“Space Shuttle program” on The Daily Caller

 (more)

The X-37B robotic spacecraft, which resembles a miniature version of the space shuttle, touched down at Vandenberg Air Force Base early Friday morning, marking the first time an American unmanned vehicle returned from orbit to land on its own. (more)

Plans for sending humans to visit an asteroid are heating up, with at least one company already scoping out the technological essentials for a deep space expedition within a decade, given the go-ahead. (more)

Call it “American Idol” in space: NASA has launched a new contest that allows the public to pick – or even create – wake-up songs for astronauts flying on the agency’s two final space shuttle missions. (more)

In February, the Obama administration announced its fiscal year budget, which proposed to eliminate the NASA human space flight program, called Constellation, and instead rely on the commercial space industry and other countries to ferry future astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). (more)

AFP – There is no room for romance on board the cozy confines of the International Space Station, a NASA space shuttle commander said Monday when asked what would happen if astronauts had sex in space. (more)

NASA is getting hit up for extra launch passes, and mission stickers and pins are flying off the shelf. Another Twittering crowd is descending on the space center. Even science fiction writers want in on the action. (more)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Discovery is back on Earth. (more)

They’ve lived with each other for extended periods of time in very close quarters, but that doesn’t mean America’s astronauts see eye-to-eye. (more)

When Discovery’s six astronauts take the final space shuttle ride to orbit in September, there’ll be one more rider sitting in the back of the bus: Robonaut 2, the semi-humanoid robot created by NASA and GM. (more)

When America’s space shuttle program ends in September, the U.S. will be completely dependent on Russian rockets for launching men and women into space — and bringing them back. But what will happen to America’s astronauts if relations between the U.S. and Russia sour? (more)

Astronauts moved a cargo module the size of a mini bus the short distance from space shuttle Discovery’s payload bay to the International Space Station’s (ISS) Harmony node Thursday morning, setting the stage for a carefully choreographed ballet to begin transferring tons of supplies and equipment to and from and the orbiting laboratory (more)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Discovery’s astronauts surveyed their ship Tuesday for signs of launch damage, but the job was complicated by the failure of the space shuttle’s big dish antenna. (more)

The space shuttle Discovery is on its way to the International Space Station following a successful liftoff early Monday from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. (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)

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)

“We choose not to go to the moon. We choose not to go to the moon in the foreseeable future and not to do the other things, not because they are hard, but because they are expensive, because that goal will serve only to waste our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are unwilling to pay for, one we are unwilling to continue, and one which we intend to abandon…” (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)