was launched for NASA’s 135th and final shuttle flight, bound for the International Space Station with four astronauts.

NBC News’ Jay Barbree narrates a rare time-lapse video of the shuttle Atlantis being prepared for its final mission.

At $196 billion, the amount of money taxpayers spent during the lifetime of the space shuttle program seems astronomical.

When the United States embarked on its shuttle program decades ago, it set out to build a workhorse vehicle that would make space travel routine and beat the Soviets during the Cold War struggle for dominance in space.

In the final move of its kind, NASA's space shuttle Atlantis was photographed earlier this month slowly advancing toward Launch Pad 39A, where it is currently scheduled for a July launch to the International Space Station. The mission, designated STS-135, is the 135th and last mission for a NASA space shuttle. Atlantis and its four-person crew will be carrying, among other things, the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello to bring key components and supplies to the ISS.

NASA does all kinds of stuff. They build space robots. They send up satellites. They study the oceans. But come on - who're we kidding? When most people think of NASA, they think of manned space flight. The space shuttle. But after 30 years, and 135 flights, NASA has decided to close down the space shuttle program.

Two astronauts made history Friday as the final spacewalkers of NASA's 30-year shuttle program.