NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Two compact laboratories inside NASA's Mars rover Curiosity have ingested portions of the first sample of rock powder ever collected from the interior of a rock on Mars.

The powder comes from Curiosity drilling into rock target "John Klein" on Feb. 8. One or more additional portions from the same initial sample may be delivered to the instruments as analysis proceeds.

 › Curiosity Mission Page

The weather forecast is 90 percent favorable for the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft at 10:10 a.m. EST Friday from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The mission -- carrying more than 1,200 pounds of scientific experiments and cargo -- is the second of 12 SpaceX flights contracted by NASA to resupply the International Space Station.

NASA commercial partner Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Va., successfully conducted a "hot fire" engine test of its Antares rocket Friday at the nation's newest launch pad.

The company fired dual AJ26 rocket engines for the full duration 29 seconds while the rocket was bolted down on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.

  Video: Antares Hot Fire Test

The sun and its prodigious stream of solar particles, called the solar wind, can be particularly tricky to model since as the material streams to the outer reaches of the solar system it carries along its own magnetic fields.

The magnetic forces add an extra set of laws to incorporate when trying to determine what's governing the movement.

In late January, more than 30,000 students found out what it's like to control a camera on the International Space Station through the EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) mission.

Over 380 school groups from the United States and around the world were involved, setting a record for participation. The late Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, started the EarthKAM project, originally called KidSat, in 1995.