Boeing has announced its plans to produce a low-cost, high-occupancy passenger capsule called the Crew Space Transportation-100 (or CST-100) vehicle. It’ll ride at the nose of rockets just like the capsule that came before it, and it could be ready by 2014.

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First look: Boeing’s commercial capsule spacecraft

For a long time, it’s been thought that the largest a star can physically get is 150 solar units, or 150 times more massive than our sun. That was before we discovered R136a1, a star nearly 300 solar units large. What the heck is going on?

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Star 300 times more massive than our sun is theoretically too big to exist

What does it look like when you blow up a nuke in space ? It’s only happened once, in 1962, but newly declassified images shows exactly what happened.

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Image of the only nuke ever detonated in space

In the unlikely event of a gigantic asteroid threatening mass extinction on our planet, scientists are now confident such a disaster could be averted using nuclear weapons. Researchers running new and sophisticated simulators conclude it would take as little as 5 to 10 kilotons of energy to divert an asteroid. That’s a relatively small nuclear weapon.

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Asteroid headed for Earth? Scientists say nuke it!

Officials at the Museum of Flight in Seattle must be pretty cocky. Even though NASA hasn’t agreed to sell them one of the retired space shuttles yet, they’re about to start building a magnificent glass case to show it off. Will the mothballed Enterprise, Endeavor or Atlantis find a final resting place in this gorgeous, lit-up jewel box case?

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Will a space shuttle end up in this fancy glass box?

The Ikaros, launched back on May 21st , is safely in orbit and today Japan’s space agency reports that the craft’s solar sails are fully extended. The Ikaros’s claim to fame is that it’ll use only the sun to propel itself and continuously generate power, making it an ideal candidate for deep space missions. The force with which Ikaros will propel itself, though, is admittedly tiny. It relies on particles of light impacting against its sail, which, all told, will apply about 7.5 microns of force against it. This force is continuous, however, and like an ion-propelled drive it should continue to pick up speed over time. It could even be considered “fast” after quite some time. “Fast” is even the goal. After this acceleration test JAXA will know more, but the end goal is create lightweight, fast and fuel-saving ships based on the Ikaros that could explore deeper into space. Below you’ll find an actual image of the Ikaros in space, released by JAXA, though it’s a little confusing to make out. Up above is what it’s supposed to look like. Via BBC News

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Japan tests the world’s first solar sail spacecraft in orbit

Bigelow Aerospace is looking to get in on this whole privatized space game with an ambitious plan. The company wants to have not one but two space stations in orbit by 2016, which will then serve as rental space for countries that can’t afford such programs of their own. Bigelow’s design actually has NASA roots, as the company worked on the space agency’s TransHab program , which focused on inflatable habitats for living in space. That’s exactly what Bigelow’s “Sundancer” space stations are. They launch, unmanned, into space in a compact form and then expand in orbit, where Bigelow already has two prototypes. The big difference here, though — or rather, the big benefit — is that where NASA relies largely on government funding to fuel its efforts in space, the private companies aims to turn a profit, which can lead to do-or-die innovation. The inflatable space stations may not be as fully featured as the International Space Station , but if they do the job and interested parties are willing to pay for it, they could portend greater things to come from private enterprise in the final frontier. New York Times , via CrunchGear

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Aerospace company plans TWO private space stations by 2016

NASA’s got a publicity stunt going, offering to send a digital picture of you into Earth orbit. Upload your image, or if you’re camera shy, just tell them your name, and it will be “flown aboard the Space Shuttle.” You get to choose either one of the last two shuttle missions, STS-133 scheduled to launch on September 9, or STS-134, the last shuttle flight, with an as-yet-undetermined target launch date of sometime in November. Once your face has “flown in space,” NASA will let you print a commemorative Flight Certificate signed by the mission commander. Wow, this might be the closest I ever get to flying in space. Somehow, the thrill is hollow. It might be great for kids, but NASA is restricting entries to those over the age of 13. It’s not quite clear whether we’ll be able to see the faces of all of our shipmates, or if anyone will. Still, nice try, NASA. Almost cool. Next time, let us enter a drawing so one person can actually fly in space. Oh, that’s right. There won’t be a next time. Not for a while, at least . By the way, NASA just announced this idea, and already there are more than 7,997 people signed up in the U.S. alone. Via Face in Space

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NASA offers to put your face on the space shuttle… sort of

SpaceX Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral this afternoon, in a picture-perfect liftoff. The vehicle separation occurred as planned, and shortly after that, the second stage ignited as designed. Beautiful! In its first attempt at launch earlier today, Falcon 9 remained on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral because of an engine abort with about a second before liftoff. After that happened, SpaceX said the spacecraft put itself into “safe mode.” A few minutes later, SpaceX reported, “The pad abort involved an out-of-limit startup parameter.” About an hour later, the countdown was resumed, and the powerful two-stage rocket gracefully lifted off the launch pad. At 9 minutes,4 seconds after launch, Falcon 9 achieved Earth orbit. Via SpaceX

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Perfect launch: Private rocket roars into orbit

The two Space Shuttle tragedies that killed 14 astronauts are seared into our collective memory, but there are many other possible scenarios that could befall the U.S. space plane. Amateur effectsmeister The Faking Hoaxer used video compositing software Adobe After Effects to show us the dark side of space travel , reminding us how dangerous it really is. Creepy stuff. YouTube , via Gizmodo

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Horrifying ‘what if’ video shows 12 space shuttle disasters