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Stories from Tony Reichhardt

Images of Pluto taken with Hubble’s Faint Object Camera in June and July 1994 were enhanced and processed to make a global map of the planet at different longitudes. The tile pattern is an artifact of the processing.

Taking Pluto’s Portrait

Even the mighty Hubble Space Telescope has to strain to see this tiny, distant planet.

A Falcon 9 exploded shortly after launch from Cape Canaveral on Sunday.

SpaceX Loses Dragon Cargo Ship in Launch Explosion

NASA says space station logistics may have to be shuffled, but there’s no emergency.

Video: The F-35 Goes Skiing

The Lightning II practices a British-style carrier takeoff at Patuxent River.

Encore!

Watch how this four-year-old reacts to her first aerobatic flight.

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Here’s What Moving Traffic Looks Like From 250 Miles Up

Urthecast releases its first high-res video from the space station.

Ed White, in his element. Back inside the spacecraft, he told McDivitt, “That was the most natural feeling, Jim.” Said his friend, “You looked like you were in your mother’s womb.”

The First U.S. Spacewalk

Ed White’s trip outside was exhilarating, improvised, and at times scary.

New Eyes on the ISS

The space station’s cameras get an upgrade.

Different night, same result. Tokyo burns during a raid on May 26, 1945.

The Deadliest Air Raid in History

The firebombing of Tokyo on March 9, 1945 marked the beginning of the end for Imperial Japan.

Dawn returned this image of Ceres on February 19, showing two bright spots in the center of a crater. One is twice as bright as the other. But what are they?

Dawn Spacecraft Closes in on Ceres

Soon we’ll find out what those mysterious bright spots are.

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti pays her respects on the space station.

Even Cosmonauts Liked the Vulcan Greeting

It's 6:07 a.m. Do you know where your construction workers are?

Russia Installs Nanny Cam at Siberian Spaceport

Maybe public oversight can speed up construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome.

★ SBD Dauntless ★ The Dauntless was a dive bomber whose pilots joked that the initials SBD stood not for “Scout Bomber—Douglas” but for “Slow But Deadly.” Its top speed was a mere 255 mph, and historians have noted that the pilot-gunner pairs who sat back-to-back in the SBD were the ones deserving the label “dauntless.” They destroyed more enemy ships in the war than any other pilots.

The Douglas Dauntless and Other Heroes of Midway

Hubble view of Jupiter moons transiting the planets surface on January 24, 2015.

VIDEO: Hubble’s Hat Trick

The space telescope captures three moons crossing the disk of Jupiter at the same time.

Indian Coast Guard divers recover the CARE capsule after yesterday's test.

India Tests Prototype Astronaut Capsule

Another milestone on the path to human spaceflight.

Albert Einstein in 1921, the year he won the Nobel Prize.

Einstein’s Thoughts on SETI

“Why should earth be the only planet supporting human life?” asked the physicist in 1920.

Artist's view of the Orion capsule during the EFT-1 test.

The Orion Era Begins

What to watch for during tomorrow’s test.

Picture-Perfect SR-71

A Blackbird pilot and photographer describes the day he took his favorite picture.

Orion arrives at the launch gantry on November 12, 2014.

Time-Lapse of Orion’s Trip to the Launch Pad

The new spaceship gets one step closer to its December 4 debut.

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First Landing on a Comet

After two and a half suspenseful days, Rosetta mission scientists ended up a happy bunch.

Chicago O'Hare, already one of the busiest airports in the world, will only get busier.

The Future of Air Travel, as Seen from MIT

An expert panel looks ahead to the airline experience of 2030, with more passengers and fewer (if any) pilots.

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