Human Spaceflight
Boeing, SpaceX garner NASA contracts to launch astronauts from American soil
In 2010, with the retirement of NASA’s iconic 30-year space shuttle program, the space agency began the Commercial Crew Program to stimulate development of privately built and operated American-made spacecraft for transporting astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit (LEO) and the International Space Station (ISS). Since the final shuttle landed in 2011, America has been forced …
Deep Space Network: Finding the signal for 50 years
Robotic missions exploring our solar system have wowed the world with their discoveries and especially the images they return. But even the most sophisticated spacecraft is useless until the science and engineering it gathers makes it back to Earth. NASA’s one of a kind collection of massive dishes around the world makes that possible. The …
Astronaut Reid Wiseman on the first spacewalk of Expedition 41
On Oct. 7, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman (pictured here) and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst completed the first of three spacewalks for the Expedition 41 crew aboard the International Space Station. The spacewalkers worked outside the space station’s Quest airlock for 6 hours and 13 minutes, relocating a failed cooling pump to external stowage …
A look at ‘The Last Man on the Moon’
The Time: 19.30 GMT Wednesday, June 4th 2014. The Place: London’s Science Museum. Silence and darkness is broken by the Houston skyline. At a livestock auction a white haired cowboy appraises the cattle stock before settling into a stadium seat at a Houston Rodeo Show. One by one the rodeo riders enter the stadium, holding …
Apollo 11: A giant leap for mankind
We missed the whole thing It was a wondrous opportunity to be part of something historical. We just had a hard time comprehending what it would mean to other people, what it would mean to ourselves. – Buzz Aldrin It was too much for us to grasp at the time. America was in hot battles …
Jack King: The Voice of Apollo
Most people have crushes on astronauts, but I’m smitten by a voice. Jack King has never been to the Moon. He has never had a ticker tape parade. You wouldn’t recognize him if you passed him on the street. But the moment he begins speaking, chances are you’d want a front row seat, because Jack …