NASA

The landing of the Atlantis space shuttle that put an end to 500 million miles of space travel on Thursday has sparked lights in Billionaire Richard Branson's entrepreneurial mind as he prepares to make space tourism possible.

NASA discusses the latest Mars Rover and its plans to visit the red planet.

Now that NASA's shuttle program has ended, a new constellation of companies is set respond to the sudden demand for firms with the capability to transport humans to the International Space Station and eventually the moon.

Space shuttle Atlantis may be permanently stuck on earth, but the private space industry is preparing for blastoff.

The U.S. delivered the last time there was a space race. This time those who want to see the country beat the Russians and other space competition may be relying on the private sector.

An irony: the U.S., which won the moon race to symbolize the superiority of democracy/free markets vs. communism/centrally-planned economy, will now relinquish delivery of humans into space to Russia.

On July 8, NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off for its final mission, a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. The return of the Space shuttle marked the end the 30-year shuttle era.

Atlantis space shuttle landed at 5:58 a.m. ET this morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, signaling the bittersweet end of NASA's decades-long shuttle program.

As the space shuttle Atlantis safely landed at 5:57 Thursday morning at Kennedy Space Center, it marked the end of one era of American space exploration.

When the space shuttle Atlantis safely touched down at 5:57 Thursday morning at Kennedy Space Center, it marked the end of one era of American space exploration.

A new moon orbiting dwarf planet Pluto was discovered by scientists with the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI), hinting at future surprises for the NASA probe.

Space shuttle Atlantis landed for the final time at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 21, marking an end to the 30-year era of NASA's space shuttle program, but disasters that occurred in the history of the program still remain on our minds.

The space shuttle Atlantis lands and officially ends the space shuttle program after 30 years.

Astronauts aboard the space-shuttle Atlantis landed just before 6am EST on Thursday, marking not only the end of the flight but end of NASA's 30-year shuttle program.

NASA spacecraft Atlantis landed successfully on runway 15 of the shuttle landing facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:57 am EDT. The landing marks the end of the space shuttle program.

The space shuttle Atlantis has landed -- for one last time. After a 26-year career and 307 days spent in space, shuttle Atlantis touched down for the last time at approximately 5:57 am Eastern. It landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA spacecraft Atlantis has landed successfully on runway 15 of the shuttle landing facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:56 am EDT. The landing marks the end of the space shuttle program.

NASA space shuttle Atlantis has been in space 32 times since 1985, and orbited the earth 4,648 times, but she's about to make her final landing at 5:56 am EDT at Kennedy Space Center's shuttle landing facility.

A former NASA astronaut prepares to tell a gathering of UFO investigators that he's found no evidence of a close encounter.

NASA has selected a destination for its latest Mars explorer, a car-sized probe named Curiosity, when the rover touches down on the red planet in August of 2012.

On this day in 1969, Astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first person to ever set foot on the moon.Armstrong was the commander of Apollo 11, where he was joined by Buzz Aldrin and command module pilot Michael Collins. Armstrong was 38 at the time.Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon at 8:17 pm on July 20, 1969 - less than a minute before they would have run out of fuel.After taking time to test the lunar surface for safety, Armstrong took man's first step on the moon - with 60...