astronauts

Glove designers walked away with a total of $400,000 in prize money at NASA's second Astronaut Glove Challenge yesterday. The U.S. space agency awarded the money because the private glove designs beat the in-house version, and NASA may incorporate the designs into the Constellation spacesuit intended for next-gen astronauts returning to the moon.

The moon may be a harsh mistress, but lately she has been giving up her secrets. Scientists have spotted a deep hole in the lunar surface that goes at least 260 feet down and is believed to open into an underground tunnel more than 1,200 feet wide.

The discovery is powerful evidence for long, winding tunnels carved by lava beneath the lunar surface. Such tunnels, whose existence has long been hypothesized, could provide shelter for future astronauts or colonists against the harsh radiation and surface temperatures on the moon.

The movies make space flight seem easy. A simple flip of the joystick or twist of the knob and any asteroid or space creature is done for. Sadly, the reality of space flight involves the constant monitoring of, and fiddling with, a near-endless set of dials, switches and buttons. In fact, so much of modern space craft are packed with gear and doodads that even astronauts have trouble keeping everything straight.

To anyone who's ever pondered what urine looks like in space -- c'mon, don't be shy -- we say: wonder no more, because photos of the phenomenon have finally hit the internet.

Last Wednesday, a number of skygazers were lucky to sight a mysterious flare in the night sky, that, as it now turns out, was a 150-pound cocktail of astronaut urine and waste water released from the shuttle Discovery.

China's future astronauts can't have bad breath, cavities, or scars if they hope to join the next wave of Chinese space exploration. Hospitals have begun the first of three rounds of tests to weed out candidates who fail to meet the rigorous standards.

Who do you trust with your thirst mutilating needs, an athlete or a rocket scientist? Well, NASA is hoping that you’re sick of watching basketball players hock sports drinks. Instead, they're hoping you'll turn to their new product, The Right Stuff, for all your extreme hydration needs. It's got what astronauts crave.

Since January 20th, NASA has been flying without a pilot. Now, President Obama has appointed former Marine General and Space Shuttle pilot Charles Bolden, Jr. to grab the rudder and take right the craft.

Bolden inherits a tough job. With the impending end of the Space Shuttle program, no successor space craft available for a number of years, budget constraints, a debate over the future of manned flights to the moon and Mars, and a general apathy in the public about space flight, Bolden may be in for a rocky ride to rival his trips over Vietnam and into space.