Inventing the jet engine came with a few disasters

Gemini 8 was in trouble. After completing the first space docking with another craft, it begins to spin uncontrollably. Ditching protocol, commanding officer Neil Armstrong tries an unorthodox plan.

How Neil Armstrong Saved The Gemini 8 Spacecraft (3:20)

NASA began working on lunar vehicles in the early 1960s—but the project relied more on guesswork than engineering precision. After all, no one had any idea what being on the moon would be like.

The Design Of The Lunar Rover Was Mostly Guesswork (2:37)

A damaged Apollo 13 was about to re-enter Earth's atmosphere amid a communications blackout. It would become the longest re-entry blackout in the history of the space program.

Apollo 13's Intense Comms Blackout (3:47)

"Big Bertha" was one of the moon rocks brought back by the Apollo 14 crew for geological analysis. What it revealed stunned scientists.

A Moon Sample Reveals A Surprising Link To Earth (2:04)

Did you know that some of the technologies we take for granted in our kitchens were actually developed by NASA? Here are five of the best, from water filters to freeze-dried food.

5 Kitchen Objects Inspired By NASA (2:24)

The crew of Apollo 11 had made history by landing on the moon and coming back to Earth in one piece. But before the celebrations could begin, they would have to spend some time in quarantine

Why the Apollo 11 Crew Was Quarantined Upon Return (2:59)

To prepare him for landing the lunar module, Neil Armstrong practiced on a training vehicle right here on Earth. It was designed to replicate flying within a gravitational pull that was 1/6 that of Earth

How Neil Armstrong Trained to Land the Lunar Module (2:13)

After the success of Apollo 11, NASA unveiled an ambitious agenda for more missions into space. But interest among the public was beginning to drop—and the Nixon administration balked at the high costs

Why Interest in Space Travel Waned After Apollo 11 (2:48)

The main innovation of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier was the angled-flight deck. This enabled multiple planes to land and take-off faster, and at the same time.

How Angled Flight Decks Revolutionized Aircraft Carrier Flight Decks (2:53)