NASA’s Wallops Incident Response Team has reported on its initial assessment following the catastrophic failure of Orbital Science’s Antares rocket…

"Keep those updates coming," European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst urged NASA's Mission Control as the scheduled 3:39 p.m. Dragon spashdown off the U. S. West Coast neared. .

A spacecraft designed to test re-entry techniques for a future lunar-sample return mission lifted off from the Xichang launch facility on a Long March 3C on Oct. 23 (Oct. 24 local time) on a week-long mission that will take it around the Moon. Citing a spokesman for the China National Space Administration, China Daily’s English-language edition said the testbed will return to Earth after a swing around the Moon to test a “skip” re-entry technique pioneered by the Soviet Union to bleed off velocity before a parachute touchdown in the Gobi Desert.

Watch video from the Hubble Space Telescope of Mars and the Siding Spring comet passing each other on Oct. 19.

"I can see Cairo," reported spacewalking NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman. "I can't quite make out the pyramids."

"You should see my view, right now," teased European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst

Ten years ago the world’s first privately built spaceship was flown to sub-orbit high over California, clinching the $10 million Ansari X-Prize and marking the start of the new frontier of affordable space access.