The space shuttle Discovery will take to the skies one more time today (April 17), but not on the power of its own engines. Weather permitting, the retired shuttle orbiter will fly atop a modified Boeing 747 jet from Florida to Virginia to take its place in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Discovery and its jumbo jet ride are due to depart just after sunrise from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and land midmorning at the Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C

A private spaceship mission to the International Space Station is on track for a planned April 30 launch, which will mark a historic first for the orbiting laboratory, NASA officials announced today (April 16). The launch will kick off a pivotal demonstration flight for the unmanned Dragon capsule built by the company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif. During the mission, the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft will rendezvous with the space station, be captured by astronauts operating a robotic arm and offload some cargo.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Two weather balloons rose into the frigid Alaska air early Thursday (April 12), on a quest to photograph and study the dazzling northern lights display that danced around them. A group of scientists had been launching such instrument-laden balloons for the past week or so from a variety of locations near Fairbanks

Researchers led by physicist Ben Longmier (in fur hat) launch a weather balloon to examine Alaska’s dazzling northern lights in the early morning hours of April 12, 2012. Such auroras are the result of geomagnetic storms

More than 9,000 space agency representatives, aerospace industry leaders, military officials and students are converging in Colorado this week for a conference to discuss and debate the major issues facing robotic and human spaceflight. The 28th National Space Symposium is being held from April 16 to 19 at the swanky Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.