Editors' Picks
What the astronauts really said
Apollo "onboard voice" recordings captured the moon astronauts' conversations -- cussing and all -- when no one else was listening.
Drones for Hire
The newest eyes in the sky are drawing the attention of power companies, conservation groups, and the ACLU.
Five Reasons to Like NASA’s Asteroid Retrieval Mission
So it's not the Moon or Mars. Get over it.
The Invention of Flight
Inventors, dreamers, daredevils, charlatans: Aviation's early years had them all.
Disaster at Xichang
An eyewitness speaks publicly for the first time about history’s worst launch accident.
Page 17 of 45
What is it about April 12 that makes momentous things happen?Today is the 150th anniversary of the start of the U.S. Civil War, the 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch, and the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight.Centuries from now, the last of these may be considered the...
April 12, 2011
| By Tony Reichhardt
At a recent workshop on lunar return, a critical part of the discussion focused on the need for a statement of purpose – a value proposition for the Moon. Over the years I’ve attempted to distill my rationale for lunar return (my “elevator speech” if you will) into a clearly stated and persuasive ...
April 10, 2011
| By Paul D. Spudis
The Soyuz TMA-21 crew is scheduled to blast off for the International Space Station this evening, with NASA astronaut Ron Garan and two rookie cosmonauts, Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Andrei Borisenko, onboard, ready to begin the Expedition 27 mission.Because their trip comes close to the 50th annive...
April 04, 2011
| By Tony Reichhardt
A plan for a human mission to a near Earth object (NEO; an asteroid), designed by engineers from Georgia Tech and the National Institute for Aerospace (GT/NIA), was recently posted online. Keying in on lowering program total costs, this architecture eliminates the need for a new heavy lift launch ...
March 31, 2011
| By Paul D. Spudis
A recent article about the role of global magnetic fields in the loss of planetary volatiles caught my attention. The article addresses planetary climate issues as they relate to Earth, Mars and Venus, but what struck me was this statement:
We don't have a direct record of the sun's history, but a...
March 22, 2011
| By Paul D. Spudis
When we last left the Garvey Space Craft/Cal State Long Beach rocketeers at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry test site in Mojave, California, they had static-tested their P-18 engine, designed to launch nanosatellites to low Earth orbit, for the 150 seconds required to launch an orbital first stage....
March 21, 2011
| By Pat Trenner
Come home with your shield, or on it – Spartan women to their husbands, marching off to war.From the giant Olympus Mons shield on Mars (600 kilometers across and 27 km high) to the large volcanoes of Venus, shield-building was thought to be a common expression of volcanism on all rocky Solar Syste...
March 19, 2011
| By Paul D. Spudis
One thing I've always liked about the Russian space program is that it keeps the "human" in human spaceflight. NASA often seems more interested in technology than people. You can see it in the different feel of the international space station modules: the American, European and Japanese labs are f...
March 18, 2011
| By Tony Reichhardt
That's one interesting question that a few former space shuttle astronauts and other experts were grappling with one day in early March at the National Research Council's Keck building in downtown Washington, D.C. Around a large conference table sat NASA veterans Fred Gregory, history's first black...
March 15, 2011
| By Mike Klesius
With space shuttle Discovery having just wrapped up its career, we thought you might like this account of its first flight back in 1984, as narrated by the STS-41D crew.See here for more of these shuttle home videos.
March 09, 2011
| By Tony Reichhardt
These are emotional days for the folks who work on the space shuttle, as they watch vehicles and people retire. Today was the last day on the job for Bryan Lunney, a 22-year veteran NASA flight director who also happens to be the son of legendary flight director Glynn Lunney.Here's how Bryan summed...
March 07, 2011
| By Tony Reichhardt
Amazing what you can see in a 10-inch telescope if the conditions are right. Dutch amateur astronomer Ralf Vandebergh got a picture of STS-133 astronaut Steve Bowen spacewalking outside the International Space Station last week.
March 07, 2011
| By Tony Reichhardt
Ron Grabe, launch system manager for Orbital Sciences, didn't try to sugar-coat the news. "Tonight we're all pretty devastated," he said during a predawn press briefing at Vandenberg AFB today.Orbital's Taurus XL rocket had just dumped NASA's $424 million Glory climate satellite into the Pacific oc...
March 04, 2011
| By Tony Reichhardt
On February 15, 2011 a symposium entitled “U.S. Human Spaceflight: Continuity and Stability” was held at Rice University’s James A. Baker Institute of Public Policy. Organized by George Abbey, the resident space expert at the Baker Institute, one might have suspected that it would be Shuttle-centr...
March 01, 2011
| By Paul D. Spudis
Call it a thought experiment, a way to engage the public, or an expensive waste of time.Either way, the "Message in a Bottle" task on yesterday's spacewalk outside the International Space Station was one of the more unusual chores ever by an astronaut. At the behest of the Japanese Space Agency JAX...
March 01, 2011
| By Tony Reichhardt
Shuttle crews from the 1980s recall how their new vehicle took some getting used to.
February 28, 2011
| By The Editors
A fleet of winged spacecraft, the likes of which we'll never see again.
March 01, 2011
| By Michael Klesius
Highlights from 30 years of astronaut videos, filmed on location in Earth orbit.
February 28, 2011
| By The Editors
Most histories of space travel credit the first use of the rocket countdown to a work of fiction: Fritz Lang's 1929 science fiction film, "Frau im Mond" (Woman in the Moon).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaVLaD4vfBcMaybe not, though. British science fiction writer George Griffith used the same dram...
February 26, 2011
| By Tony Reichhardt
A seemingly trivial event has revealed some schadenfreude about NASA, along with a lot of irritation. Apparently (as is their wont) the fertile minds running our national space agency decided that the time has come (once again) for a new and improved vision statement – out with the old and in with...
February 23, 2011
| By Paul D. Spudis
Advertisement
Follow Us
 | ||||||
|
|
 |
 |
| ||
Air & Space Videos
|
X-47B Carrier LaunchAn unpiloted combat aircraft takes off from an aircraft carrier for the first time. |
|
SpaceShipTwo Fires UpVirgin Galactic sends its edge-of-space ship past Mach 1. |
|
How to Bag an AsteroidNASA's plan to retrieve an asteroid and bring it (close to) home. |
|
The Mach-2 Bomber That Never WasBritain's TSR-2 bomber makes its first test flight in 1964. |
|
“Earth is Certain to Be Struck”A space station astronaut addresses a U.N. meeting on protecting the planet from rogue rocks. |
View All Videos » |
|
Need to Know
|
Why do NASA launch times depend on lighting conditions?It's all about the solar beta angle. |
Air & Space Interview
|
Bobby BraunNASA's outgoing Chief Technologist talks about what's in the R&D pipeline |
In the Magazine
