Jun 28 Shuttle Safety Top Issue Prior to Saturday Launch By PBS News Hour NASA officials deemed the space shuttle Discovery "in excellent shape" Wednesday, hours before the countdown began for Saturday's launch, despite internal disagreements over whether loosened foam will continue to be a problem. Continue reading
Jan 19 NASA Launches Spacecraft to Explore Pluto By PBS News Hour After two days of unexpected delays, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft took off aboard an Atlas V rocket headed towards Pluto Thursday. Continue reading
Nov 23 New Cracks Found in Shuttle’s Tank Foam By PBS News Hour NASA officials still puzzling over what caused a section of foam insulation to break off the space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank during its launch in July. Continue reading
Aug 18 NASA Delays Next Shuttle Launch to Address Falling Foam By PBS News Hour In light of what they learned from the space shuttle's return to flight and the reoccurring problem of foam breaking off the external fuel tank during takeoff, NASA officials said they will hold off launching the next shuttle until spring… Continue reading
Aug 12 NASA Launches Mars Orbiter By PBS News Hour An Atlas V rocket roared into space Friday morning, launching a sophisticated NASA probe on its seven-month journey to Mars from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Continue reading
Aug 03 Astronaut Pulls Strips From Shuttle’s Tile Belly By PBS News Hour Astronaut Stephen Robinson gently plucked two protruding and potentially dangerous fiber strips from the space shuttle Discovery's underbelly Wednesday in an unprecedented emergency repair. Continue reading
Jul 27 NASA to Ground Shuttles Over Foam Debris By PBS News Hour NASA said Wednesday it would ground future shuttle flights because the problem of foam peeling off the fuel tank and possibly damaging the shuttle had not been eliminated. Continue reading
Jul 26 Shuttle Discovery Rockets Into Orbit By PBS News Hour The space shuttle Discovery successfully lifted into orbit Tuesday morning on a 12-day mission to resupply the International Space Station and test various new safety features. Continue reading
Jul 25 NASA Counts Down to Tuesday Shuttle Launch By PBS News Hour NASA officials say they are prepared to launch the shuttle Discovery on Tuesday morning even if one of the fuel tank sensors malfunctions as it did during the original planned liftoff earlier this month. Continue reading
Jul 21 NASA Resets Shuttle Launch After Sensor Failure By PBS News Hour NASA now aims to launch the space shuttle Discovery on Tuesday, after engineers expressed confidence they had pinpointed the fuel-sensor problem that prevented the July 13 liftoff. Continue reading