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Barack Obama's failure to appoint a new chief to run Nasa is fostering an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty at the US space agency, a leading industry figure has told the Guardian.The space agency, which is facing one of the toughest periods of its 51-year history, has been without a chief administrator since Michael Griffin stepped down in January, amid newspaper reports of heated arguments with the transition team, which Griffin denied in a memo.The Obama team had originally hoped to replace Griffin with a retired fighter pilot, Scott Gration, but the nomination was blocked by opponents on Capitol Hill. Since then speculation on potential candidates has been rife, with the latest including Chris Scolese, the agency's acting administrator, and two former astronauts, Mae Jemison and Charles Bolden.The state of limbo could not have come at a worse time, with Nasa facing fundamental questions about its future. With only eight space shuttle flights left on the books, and a retirement

A day after the European Space Agency warned its demise was near, an ice bridge connecting a massive ice shelf to an island collapsed on Saturday, sending hundreds of icebergs out to sea.

President Barack Obama's recent removal of restrictions on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines has promptedan ongoing and hearty debate in Bioethics Forum , an online publication of The Hastings Center.

A massive ice shelf anchored to the Antarctic coast by a narrow and quickly deteriorating ice bridge could break away soon, the European Space Agency warned Friday.

Perchlorate, a hazardous chemical in rocket fuel, has been found at potentially dangerous levels in powdered infant formula, according to a study (pdf) by a group of Centers for Disease Control scientists. The study, published last month by The Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, has intensified the years-long debate about whether or how the federal government should regulate perchlorate in the nation’s drinking water.According to the CDC, perchlorate exposure can damage the thyroid, which can hinder brain development among infants. For nearly a decade, Democratic members of Congress, the Department of Defense, the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency have been fighting about how much perchlorate in water is too much. [More]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. company that has arranged for six tourists to fly in space said on Friday it is staying open for business despite the economic crisis and a lack of confirmed flight opportunities.

NASA inspector general Robert "Moose" Cobb submitted a letter of resignation yesterday, giving up his post effective April 11. President Barack Obama has accepted Cobb's resignation, according to the space agency, ending his nearly seven-year run as NASA's top watchdog. [More]

During the Apollo 15 moon mission in 1971, astronauts David Scott and James Irwin unfolded NASA's electric-powered lunar rover from the lunar module and became the first humans to take a spin on another world as they traversed the moon's craggy surface. That maiden lunar drive will be revisited--at least in spirit--today and tomorrow as NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center hosts its 16th annual Great Moonbuggy Race at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. [More]

During the Apollo 15 moon mission in 1971, astronauts David Scott and James Irwin unfolded NASA's electric-powered lunar rover from the lunar module and became the first humans to take a spin on another world as they traversed the moon's craggy surface. That maiden lunar drive will be revisited--at least in spirit--today and tomorrow as NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center hosts its 16th annual Great Moonbuggy Race at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. [More]

Two teams of astronomers made headlines in November after announcing they had photographed planets orbiting regular stars other than our own sun. (Such bodies are known as extrasolar planets, or exoplanets.) One of those planets, Fomalhaut b, the companion to a star called Fomalhaut some 25 light-years away, was spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope; a star known as HR 8799, nearly 130 light-years distant, was found by ground-based observations to harbor a system of at least three planets. [More] Presented By:Inside Guantanamo: Sunday at 9P e/pGuantanamo Bay is one of the world's controversial prisons. This may be its final chapter. With unprecedented access, National Geographic has the story you haven't heard. Both sides, told from the inside, before its doors close forever. Click to learn more and go Inside Guantanamo >>natgeotv.com/guantanamo Ads by Pheedo