Members of the media got an up-close look at LDSD flight-test vehicles currently in preparation in the clean room at NASA-JPL on March 31. Thought they were just the stuff of science fiction movies? Not if NASA has anything to say about it. Agency researchers are developing a spacecraft that looks just like a flying saucer, with the hopes of helping a manned mission to Mars one day land softly on the... 

The US space agency released a spectacular video detailing the testing of an interplanetary landing system, which is designed to place more massive payloads on the surface of Mars, as it hurtled toward Earth. In the cosmic quest to explore the surface of Mars, NASA is attempting to devise technologies that will allow it to deliver heavy payloads to the mysterious red planet. In June, NASA engineers,... 

This handout photo provided June 3, 2014 by NASA/JPL/Caltech shows the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) in the Missile Assembly Building at the US Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kaua‘i, Hawaii. The US space agency has conducted a launch test on a saucer-shaped flying object to see whether it can land the vehicle properly in circumstances simulating landing conditions on Mars. On...