Editors' Picks
Printed in Space
If your star tracker breaks on the way to the moon, just hit Command P.
Area 51: Origins
America’s once-secret air base had humble beginnings.
Need for Speed
Airplanes with a mission: Fly faster.
The Invention of Flight
Inventors, dreamers, daredevils, charlatans: Aviation's early years had them all.
Vietnam Memoir
Stories from the war that shaped a generation.
Page 23 of 45
There's a philosophical war going on in space policy circles these days, between those who believe that grand, ambitious missions drive invention (Apollo), and those who believe it's the other way around (DARPA).Honestly, I think either approach can work, given wise management. But NASA's new direc...
July 15, 2010
| By Tony Reichhardt
The veteran astronaut is the only person to fly on all five space shuttle orbiters.
August 2010
| By Diane Tedeschi
Satellites, experiments, space station parts - the space shuttle hauled it all.
August 2010
| By Paul Hoversten
What goes up, must come down. In the Delta Clipper's case, really hard.
August 2010
| By Preston Lerner
During a recent interview on Al Jazeera television, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden outlined NASA’s new priorities. His remarks became headlines as the previously ignored story about the redirection of the space agency toward international diplomatic outreach and global climate change research f...
July 10, 2010
| By Paul D. Spudis
With more NASA astronauts Twittering and YouTubing these days, you can get all kinds of insider views of the spacefarer's life if you're willing to rummage around the Web a bit.
Scott Kelly is training for a space station tour beginning in September, and over the last year has posted video scenes ...
July 08, 2010
| By Tony Reichhardt
"It was 58 years ago today that the Roswell incident occurred," said Roger Launius, a National Air and Space Museum Space History curator who could also be considered NASM's chief skeptic. (An earlier talk of his concerned people who refuse to believe the Apollo program landed men on the moon.) Hi...
July 07, 2010
| By Pat Trenner
We’ve studied and examined the Apollo samples of the lunar maria (pronounced MAR-ee-uh) for thirty years but despite the thorough search of these collections, we have never found a sample of the deep mantle from which these lavas were formed. How might such a deeply seated rock find its way to the...
July 07, 2010
| By Paul D. Spudis
Last week the Obama White House released its National Space Policy, a document put forward by every administration since Eisenhower's. The report gives each president a chance to articulate his vision for the nation's space activities.The new plan is notable in its call for international cooperatio...
July 06, 2010
| By Mike Klesius
Before humans could be sent into space, scientists needed to know if they could function in weightlessness. NASA had conducted tests with mice and a monkey, but then turned to chimpanzees, animals that could be trained to perform specific tasks.Enter HAM (an acronym derived from Holloman AeroMedica...
July 02, 2010
| By Rebecca Maksel
The space community has fractured since the disastrous roll out of NASA’s “new direction.” Preceding the administration’s budget announcement, endless delays and rampant speculation about administrators, rockets, and program design and direction kept people guessing. The current trench warfare is...
June 26, 2010
| By Paul D. Spudis
China has selected its first two female astronauts, Space.com recently reported. But, unlike their male counterparts, females have to be married. “We believe married women would be more physically and psychologically mature,” Zhang Jianqui, the former deputy commander of China’s spaceflight program...
June 24, 2010
| By Rebecca Maksel
With time running short for the space shuttle, NASA has come up with a way for the masses to journey with astronauts on the vehicle's two remaining voyages. Granted, it’s still impossible to actually hitch a ride to orbit, but you can upload and send a picture of yourself into space through NASA...
June 22, 2010
| By Mary McKillop
Is there water on the Moon?We know now that the answer to that question is a resounding Yes! As information continues to emerge from a wide range of studies, it’s evident that we’ve just begun to understand the process of the creation, movement and history of water on the Moon and its prevalence.A...
June 19, 2010
| By Paul D. Spudis
We had hoped that Japan's IKAROS solar sail would work as advertised, and it did. Here's an animated image of the fully deployed sail, taken by a "separation camera" from a short distance away.In other happenings:
The Hayabusa asteroid sample return capsule came home in spectacular style last wee...
June 17, 2010
| By Tony Reichhardt
If Hayabusa were a human explorer instead of a spacecraft, the first thing it might do on Sunday after returning to Earth from a seven-year voyage is pour a stiff drink.Japan's first mission to an asteroid has generally been a success, and a major step up for the nation's planetary program. But man...
June 11, 2010
| By Tony Reichhardt
Most of the credit for Friday's near-perfect launch of the new Falcon 9 rocket rightly goes to Elon Musk, whose unusual blend of vision, competence, and almost compulsive candor (what other aerospace executive has the nerve to a) publish fixed launch prices, and b) openly criticize a U.S. Senator?)...
June 05, 2010
| By Tony Reichhardt
SpaceX CEO and chief designer Elon Musk could be forgiven if he feels a little under-appreciated on the eve of his Falcon 9 rocket's first launch (liftoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. tomorrow from Cape Canaveral).The guy has been trying his damnedest for several years to bring down the cost of reac...
June 03, 2010
| By Tony Reichhardt
Three Russians, a Chinese, a Frenchman and an Italian walk into a simulation chamber...and don't come out for 17 months.That's pretty much the idea behind Mars 500, which starts tomorrow and aims to be the highest-fidelity simulation of a Mars mission ever conducted—as well as the first to last as ...
June 02, 2010
| By Tony Reichhardt
For the Memorial Day weekend, an assortment of news from the world of air and space:► The field of hypersonic flight has a new record: The Air Force's X-51A Waverider reached Mach 5 in a 200-second scramjet engine burn over the Pacific on Wednesday. Video below:► What looked at first like a sma...
May 28, 2010
| By Tony Reichhardt
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