Vote Now! Best Space Stories of the Week – June 29, 2014

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NASA's Next Manned Spaceship Passes 'Most Complex' Parachute Test

NASA/Rad Sinyak

NASA deployed the Orion spacecraft’s parachutes today (June 25) in what the space agency is billing as the “most difficult” test of the system so far.

[Full Story]

Russia Reinstates Rejected Female Cosmonaut Candidate

Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

As it turns out, Anna Kikina is to become a cosmonaut after all. The only woman among Russia's recent candidate group, Kikina was excluded from the cosmonaut corps by the commission overseeing the selections. That decision though, has now been reversed.

[Full Story]

NEXT: Hubble Telescope's 'Pillars of Creation' Remade in Computer Simulation

Hubble Telescope's 'Pillars of Creation' Remade in Computer Simulation

NASA, ESA, STScI, J. Hester and P. Scowen (Arizona State University)

Learn more about how the Pillars of Creation made famous by an incredible Hubble Space Telescope photo were created themselves.

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NEXT: New Ion-Propulsion System Could Deliver Time Capsule to Mars

New Ion-Propulsion System Could Deliver Time Capsule to Mars

Time Capsule to Mars

A student-led mission aims to send a time capsule to the Red Planet, using a new, more compact kind of propulsion system.

[Full Story]

NEXT: NASA Astronauts Shave Heads After U.S. World Cup Loss to Germany (Photos, Video)

NASA Astronauts Shave Heads After U.S. World Cup Loss to Germany (Photos, Video)

NASA / ESA / Alexander Gerst Twitter

Two American astronauts on the International Space Station got a space-based head shaving yesterday courtesy of German crewmember Alexander Gerst after the three spaceflyers went in on a World Cup wager. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Steve Swanson lost their bet with Gerst when the United States lost to Germany in Thursday's (June 26) match.

[Full Story]

Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.