All set for New Horizons’ close-up look at Pluto and Charon.

The International Space Station is a finite asset

New technology-demonstration tasks are en route to ISS for Dextre

France secured its two biggest export agreements in recent memory with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in July, including an €800 million ($1.05 billion) sale of two high-resolution spy satellites built by EADS-Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. The satellites are small enough to launch on a European Vega rocket and are said to be similar to France's twin Pleiades spacecraft, putting the UAE in an elite club of nations cable of taking high-resolution images of sub-meter-sized objects from space.

Earth and the Moon show two sides in these parallel images, both collected July 19 by the Cassini and Messenger spacecraft. In the image at left, Cassini was 898 million mi. away when its wide-angle camera caught the Earth system floating below Saturn's main rings. Also visible are the F, G and E rings, the latter two overexposed to show up better. The rings' shadows can be seen as “breaks” in the planet's bright limb. At the highest resolution, the Moon shows up in the image as a bump on Earth's right side.

Already late, Webb telescope now faces technical problems

Space station starts generating revenue

More space programs are set to feel sequestration's effects, particularly on the civilian side as lawmakers responsible for NASA are increasingly—and bitterly—at odds. Last week, Senate appropriators, led by Democrats, recommended $18 billion for the agency for 2014. But despite his stated approval of the legislation, senior Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) voted against the measure in committee because it adheres to Senate Democrats' overall federal budget allocations.