“Human spaceflight” on The Daily Caller

A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station landed safely in Kazakhstan on Thursday. (more)

Fifteen House Republicans are now calling on the Obama administration to appoint a team of NASA experts to study the president’s latest space budget request. (more)

When archaeologists unearth the relics of the American Century, the space race will be our Holy Grail. Space was our New World. In 1962, when John F. Kennedy declared “we choose to go to the moon,” he encouraged every American to look up to the stars and summon the spirit of Columbus staring across the Atlantic. During the Apollo program every American taxpayer became a deckhand on the voyage to the moon. It was a journey that created the world we now live in, spawning GPS systems, plastics, alloy metals, cordless power tools and cancer detecting CAT scans (more)

U.S. space shuttle Endeavor arrived back on earth after a two-week mission to install the 16-ton “Tranquility” node and its attendant cupola on the International Space Station, which will give the facility’s crew more docking space for vehicles. The cupola includes windows for a sweeping view of earth, the better for crew to manipulate a robotic arm used to help dock craft heading for the station. Endeavor’s was one of the few remaining missions before NASA plans on mothballing its shuttles by the end of the year. (more)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — In a highly anticipated grand finale to their mission, astronauts opened the shutters on the International Space Station’s new observation deck Wednesday and were humbled by “absolutely spectacular” views of Earth from inside the elaborate atrium of windows. (more)

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, stepping onto the lunar surface, spoke the now iconic words, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” Most Americans born subsequent to that seminal day are not able to appreciate the national pride and world approval shown then for a truly landmark achievement of humankind. And now, 40 years later, these new generations of Americans might just witness the death of America’s human space program. (more)

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas — The shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station late Tuesday in a picture-perfect rendezvous that included spectacular views of the shuttle against the blue-and-white backdrop of Earth. (more)

The Obama Administration’s revised manned space program doesn’t envision U.S. astronauts venturing beyond Earth’s orbit until at least 2020, and perhaps years later, according to the head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (more)

Hours after Super Bowl fireworks lit up Miami, the Florida night sky was again ablaze as the space shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in the shuttle program’s last, scheduled night launch. (more)

The space shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center early Monday on a two-week mission to the international space station. (more)

Last October, NASA received a committee report that called existing planning “unsustainable.” The agency couldn’t even budget the money to deorbit the International Space Station as planned in 2016—itself a waste of the construction costs—and the vehicles needed for its planned return to the moon wouldn’t be ready by the 2030s… “if ever,” in the committee’s words. (more)

Details of a new vision for America’s space programme are expected on Monday. (more)