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 …
Lost Shuttle crews ‘Forever Remembered’
A new memorial area dubbed “Forever Remembered” features artifacts recovered from the wreckage of the Challenger and Columbia orbiters. Columbia’s cockpit window frames along with a section of Challenger’s fuselage stand alone in individual displays against a black background. It’s an eerie sight to see these pieces displayed. They provide a stark reminder to all that …
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 …
Delta IV Heavy launches with classified payload
The largest and most powerful American rocket currently flying, United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy, lifted off from Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:51 p.m. on June 11, 2016 on the NROL-37 mission after a 48-hour delay due to weather. The payload for this launch was a classified satellite for …
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 …
Surviving on Mars with ‘The Martian’ author Andy Weir
“Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.” Such is the opening to the description of Andy Weir’s book The Martian. A book that has come all the way from Weir posting chapters for free on his website in 2011, …
Methane in the membrane (Producing rocket fuel on Mars)
Vocabulary • Carbon (C): Element with a mass of 12 g/mole • Hydrogen (H): Element with a mass of 1 g/mole • In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU): Taking advantage of a planet’s natural resources to supplement a space mission • Low Mars Orbit (LMO): The minimum altitude above the Martian surface necessary to maintain a stable …
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 …
Flowing water exists on surface of Mars
Today, NASA made an exciting announcement about Mars. New information out of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) confirms that sporadic salty water movement is taking place on the red planet. It had been previously speculated that dark downhill flowing streaks (known as recurring slope lineae (RSL)), occurring seasonally on the slopes of Mars, were somehow …
‘Secrets of the Universe’ film in final hours of crowdfunding campaign
“Our goal is to educate and inspire a new generation of scientists.” Those are the words of the company behind an Indiegogo campaign to produce a documentary about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to be shown at museums and science centers across the U.S. and other countries. ‘Secrets of the Universe’ will follow the world’s most brilliant scientists to the LHC …
DSCOVR sees the Earth like never before
This animation features actual satellite images of the far side of the moon, illuminated by the Sun, as it crosses between the DSCOVR spacecraft’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) and telescope, and the Earth – one million miles away. Credit: NASA Moon seen crossing the face of the Earth A NASA camera aboard the Deep …
Flowing ice and atmospheric haze discovered on Pluto
Flowing ice and a surprising extended haze are among the newest discoveries from NASA’s New Horizons mission, which reveal distant Pluto to be an icy world of wonders. “We knew that a mission to Pluto would bring some surprises, and now — 10 days after closest approach — we can say that our expectation has …
Kepler has found Earth’s older, larger cousin
Some of the very fundamental questions about our existence – why we are here, what is out there, if we will ever find another planet similar enough to ours to live on – have come another step closer to being solved, today. The latest exciting Kepler Space Telescope planet-hunting discovery was announced by NASA this …
New Horizons unveils Pluto and its moons
After traveling more than three billion miles during a nine-and-a-half year journey, the New Horizons spacecraft has made a successful investigative flyby of Pluto. With the achievement, the United States via NASA has become the first country to send a spacecraft to all nine of the classical planets of our solar system. Yes, we said nine, not …
Kerbal Space Program: Bringing rocket science to games
Bob, that Despicable Me Minion mixed with a Martian in the photo, floats at the boundary of space, high above planet Kerbin. The space ship he was in, falls back to the planet below him. Bob ponders how he got in such a predicament, floating in space with no way home. The answer: he trusted …
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) …
Troubleshooting with a ‘dead’ astronaut
I was an electronic technician for Grumman Aircraft Co. from 1964 through 1978. One of my duties was to operate the Lunar Module cabin during trouble shooting and testing. Back then, the astronauts spent as much time in and around the hardware as we did. One day in the MSOB (Manned Spacecraft Operations Building), I was …
Al Worden on the honor of being an astronaut
“Do you know what they did down on the Moon? What those guys’ primary job was? They picked up rocks and dirt. Now, myself, in lunar orbit…” — Al Worden, Apollo 15 CMP USAF Colonel Alfred Worden served as Command Module Pilot for Apollo 15 – the fourth manned lunar landing mission. He also holds the …
The difference it made: Building a car for the Moon
Neil Armstrong set the first distance record with an impromptu amble to Little West crater. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean exceeded that several times over by circling out and down into Surveyor Crater. Edgar Mitchell still holds the title for longest one, over a mile, made when he and Alan Shepard went looking for Cone …
Celebrating Mars New Year
The town of Mars, Pennsylvania and NASA marked the Martian New Year with a three-day celebration in the small western Pennsylvania borough. As part of the celebration of the Red Planet’s latest complete journey around the Sun, the town hosted three days of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) activities. This article appeared in the …