By Ben Evans, on March 22nd, 2020 
Norm Thagard and Bonnie Dunbar participate in Soyuz-TM training in October 1994. Photo Credit: NASA
In March 2020, it seems inconceivable to think of U.S. astronauts being totally unaccustomed to long-duration spaceflight. Over the past quarter-century, no fewer than 67 Americans—from civilian medical doctors to biochemists and engineers to physicists, and from Army and […]
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By Ben Evans, on January 5th, 2020 
Thirty years ago, this month, the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) was plucked from orbit after almost six years. It was a triumphant moment as the Space Shuttle Program sought to recover from the loss of Challenger. Photo Credit: NASA
Thirty years ago, in January 1990, the Space Shuttle turned a corner. Long touted […]
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By Ben Evans, on June 17th, 2017 
A quarter-century ago, STS-50 set a new record for the longest Space Shuttle mission at that time. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de
Twenty-five years ago, next week, the crew of Columbia roared into orbit to begin the longest shuttle mission ever attempted at that time. Equipped with the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) […]
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By Ben Evans, on October 25th, 2015 In one of the final views of Challenger in space, the orbiter sails over the cloud-bedecked Earth, with the Spacelab D-1 module clearly visible in her payload bay. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de
Thirty years ago, next week, Space Shuttle Challenger flew in space for the final time. Mission 61A—the ninth and […]
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By Ben Evans, on October 24th, 2015 Thirty years ago, next week, Shuttle Challenger launched on her final successful mission. Photo Credit: NASA
It is a dismaying fact of history that the name “Challenger”—when spoken in relation to the second spaceworthy vehicle of NASA’s shuttle fleet—is so often associated only with the dreadful catastrophe which snuffed out seven lives on […]
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By Ben Evans, on June 28th, 2015 Mir Commander Vladimir Dezhurov (left) and STS-71 Commander Robert “Hoot” Gibson shake hands after hatch opening on 29 June 1995. Photo Credit: NASA
Two decades have passed, this week, since one of the most remarkable instances of international co-operation ever seen in human history. For 10 days, between 27 June and 7 July […]
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By Ben Evans, on June 27th, 2015 Russia’s space station Mir, as pictured by the crew of STS-71. Photo Credit: NASA
Twenty years ago, today, on 27 June 1995, a new era began. Space Shuttle Atlantis rocketed into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, as she had done 13 times previously, over the course of almost a […]
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By Ben Evans, on June 21st, 2015 By pure happenstance, Atlantis was about to enter a protracted period of modification when the Shuttle-Mir contracts were signed in 1992. As a result, she was the primary orbiter outfitted for the docking missions. Photo Credit: NASA
The coming days and weeks mark a pair of significant anniversaries in the history of co-operation […]
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By Ben Evans, on June 20th, 2015 Space Shuttle Atlantis, as viewed through one of Mir’s windows, during the extraordinary docking mission in June 1995. Photo Credit: NASA
Twenty years after the remarkable flight of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP)—which saw U.S. astronauts Tom Stafford, Vance Brand, and Deke Slayton work together in orbit for a handful of days with […]
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By Ben Evans, on March 14th, 2015 Twenty years ago, this week, NASA astronaut Norm Thagard embarked on the United States’ first long-duration space station expedition in more than two decades. Photo Credit: NASA
Today, in 2015, it seems hard to imagine U.S. astronauts being totally unaccustomed to long-duration spaceflight. Over the past two decades, around 50 Americans—from civilian medical […]
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