Earth
NASA’s first women-only spacewalk to occur this week
U.S. space agency NASA will send astronauts Anne McClain, 39, and Christina Koch, 40, on NASA’s first women-only spacewalk this Friday (March 29th). The all-female spacewalk also will be supported by a female ground crew: Mary Lawrence will serve as lead flight director and Jackie Kagey will be lead spacewalk flight controller at NASA’s Johnson …
SpaceX Crew Dragon completes successful first mission to ISS
The United States of America moved one giant step closer to regaining the ability to send astronauts into space today. Early this morning SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida after conducting a five-day test mission docked to the International Space Station. “If you just think about …
International Space Station’s 20 years of transformation
The largest and most complex international construction project in space began on the steppes of Kazakhstan 20 years ago today. Atop its Proton rocket, on Nov. 20, 1998, the Zarya Functional Cargo Block thundered off its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome to serve as a temporary control module for the nascent International Space Station. …
NASA mission in Senegal promotes scientific discovery
When NASA scientists assembled telescopes in her home country of Senegal, Binita Yanni knew very little about astronomy and didn’t realize a career in planetary sciences was even a possibility. Determined to learn why 21 U.S. telescopes were stationed throughout the Senegalese countryside, the 20-year-old chemical engineering student approached lead scientist Adriana Ocampo on the …
When disaster strikes, space agencies share forecasts
From major hurricanes in the U.S. and Caribbean islands to floods in India, NASA and U.S. satellites have helped countries better forecast and respond to extreme weather events. Currently, U.S. satellites are tracking a typhoon in the East China Sea and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean using big-picture data from space. During the recent hurricanes Harvey and …
America’s gateway to space: LC-39A
The iconic launch pads, Pads 39A and 39B at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39, have been the starting point for many space flights including the first manned lunar landing. The original design for Launch Complex 39 called for three to five launch pads, designated 39A – 39E, that would have been spaced approximately 1.6 …