SpaceX

An unmanned cargo ship loaded with spare parts, science equipment, and crew supplies -- including ice cream treats -- rocketed into orbit Sunday and set off after the International Space Station, kicking off a new era of commercial resupply flights intended to restore a U.S. supply chain that was crippled by the shuttle's retirement.

The Dragon capsule and its Falcon 9 rocket, both built by Space Exploration Technologies, took off with a rush of fiery exhaust at 8:35:07 p.m. EDT (GMT-4), quickly climbing away from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.… Read more

What do Elon Musk, Leap Motion, Microsoft Surface and Windows 8, Autodesk 123D, and Dow Solar's PowerHouse Solar Shingles have in common?

They are all among the winners of Popular Mechanics magazine's eighth Breakthrough Awards. Awarded each year by a panel of the magazine's editors, the honors go to people and products that are seen to be leading the world of science and commerce forward.

This year's product winners are: The North Face Powder Guide ABS Vest and Backpack; the Lytro camera; Autodesk 123D; Microsoft Surface and Windows 8; Ford's 1-liter EcoBoost engine; Dow PowerHouse … Read more

After an intense competition, NASA announced contracts Friday totaling up to $900 million to be divvied up between three companies -- SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada -- to continue development of commercial manned spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

While it is far from clear whether Congress will provide enough funding to keep all three companies in the mix, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, a former shuttle commander, said the program was critical to America's future in space.

"Today we are announcing another critical step towards launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on … Read more

We're dropping down from space, getting touchy with Windows 8 and leaping over a new iPhone carrier:

The iPhone has taken a leap into the prepaid, no-contract world. Beginning in late June, the prepaid carrier Leap Wireless will sell Apple's iPhone under the Cricket service. This makes it the first carrier to sell the iPhone without a contract. But don't expect the iPhone to come cheap. The 16 GB iPhone 4s will be priced at $500 dollars.

So that leaves T-Mobile in the corner, just tapping its foot waiting for its turn to dance with Apple. With … Read more

In the final chapter of a history-making space drama, a commercial cargo ship completed a near-flawless test flight to the International Space Station with a splashdown off the Baja California peninsula today, clearing the way for the start of routine cargo delivery missions later this year.

Leading the space station by about 200 miles, Dragon's retro rockets ignited at 10:51 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) and burned for a planned 9 minutes 50 seconds, reducing the ship's 5-mile-per-second velocity by 224 mph, just enough to drop the far side of the orbit into Earth's atmosphere over the … Read more

Space station astronauts unbolted a commercial cargo ship early Thursday, used the lab's robot arm to pull it away and released it into open space to set the stage for re-entry and splashdown off the Baja California peninsula to close out a successful test flight and set the stage for the start of routine cargo delivery missions later this year.

With the space station's Canadian-built robot arm locked onto the Dragon cargo craft, four gangs of motorized bolts holding the capsule in place were driven out, releasing the spacecraft from Harmony's Earth-facing port at 4:07 a.… Read more

Running well ahead of schedule,the International Space Station's crew opened hatches between the Harmony module and the newly arrived SpaceX Dragon cargo ship early Saturday to kick off a busy few days of work to unload about a half ton of supplies and equipment.

Wearing goggles and filter masks to protect against any floating contaminants that might be present -- a routine precaution when visiting cargo craft arrive -- flight engineer Donald Pettit and Expedition 31 commander Oleg Kononenko cracked open the hatch and floated inside at 5:53 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).

The Dragon cargo ship, making … Read more

As Facebook's stock started its first week of trading, there were some startling allegations as to why the stock was tanking.

Facebook itself may be responsible for investors' tepid response to the social network's stock, which has been mostly falling since it went public on May 18. (As of Friday morning, Facebook shares were bouncing around the $32 level, down about 16 percent from the $38 IPO pricing.)

Initially, it looks like Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter on the massive offering, was to blame for allegedly telling major clients it had reduced its revenue forecast for the company, … Read more

In a moment of high drama on the high frontier, flight engineer Donald Pettit, operating the International Space Station's robot arm, this morning reached out and locked onto SpaceX's Dragon capsule.

That capture of the commercial cargo ship came after a complex rendezvous, a final sequence of approach-and-retreat test maneuvers, and quick work to adjust critical sensors that were getting fooled by reflections from a Japanese research module.

The last-minute hiccups were just that, nerve-wracking but relatively minor adjustments to correct for the real-world performance of complex laser and infrared imagers used to compute the Dragon cargo ship'… Read more