Both Stephen Alexander’s elementary teachers and televised NASA missions throughout the ‘60s influenced his journey into science. He recounts NASA’s legacy, 65 years after the agency’s inception.
The Artemis II mission will send four astronauts on a flyby of the Moon.
NASA
The Artemis II mission is scheduled for launch in late 2024 and is a critical step towards NASA’s goals of establishing a permanent human presence on and near the Moon.
There are more than 100 missions to the Moon planned in the coming years, including the next Artemis missions.
NASA
With more than 100 lunar missions planned in coming years, space junk near the Moon could become an issue for humanity. No agency tracks lunar space junk, so two astronomers decided to do it themselves.
David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust in 1972: ‘an androgynous rockstar from outer space’.
Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
In June 1972, the first United Nations conference on the human environment coincided with the release of David Bowie’s iconic Ziggy Stardust album. Both still feel disturbingly relevant today
Glenn, in the NASA mailroom, received letters from fans of all ages.
John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University
John Glenn would have turned 100 on July 18, 2021. Today’s space program is a giant leap more inclusive than when he made his pioneering orbit of the Earth in 1962.
The US has taken on grand challenges that required complex coordination before, including Project Apollo.
NASA
A systems engineering expert applies the same method NASA’s Project Apollo engineers used to offer a systematic approach to deciding on school reopening at a local level.
As commercial spaceflight companies lower the cost of reaching space, nations can launch more missions. But while astronauts are great for whipping up enthusiasm, is a manned mission worth the cost?
A large, sea jelly-like antenna shadow from the Apollo 14 mission in 1971.
NASA
This year the Apollo 11 mission turns 50 - but what does the future hold for the Moon? The ephemeral shadows cast by human artefacts may soon be joined by more permanent scars of lunar mining.
President Richard M. Nixon welcomes the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard the USS Hornet, the recovery ship for the mission, where they are quarantined. From left to right: Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin.
NASA
Objects left on the Moon are not just abandoned rockets and rovers. There is a lot of historic and sentimental memorabilia. Some of it hints at a mission that the first Moonwalkers almost forgot.
Artist’s concept of Beresheet on the lunar surface.
Oshratsl / Wikimedia Commons
Amber Miller, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Today many Americans see universities negatively. But, as the dean of USC Dornsife argues, academia has a unique capacity to solve society’s problems. Yes, astrophysicists can help law enforcement.
Eugene Cernan inside the lunar module after his second moonwalk of the mission. His spacesuit is covered with moondust.
NASA
Often eclipsed by Apollo 11, the final manned moonshot left far more than bootprints in the dust. In these troubling times, it also left us with a lasting message of hope.
John Glenn stands in the NASA mailroom surrounded by thousands of letters sent to him.
John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University.
Letters from would-be girl astronauts in the 1960s tell part of the complicated story of sexism – in both NASA and the US at large – at the dawn of the space age.