By Ben Evans, on May 20th, 2017
Scott Carpenter, America’s fourth man in space and second to orbit the Earth. Photo Credit: NASA
Fifty-five years ago, this week, America launched its second man into orbit around the Earth. That man should have been Deke Slayton, but a heart murmur had left him grounded, not in favor of his backup, Wally […]
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By Ben Evans, on February 19th, 2017
Bobbing gently in the waves after a highly successful – though nail-bitingly harrowing – mission, Friendship 7 is readied for winching out of the water. Photo Credit: NASA
On the afternoon of 20 February 1962, millions of Americans listened and watched, transfixed as their countryman, John Glenn, plummeted back to Earth after completing […]
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By Ben Evans, on February 18th, 2017
Blurred and somewhat lacking in detail, this image of John Glenn in orbit aboard Friendship 7 represents one of the United States’ greatest advances in space technology in the 20th century: the effort to achieve piloted orbital flight. Photo Credit: NASA
Two months after his death, aged 95, Monday will be a somber […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on July 18th, 2016
Artist’s conception of the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft near the Sun. Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL
The Solar System is a busy place, with spacecraft currently visiting most of the planets as well as some dwarf planets and comets. Akatsuki is at Venus, several rovers and orbiters are at Mars, the Juno spacecraft just reached […]
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By Emily Carney, on November 25th, 2015
From NASA: “Katherine Johnson sits at her desk with a globe, or ‘Celestial Training Device.’” Johnson’s work as a research mathematician contributed to NASA’s successes from the Mercury to the Shuttle programs, and beyond. Photo Credit: NASA
Decades before astronaut Sally Ride became the first U.S. woman to soar into space, and a […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on October 6th, 2015
Artist’s conception of the VERITAS spacecraft in orbit around Venus. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Looking ahead to future planetary missions, NASA has selected five new science investigations for refinement over the next year. Later, one or two of those missions will be chosen to actually be launched, perhaps as early as 2020. The selections […]
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By Ben Evans, on July 13th, 2015 Tomorrow’s historic flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto and its binary companion, Charon, will mark the completion of humanity’s first-time exploration of each of the Solar System’s nine traditional planets. Photo Credit: NASA
Tomorrow, the United States will become the first nation to have conducted a close-range reconnaissance of all nine “traditional” planets […]
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By Mike Killian, on June 11th, 2015 Jack King, the first chief of Public Information for NASA’s Launch Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, briefs the news media on the May 2, 1961, postponement of the launch of Mercury Redstone-3 due to unfavorable weather. Three days later, astronaut Alan Shepard made history as the first American in space. […]
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By Paul Scott Anderson, on May 6th, 2015 Artist’s conception of super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e, before and after volcanic activity on its day side. The surface may be partially molten. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt
Discovering new exoplanets has become rather routine in the last few years, but determining just what conditions exist on any of them is naturally more difficult, […]
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By Ben Evans, on May 4th, 2015 The LJ-1B Little Joe mission launches from Wallops on 21 January 1960, carrying “Miss Sam”, the second rhesus passenger, on a critical Pad Abort Test for Project Mercury. Photo Credit: NASA
Following the recent successes of the CRS-6 Dragon launch toward the International Space Station (ISS) on 14 April and last week’s flight […]
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