Europe's EDRS will use laser beam transmissions between low-Earth orbiting (LEO) spacecraft and commercial communications satellites in geostationary orbit to reduce the time it takes to get large quantities of remote-sensing data to the ground.

Like most missions with the two-seat Gemini capsules, Gemini 8 started out to be a first. As it turned out, there were two firsts in the mission depicted on the cover of March 28, 1966.

The cargo CST-100 also would offer unpressurized “upmass” to the International Space Station (ISS) in its throwaway service module.

NASA’s Dawn asteroid-belt probe has used its solar-electric propulsion system to achieve orbit around Ceres.

U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) took nearly a month to openly acknowledge to the press that one of the country’s oldest satellites fragmented into 43 pieces in orbit last month, creating a debris field.

Six DMSP satellites are now left to provide the weather data needed for the military.

"That was an amazing effort," said NASA spacewalker Terry Virts.

A rare glimpse of the world's largest aircraft under assembly in Mojave, California