A Very Unusual Machine

Animation showing how the TESS exoplanet-hunting telescope will observe the sky. TESS will watch each observation sector for at least 27 days, before rotating to the next one, covering first the south and then the north to build a map of 85 percent of the sky.

TESS Telescope View of the Sky (0:26)

During a February 2013 U.N. meeting on international strategies for protecting Earth from incoming asteroids, astronaut Chris Hadfield, a member of the Association of Space Explorers, addresses attendees from onboard the International Space Station. Video: Association of Space Explorers

Chris Hadfield On the Asteroid Threat (6:44)

In this clip from the 1967 Soviet movie A Cruise to the Stars, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is shown training for his historic mission as engineers test various systems of the Vostok capsule. Accepting the task before him, Gagarin tells space officials that if he encounters any difficulties in space, I will overcome them as the communists do. On launch day, April 12, 1961, Chief Designer Sergei Korolev radios his best wishes as Gagarin takes off. After his 108-minute flight, Gagarin becomes an international sensation, with parades and celebrations in his honor.A Cruise to the Stars, which runs 52 minutes, was made to commemorate the first 10 years of the Soviet space program. We do not consider the conquest of space as the achievement of only our people but as that of all mankind, the narrator says. We happily place it at the disposal of all nations and peoples in the name of progress, happiness, and welfare of all men.

Excerpt: "A Cruise to the Stars" (13:54)

Before John Young and Robert Crippens STS-1 mission in April 1981, no astronauts had ever landed a spaceship on a runway. In their postflight briefing, Young (the first voice in this clip) and pilot Crippen describe their first-time return of a shuttle from orbit, during which the vehicle executed a series of S-turns, or roll reversals, like a skier slaloming downhill to manage speed.

STS-1: The First Shuttle Landing (5:55)

It was a scene straight out of Apollo 13astronauts and ground controllers working together to improvise a new plan when Plan A had failed. The task on Endeavour's first flight in May 1992 was to capture the stranded INTELSAT-VI satellite, attach a new rocket motor, and send it to a new orbit. But when early attempts to grab the satellite with a special "capture bar" failed, Pierre Thuot, Rick Hieb and Tom Akers had to go outside and steady the 9,200-pound spacecraft by handthe first and only three-man spacewalk in shuttle history.

Intelsat Rescue (5:28)

In the early days of the shuttle program, NASA wasnt sure how crews of five, six, and seven people would fare in the limited space of the orbiter. Here the crew of STS-51A, who flew in November 1984, give a tour of the upper and lower decks. Onboard were Rick Hauck, Dave Walker, Joe Allen, Anna Fisher, and Dale Gardner. Allen, who had been an astronaut since 1967 but hadnt flown until 1982, was making his second flight.

STS-51A: Life on a Small Spaceship (3:54)

The new theater system in the National Air and Space Museums Einstein Planetarium is such a dramatic upgrade that only a few of the currently available films can make use of its full definition. To Space & Back, which opens in mid-August 2014, is one of them. (Video: Courtesy of Sky-Skan and the Franklin Institute)

To Space and BackTrailer (2:01)

In this video taken from NASAs F/A-18 chase plane, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), fully opens its telescopes door on a flight near Edwards, California on December 18, 2009. The one-hour, 19-minute flight was the first time outside air had interacted with the part of the airplane that carries the 98-inch telescope. The blue tufts around the door, similar to parachute cord, help aerodynamic engineers see the flow of air around the fuselage. Doing so allows them to determine if there is any unusual turbulence around the opening. The door, designed in a wind tunnel, has proven to be effective, with no noticeable drag when it is either partially or fully open.

SOFIA Opens Its Door (1:41)

JP Aerospace flights rely primarily on volunteers and helium. A team will take a tray of PongSat experiments out to the desert, attach it to a helium balloon, and launch it. Once the balloon reaches the thin air of the stratosphere, it will burst, and the tray will descend to earth, with a parachute opening to gentle the landing. (Video: JP Aerospace)

Flight of the Pongsats (0:40)