Amina Khan

NASA led the way for Americans in space, but now the U.S. space agency is actively encouraging companies to take over primary responsibility for getting in and out of Earth's orbit. Last month, a capsule built and operated by SpaceX completed a nine-day...

NASA's Curiosity rover was designed to search Mars for places capable of supporting life. But the $2.5-billion mission has another, unofficial objective: To serve as a goodwill ambassador for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge at a time...

After dancing around the moon for months, the twin satellites nicknamed Ebb and Flow performed their final number, crashing into the same peak near the lunar north pole and bringing the GRAIL mission to a close. A cheer went up in the control room at...

NASA’s Curiosity rover has gulped in Martian air but failed to find methane – a gas linked to living things. But it has turned up signs that Mars may have lost much of its original atmosphere. Since landing on the Red Planet’s surface...

NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has paused, wiggled its toes into the sand and is set to break out its scooper for the first time to sample the Red Planet, mission scientists announced Thursday. Having driven 484 meters from its landing site in Gale...

David Oh's eldest son taped aluminum foil over his windows. His daughter painted a sign warning visitors away from the front door. His wife pulled the phone cord out of the wall and turned the couple's cellphones off. David's time on Earth had come to...

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence of strong streams that once gushed across the Martian surface, mission scientists said Thursday. Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on Aug. 5. But now, less than a couple of months into the Mars Science...

In a matter of days, a geologist unlike any on Earth will venture into alien territory. It has six legs and one arm. Instead of feet, it rides around on metal wheels as thin as cardboard. Its brain is in its belly, where it also digests and analyzes...

For more than eight years, an elite team of drivers has been maneuvering the most unusual of vehicles across treacherous and distant terrain. The drivers of the Opportunity rover, a 400-pound robot sent to scour the Martian surface for signs of water,...

After two weeks of taking stock of its surroundings, the Mars Curiosity rover has taken its first "baby steps" and sent back images of its first tracks, NASA officials said Wednesday. Engineers sent the commands Tuesday night for this first drive,...

John Grotzinger is leading a march up a mountain near Death Valley, the rocks around him streaked red, brown and purple-gray. The geologist has often brought staff members up here, away from the blinking control rooms and glaring light of test beds at...

The Curiosity rover is making its final descent to the Martian surface, and all eyes in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's control room are glued to computer screens. Except for Rob Manning's. The chief engineer for the rover mission is glancing at his...