The US can't quit buying Russian RD-180 rocket engines for heavy lifting until it produces an engine with similar capabilities, chief of the US Space Command said. This follows frantic calls by Republican Senator John McCain to terminate the contract. “Why in the world would anyone think we would want to continue dependency on Russian rocket engines, which traces up to the corrupt mafia that [...]

A major solar explosion and geomagnetic storm resulted in incredible northern lights on Monday night, mainly seen across northern Europe and North America. (Photos - Video) The geomagnetic storm was classified G4, the second-highest possible degree – the last on such a scale happened in March, when auroras were seen as far south as New Mexico. The best way to try and catch a glimpse of the im [...]

The Russian military has put together nearly 100 units and organizations in the Crimea last year as part of the program of deploying a self-sufficient group of forces at the peninsula, Sergey Shoigu, Russia's Defense minister, said. "In accordance with the presidential order, we were instructed to deploy a self-sufficient combined group of forces in the Crimean Peninsula capable of effectively [...]

Part of China's rapidly developing space program consists of testing new anti-space technologies, even though the country publicly pledges not to militarize space, the Pentagon said in a report to Congress. “By the end of October 2014, China had launched 16 spacecraft, either domestically or via a commercial space launch provider. [...]

Moscow may team up with Beijing to create a scientific station on the Moon. The challenge for Russia is to build its own space station by 2024 to achieve its lunar exploration goals. According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who supervises defense-related policies, the question on "bringing China in as the main partner in creating a lunar scientific station," is currently being [...]

The Department of Defense has asked Congress to allow Russian rocket engines to be used until 2022, in order to keep the country's space program going. The US is partly dependent on the Russian technology for launching its satellites into orbit. General John Hyten, head of the US Air Force Space Command, spoke about extending the use of Russian engines to journalists on Tuesday, TASS reported. [...]

NASA heavily relies on private companies for space-related travel, but recent accidents show that such firms cannot yet be fully trusted for the mission. The crashes hint at an increasing number of glitches that need to be fixed to ensure safety. Here are the top five crashes involving the aircrafts or rockets of NASA's private contractors. [...]

A new world record for the highest sky dive has been set by a senior Google VP who plummeted from 135,890 feet above the Earth, excelling daredevil Felix Baumgartner's record jump from the edge of space two years ago. One of Google's top executives, Vice President of Search Alan Eustace, broke the standing record by more than 8,000 feet, according to United States Parachute Association. [...]

Google's hired eyes in the sky will soon be able to make out “manholes and mailboxes.- What else? Google will soon have an unprecedented ability to spy on you from space. Theoretically, at least. How? Two months ago, after much lobbying by the biggest satellite company in North America, DigitalGlobe, the US government relaxed restrictions to allow for commercially available satellit [...]

A German astronaut managed to capture the Gaza war zone from space while aboard the International Space Station. He called it his "saddest photo yet." Alexander Gerst, a German flight engineer, geophysicist and volcanologist, spread the news with a short tweet on Wednesday, as the ISS was on a flyby over Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. The image went viral. [...]

Despite a string of ‘unbelievable’ hurdles, a diving operation to lift the biggest-yet discovered fragment of the famous Russian meteorite stuck in a mud lakebed has entered the final phase. RT is scheduled to show live the recovery of the 50cm by 90cm space rock weighing an estimated 600kg, which plunged into the depths of Lake Chebarkul in February. [...]