The shift from what appeared to be a normal descent on 1 Feb 2003 into disaster happened so fast that the crew didn’t have time to close their visorsimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/434750/s/2a77c6a/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=NASA says Columbia crew had no chance to survivelink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16354-nasa-says-columbia-crew-had-no-chance-to-survive.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=space-shuttle” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=NASA says Columbia crew had no chance to survivelink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16354-nasa-says-columbia-crew-had-no-chance-to-survive.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=space-shuttle” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588718977/u/0/f/434750/c/749/s/44530794/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588718977/u/0/f/434750/c/749/s/44530794/a2.img” border=”0″//a

The shift from what appeared to be a normal descent on 1 Feb 2003 into disaster happened so fast that the crew didn’t have time to close their visorsimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/434750/s/38ea288/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=NASA says Columbia crew had no chance to survivelink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16354-nasa-says-columbia-crew-had-no-chance-to-survive.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=space-shuttle” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=NASA says Columbia crew had no chance to survivelink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16354-nasa-says-columbia-crew-had-no-chance-to-survive.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=space-shuttle” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/div

Seemingly innocuous specks could throw off the whole solar system—and we might not see them until it’s too late.

It’s been a turbulent 50th anniversary year for the space agency, with its successes marred by uncertainty over the shuttle’s replacement, problems with Hubble, and serious budget woesimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/434750/s/29449f7/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=News review 2008: The year NASA’s star began to wanelink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026871.800-news-review-2008-the-year-nasas-star-began-to-wane.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=News review 2008: The year NASA’s star began to wanelink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026871.800-news-review-2008-the-year-nasas-star-began-to-wane.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27139862307/u/0/f/434750/c/749/s/43272695/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27139862307/u/0/f/434750/c/749/s/43272695/a2.img” border=”0″//a

It’s been a turbulent 50th anniversary year for the space agency, with its successes marred by uncertainty over the shuttle’s replacement, problems with Hubble, and serious budget woesimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/434750/s/38ea289/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=News review 2008: The year NASA’s star began to wanelink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026871.800″ target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=News review 2008: The year NASA’s star began to wanelink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026871.800″ target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/div

The agency has awarded $3.5 billion in contracts to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences to ship cargo to and from the space station beginning in 2010img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/434750/s/29ff82a/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=NASA gives space cargo contracts to start-up firmslink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16350-nasa-gives-space-cargo-contracts-to-startup-firms.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=space-shuttle” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=NASA gives space cargo contracts to start-up firmslink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16350-nasa-gives-space-cargo-contracts-to-startup-firms.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=space-shuttle” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588526413/u/0/f/434750/c/749/s/44038186/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588526413/u/0/f/434750/c/749/s/44038186/a2.img” border=”0″//a

The agency has awarded $3.5 billion in contracts to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences to ship cargo to and from the space station beginning in 2010img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/434750/s/38ea28a/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=NASA gives space cargo contracts to start-up firmslink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16350-nasa-gives-space-cargo-contracts-to-startup-firms.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=space-shuttle” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=NASA gives space cargo contracts to start-up firmslink=http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16350-nasa-gives-space-cargo-contracts-to-startup-firms.html?DCMP=OTC-rssnsref=space-shuttle” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/div

When the Phoenix Mars Lander touched down on Mars this spring, it uncovered a host of secrets about the Red planet—including a layer of ice just below the soil.

This year, Chinese citizens watched enraptured as a 42-year-old Chinese astronaut made his first venture into space.

For the first time in over three decades, a NASA probe has visited and documented the surface of Mercury, resulting in astonishing images of over 6 million miles of the planet’s surface.