Nowadays, it's almost like we take space travel for granted. Spectacular pictures come back from telescopes and space probes, and we give them a glance, maybe say "wow," and then move on to the latest news about the iPhone 5 or whatever. Over the last half century, though, our knowledge about our universe (and particularly our solar system) has increased exponentially, thanks to the development of spacecraft capable of making it to other planets and then sending back pictures when they get there. It hasn't been easy, but as milestone after milestone has been reached, our perception of our place in the cosmos has expanded.

As usual, the difference between sci-fi and reality is striking, but despite its unsexy appearance, the Nautilus-X is NASA's first take on a manned space exploration vehicle destined for other planets.

Virgin CEO Richard Branson may have his own airline and a space tourism company, but there's still one frontier yet to explore: the depths of the Caribbean Sea. And that's exactly where the British mogul's new craft, the Nymph, will...

At the beginning of Avatar, one of the ship's technicians tells the crew that they've been in cryogenic stasis for over five years — the time it takes to get from Earth to Pandora. Makes you wonder how they got...