This week we looked for clues into Mars' wetter past, the discovery of a real-life version of Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine and a giant new rocket are just some of the stories that came from space this past week. Vote for your top space story of the week:
China, a burgeoning power in the world space community, is poised to launch the first module of its first space station soon. The question is, when? [<a href="http://www.space.com/12888-china-space-station-tiangong-1-module-launch.html">Full Story</a>]
NASA and the aerospace company ATK have signed a deal that could accelerate the availability of U.S. commercial crew transportation capabilities. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12930-nasa-deal-liberty-rocket-space-taxis-atk.html">Full Story</a>]
The European Southern Observatory announced a new alien planet finding on Sept. 12 from its HARPS spectrograph. The discovery included 50 newfound alien planets, including one in the habitable zone of its star. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12915-habitable-alien-planet-hd-85512b-super-earth.html">Full Story</a>]
It’s been super-secret for so many years, but for one day only on Saturday (Sept. 17), some of the United States' once-clandestine spy satellites will be seen by public eyes for the first time. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12970-secret-spy-satellites-national-reconnaissance-office-smithsonian.html">Full Story</a>]
Astronomers have discovered the real-life version of Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine, the double sun desert wold of Star Wars. NASA's Kepler telescope made the find. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12963-tatooine-planet-2-suns-star-wars-kepler-16b.html">Full Story</a>]
NASA space junk experts have refined the forecast for the anticipated death plunge of a giant satellite, with the U.S. space agency now predicting the 6 1/2-ton climate probe will plummet to Earth around Sept. 23, a day earlier than previously reported. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12982-dead-nasa-satellite-falling-earth-sept-24.html">Full Story</a>]
NASA has finally revealed its design for the agency's next-generation heavy-lift rocket to carry astronauts on future deep space missions. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12941-nasa-unveils-giant-rocket-space-launch-system.html">Full Story</a>]
A Russian-built Soyuz space capsule landed safely back on Earth late Thursday (Sept. 15), returning an American astronaut and two cosmonauts home after more than five months in space. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12974-soyuz-capsule-lands-safely-space-station-crew.html">Full Story</a>]
A U.S. Senate panel has proposed giving NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) about $150 million more for 2012 than the White House requested for the overbudget project, which appropriators in the House of Representatives voted this summer to cancel. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12977-senate-james-webb-telescope-funding.html">Full Story</a>]
NASA's Opportunity rover, recently arrived at a new crater on Mars, has found an intriguing rock that could offer clues into Mars' wetter past. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12987-mars-rover-opportunity-rare-rock-water.html">Full Story</a>]
