A three-man U.S.-Russian crew is back on Earth after a successful 5.5-month expedition to the International Space Station. Weary but in good shape, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, Expedition 36 ISS commander Pavel Vinogradov and fellow cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin were assisted from their capsule by helicopter-borne Russian recovery teams within minutes of touching down under parachute at 10:58 p.m. EDT Sept. 10 (8:58 a.m. Sept. 11 local time).

Scientists will spend 100 days studying the Moon's tenuous atmosphere after this spectacular launch from Wallops Island, Va., on a solid-fuel Minotaur V rocket—photographed from the top of New York's Rockefeller Center, 200 mi. away. Built by NASA's Ames Research Center, the 884-lb. Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) gave its handlers a few tense hours right after its Sept. 6 liftoff when fault-protection limits shut down its reaction wheels. Controllers disabled them to restart the wheels, and later fixed a star-tracker misalignment.

ITAR slowed but did not stop BRIC space developments

New technology can be surprisingly inexpensive. In the U.S., the Pentagon and the intelligence community spend billions of taxpayer dollars pushing the envelope on creative new hardware and software concepts that may never emerge from behind the black curtain of secrecy. That is probably a good thing for bombs and bullets, but it keeps a lot of potential dual-use technology out of the economy. Fortunately, there are means for innovation at the other end of the funding scale that can drive economic growth with actual, and significant, return on investment.

A classified U.S. National Reconnaissance Office KH-11 “Keyhole” satellite was successfully launched into low Earth orbit from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Aug. 28 by a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy.

Many of us have enjoyed spectacular video of rocket launches from the rocket's point of view, with the launch pad receding rapidly and strap-on boosters falling away as the black sky of space shows up around Earth's curve. The “RocketCam” videos are a staple on YouTube, but they have a value that far exceeds entertainment. In the high-stakes spaceflight business, video shots of rockets and other space hardware in action give engineers a much better view of system performance than even the most detailed numeric telemetry.