NASA has been criticized lately about building a heavy-lift rocket -- the Space Launch System (SLS) -- without a clear goal in mind as to where it will go in space. NASA responds to this question.  

According to reports coming out of Russia, the Russian space agency Roscosmos is interested in joining with the U.S. space agency NASA and the European Union’s space agency ESA for joint exploration of the Moon.

Montana students have won a NASA contest to rename twin probes that are currently orbiting about the Moon. The less-than-exiting names of GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B were renamed Ebb and Flow, respectively.

A NASA photographer has taken a series of pictures of the International Space Station crossing the face of Moon. See the "amazing" composite picture.

The Apollo Moon landings brought back rocks that contained armalcolite, pyroxferroite, and tranquillityite. These three minerals had never before been found naturally on Earth – only on the Moon. Further investigation found the first two on Earth. Now, it has been announced that the third one (tranquillityite) has been found in Australia.

The NASA GRAIL probe will be inserted into orbit about the Moon over the 2011/2012 New Year’s weekend for its mission to precisely map the gravitational field of the Moon. NASA states that the twin satellites will improve our knowledge of the Moon by hundreds of times.

Human explorers have ventured onto the Moon, but have aliens also made similar footsteps on the lunar surface? If the recommendation of two scientists is carried out, astronomers may make a search of the Moon for past evidence that aliens have visited our only natural satellite.

The Geminid meteor shower is expected to reach its peak number of viewable meteors between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, December 13-14, 2011. However, there is a catch to the sighting of these meteors.

A total lunar eclipse will be present in the western parts of the United States and Canada, along with Australia, Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of central and eastern Asia on Saturday, December 10, 2011.

For the night-owls, look up in the northern sky a little after midnight on Sunday December 11th and the moon which ought to be blazing down will be strangely dim.