Human Spaceflight
ITS: SpaceX’s bold vision for crewed exploration of the solar system
It has long been known that SpaceX’s long term goal is the colonization of Mars. Everyone from the engineers to their CEO, Elon Musk, dreams of a world away from home. In September of 2016, we got a glimpse of how SpaceX is going to get there. At last, the long rumored Interplanetary Transport System …
SpaceX set to debut Falcon Heavy this year
After a ‘very fast fire’, a four-month hiatus, a complicated anomaly, and a general shaking of confidence, SpaceX was finally able to launch – and land – their Falcon 9 rocket once again last month. This is the first of 27 missions for 2017, a slate of launches that will not only introduce the final version of …
‘Hidden Figures’ no longer as film shines light on black women who sent NASA to space
Hollywood has made a lot of movies about space and NASA, but none quite like this. The new film Hidden Figures, to be released December 25, reveals the work of three African-American women who were the brains behind NASA’s most critical missions. Taraji Henson stars as Katherine Johnson, a math genius from rural West Virginia who calculated trajectories …
Constructing a new ride: NASA’s deep space rocket takes shape in New Orleans
NASA has finished welding together the very first fuel tank for America’s humongous Space Launch System (SLS) deep space rocket currently under development. RocketSTEM had an up close look at the liquid hydrogen (LH2) test tank shortly after its birth as well as the first flight tank, within hours of completion of the milestone assembly …
Air Force museum brings history of rocketry to life
The Air Force Space & Missile Museum and separate History Center, both located in Cape Canaveral, Florida, provide a unique look back at past space adventures, hardware, and facilities. You’ll find the entrance to the History Center just outside the main entrance of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The History Center, located just off …
Your ticket to space awaits at the KSC Visitor Complex
If you’ve never been to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and you are reading this article, well you owe it to yourself to make that trip at some point. If you have been there before, but not in a few years, I’d suggest that it’s time for a return trip. The complex has undergone …
Discovery: A look back at the workhorse of the Space Shuttle fleet
Five years ago, Space Shuttle Discovery launched on her final mission. Today we take a look back at her history and accomplishments during 27 years of spaceflight. Space Shuttle Discovery arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 9, 1983. After testing and a hot test firing, the orbiter launched on its first mission on …
The Martian got me cheering, but why go to Mars?
The penultimate object in the spectacular Cosmonauts exhibition, just opened at the Science Museum in London, is a spacesuit for a mission to Mars. It is lightweight, almost fragile and the pink-brown colour of the Martian sky. It suggests that after the fraught Cold War dynamics of the old space race, the inevitable next destination …
Stuck on Mars: Comparing Mars analog simulations to ‘The Martian’
I’ve never been stuck on Mars, or any other planets save for this one. But I have had a chance to simulate what life would be like to live on Mars during a long-duration analog simulation. Like fictional astronaut Mark Watney in Andy Weir’s “The Martian”, participants in analog simulations often find themselves having to …
Rovering across the Moon during Apollo 15
Premier of the J-series mission changed the game for Apollo 15 Four hundred miles (640 km) to the north of the Moon’s equator lies a place called Hadley: a small patch of Mare Imbrium at the base of the Apennine Mountains, some of which rise to 4,000 feet (1,200 meters), and a 25-mile (40 km) …