NASA has arrived at two ways of returning samples collected on Mars to Earth. Now, the agency will test the options to see if the cache can make it back in the 2030s.

NASA is pitching a cheaper and quicker way of getting rocks and soil back from Mars. Administrator Bill Nelson presented two options on Tuesday, less than two weeks before stepping down as NASA's chief.

The simulation involved two full teams of flight controllers, the Sierra Space team in Colorado and the NASA team in Houston, rehearsing the final two hours of the Dream Chaser's approach to the ISS. "Training simulations are a vital component of flight control team preparation to fly a spaceflight mission," Owen said.

NASA's beleaguered Mars Sample Return program currently faces extreme costs of up to $11 billion and a timeline that could reach 2040.

Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have calculated a new system for measuring lunar time. While not needed for most people’s daily schedules, establishing time on the lunar surface as compared to time on Earth is vital to realizing a permanent human presence on the moon.

Clinton claimed she wrote a letter to the space agency as a child, wishing to be an astronaut at a time when there were no women astronauts.

NASA announced Tuesday their new approach to their Mars Sample Return Program. The agency will develop two landing architectures in parallel, promoting competition and innovation while aiming for cost and schedule efficiency.

After a long career as a politician from Florida, former astronaut Bill Nelson has served as NASA's administrator for the last three and a half years. He intends to resign from this position in about two weeks when President Joe Biden ends his term in the White House.