'Why I Wasn't Devastated': Remembering the Final Shuttle-Mir Mission, 20 Years On

By Ben Evans, on June 10th, 2018

STS-91 marked the ninth and final docking mission between the shuttle and Russia’s Mir space station. Photo Credit: NASA

Twenty years ago, this week, shuttle Discovery pulled away from Russia’s Mir space station for the final time, closing out a group of impressive rendezvous and docking missions which had cemented a new partnership […]

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'All You See Are Red Lights': 25 Years Since Columbia's Dramatic Aborted Launch Attempt

By Ben Evans, on March 25th, 2018

Columbia’s engines flare to life on 22 March 1993, a quarter-century ago, this week, in the third Redundant Set Launch Sequencer (RSLS) abort of the shuttle program. Photo Credit: NASA

A quarter-century ago, in March 1993, shuttle Columbia stood ready on Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, awaiting liftoff […]

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'See the Sunrise?': 20 Years Since STS-84, Mission of the Six Nations (Part 2)

By Ben Evans, on May 14th, 2017

The pressurized modules and solar arrays of Mir, as viewed through the windows of Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-84. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de

Two decades ago, tonight, the Florida sky and much of the eastern seaboard of the United States, was lit up and shaken awake by the rousing launch of […]

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'We Just Lit Up the Sky': 20 Years Since STS-84, Mission of the Six Nations (Part 1)

By Ben Evans, on May 13th, 2017

Atlantis roars into the night on 15 May 1997, kicking off her sixth visit to Russia’s Mir space station. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de

Twenty years ago, this week, Space Shuttle Atlantis roared into the night, creating a new dawn across the marshy landscape of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). “We just […]

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Orbital ATK Negotiating to Use VAB for Potential Next Gen EELV Rocket for USAF

By Mike Killian, on April 22nd, 2016

NASA and Orbital ATK are in negotiations for the Dulles, Va.-based company to make use of the agency’s VAB High Bay 2 to process a potential next generation EELV rocket that Orbital ATK received Air Force funding to begin development on earlier this year. Photo Credit: Alan Walters / awaltersphoto.com

This week NASA’s […]

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'To Work Co-operatively': 20 Years Since the First Shuttle-Mir Docking Mission (Part 4)

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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'To Work Co-operatively': 20 Years Since the First Shuttle-Mir Docking Mission (Part 3)

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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'Houston, Atlantis, We Have Capture': 20 Years Since the First Shuttle-Mir Docking Mission (Part 2)

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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'Houston, Atlantis, We Have Capture': 20 Years Since the First Shuttle-Mir Docking Mission (Part 1)

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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Orbital ATK and NASA Release Initial Findings From SLS Booster QM-1 Test Fire

By Mike Killian, on May 12th, 2015

Orbital ATK’s SLS solid rocket booster Qualification Motor-1 (QM-1) test fire March 11, 2015, at the company’s test stand in Promontory, Utah. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace

The solid rocket booster that will propel NASA’s skyscraper-size Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion spacecraft on deep space missions in the coming […]

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