In 2011, NASA began to develop a heavy-lift rocket for manned exploration, discovered the first Earth-sized exoplanet, assisted with commercial spaceflight, and made other major accomplishments and discoveries to help all of us here on Earth. You can vote for your favorite 2011 story by NASA.

The design of the new NASA rocket that will take astronauts out beyond low-Earth orbit has been selected by the U.S. agency. It’s a whopper, eventually being the most powerful rocket ever built. NASA calls the entire program the Space Launch System.

On the eve of ending one chapter of U.S. manned space exploration and the beginning of the next chapter, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden talked about the U.S. aeronautics and space agency’s future.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted and passed on Thursday, September 30, 2010, the U.S. Senate's version of NASA's $19 billion fiscal 2011 budget proposal. NASA now has a Congressional direction to go in space with respect to manned exploration. Well, it was a compromise package.  

NASA administrator Charles Bolden said that walking on the planet Mars by the 2030s is a good possibility if NASA is given a "reasonable and sustained" budget—and if they use that money wisely.

The space shuttle Endeavour made it to space on Monday, February 8, 2010, as lingering clouds this time did not prevent its launch as it did the day before. STS-130 will now deliver new parts to the Space Station, which will be about 90% complete after these parts are installed.

NASA announced on Saturday, May 23, 2009 that space shuttle Atlantis and its STS-125 crew will try to land at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday after weather stopped any Saturday tries. That same day, the White House announced that President Barack Obama will name former NASA astronaut Charles Bolden to head the U.S. space agency.