Before, scientists have held the belief that we'll need to send a lander to dig on the surface of other celestial bodies to figure out what their subsurfaces are composed of. Recently though, they figured out a way for explorers to retrieve this information without even having to land. Details after the "read more" link below.

Around 400 kilometers above us, the Endeavour space shuttle has beamed a new image of its recent spacewalk mission involving the installation of the tool change out mechanisms of the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator robotic arm (a.k.a Dextre) on the International Space Station. You can view the image by clicking on the "read more" link below.

Space Shuttle Endeavour might have had some problems the last time it was up in space, but it's up and ready again as it prepares for its return to the final frontier (er, that's outer space for you non-Trekkies). More details on the Shuttle's launch after the "read more" link below.

It looks like the International Space Station recently got a new delivery of solar panels from the space shuttle Atlantis. NASA released a new Astronomy Picture of the Day featuring the new configuration of the world's foremost space outpost in development. You can take a look at the new before and after pictures in the full article.

During the construction and maintenance of the International Space Station, astronaut Rick Mastracchio noticed a hole in his glove. Now the first thing that comes to mind would be the "15 seconds of glory" scenario a person would go through when out in space without a suit, but Mastracchio was safe and sound.

While the hole didn't penetrate through all the layers of the suit, he was called back inside the airlock as a precaution. Clay Anderson, his partner, continued work outside while Mastracchio informed Mission Control that he's "Doing good. Looking out the hatch, wishing I was out there."

The incident brought up concerns in NASA to approve another spacewalk to repair a deep gouge in the Endeavour shuttle. Yep, the same shuttle whose name got misspelled on the launch pad. The gouge was caused by a small piece of insulation breaking off and hitting the shuttle's belly a minute after liftoff.

This month, American astronaut and US Navy Captain Lisa Marie Nowak got arrested and subsequently charged with attempted murder of US Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman, a woman Nowak thought was her rival for another astronaut's affections.

This happening spawned talk of how NASA deals with unstable astronauts in space. As you may well know, would-be space scientists are carefully tested and screened to eliminate those who are unstable. A mentally unstable astronaut could cause all sorts of havoc that could endanger their crew members in a space station.

It turns out that NASA has a detailed set of written procedures for dealing with a suicidal or psychotic astronaut in space. Associated Press declares that these procedures include binding the questionable astronaut's wrists and ankles with duct tape, tying him down with a bungee cord and injecting him with tranquilizers if necessary.

There are no weapons, no guns in a space shuttle; a bullet could pierce a space ship and could kill everyone. There are no stun guns on hand, either. As a precaution, space station kits contain anti-depression and tranquilizers, anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic medications. No NASA astronaut has ever been treated with these medications while on space; then again, like what was mentioned above, it seems that there's nothing a roll of duct tape couldn't fix.

Instead of racing each other to space or to the Moon as they did back in the bad old days, Cold War rivals now hope to go hand-in-hand in returning to the Moon. Through its spokesperson, the Russian Federal Space Agency (more commonly known as Roskosmos) voiced its hopes of joining NASA in its back-to-the-Moon program through technology and know-how.

Hey, it's not a bad deal, and not just because they were the first satellite, animal, and human into space. When the USSR became the CIS, one of the signs that things had indeed changed was cooperation between Russian and American space agencies. They've had longer experiences with keeping men in space for long periods of time, (critical for long-duration lunar missions) right up to the Mir space station and now continuing with the International Space Station. Their workhorses, Soyuz and Progress, complement the American Space Shuttle in supplying the ISS.

Given NASA estimates of US$ 104 billion in mission price tag and investments to get a four-man crew back to the Moon - not including keeping them there for quite a bit of time - there's a lot of room for potential partners like Roskosmos to contribute, although their contribution will be through tech-transfers and not cash. Roskosmos spokesman Igor Panarin also notes that "space research is a vast field with plenty of room for every nation".

But yeah, hitching along for the ride's also a good way to bootstrap or at least achieve the potential of the Russian space program.

Helen Keller once said that "it's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears." Well it seems writer Warren Ellis had this in mind when he released these pictures of the Space Shuttle Atlantis as it launched back in September 9. What makes these photos special is they're not from our planet.

These snapshots were taken aboard the International Space Station while the Atlantis was mid-flight from its launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, from where it docked with the ISS, and landed back in September 21. This particular flight takes special note in being the very first shuttle flight after the Columbia accident.

Warren Ellis is a noted comic book writer, having worked on DC Marvel and DC comics in the past. Some of you might remember him for  the Transmetropolitan comic. Here are the breath-taking pictures:

You will be very pleased to hear that Space Shuttle Atlantis and her crew have landed safely today at Kennedy Space Center at 6:21 a.m. EDT. The very latest NASA mission to the International Space Station lasted a total of 11 days 19 hours 6 minutes and 35 seconds (thats the precision of NASA for you!) and despite numerous delays before launch and delays to the landing date, the crew touched down without encountering major problems.

The huge part of Space Shuttle Atlantis' mission was the delivery and construction of a new Solar Panel upgrade for the station which it completed successfully on September 17th. It then took the crew a further 4 days before they could land instead of 3 due to an unidentified object outside the Space Shuttle. Despite the various precautions and delays that the Atlantis mission endured, NASA and the world have deemed the mission a huge success, with no Shuttle-based problems whilst in space and another construction mission completed. Hopefully this will pave the way for many more successful shuttle missions in the future until they are replaced by the in-development Orion Moonship.

The Orion will be the bigger, but younger, brother of Apollo. It will have the same multistage rocket, crew vehicle, and lunar lander--but bigger and more high tech of course. When asked why there are similarities between the two shuttles; Patrick McKenzie, the Business Development Manager for the Orion Project at Lockheed Space Systems, said that the Apollo shuttle got the aerodynamic shape of the capsule dead on; the shape has been proven safe by NASA.

However, there will be some major upgrade in technology under the hood. They are planning to build an automated rendezvous and docking capability. It will also have a new design and material for the heat shield. They'll be using materials such as PICA [phenolic impregnated carbon ablator] and SLA [a cork-based ablative material].

They're also looking forward to developing better landing-impact systems. The capsule will be bigger than Apollo's: it can seat six crew members. The cockpit has been replaced by a modern "glass cockpit" design. The avionics systems will be up to current technology.

No more "Houston, we have a problem." The Orion will have a "dual fault tolerance" element. Two failures in the system? The Orion will still run safely. The system constantly monitors the other; if one fails, another takes its place. It may add more weight to the vehicle, but it'll make it safer.

When asked about the gap between the last moon mission and 2020, Patrick answers that the budget for lunar missions these days aren't that big as the last mission. He added that they are still in the process of developing the lunar lander, the Earth-departure stage, and lift vehicles.

So in 2020, we'll be grooving and jiving to the 60's Apollo look-alike Orion as it pushes itself from Earth's atmosphere to the moon.