The November 10 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station carried the 600th person to reach outer space over the 60-year history of human spaceflight, since Yuri Gagarin’s historic ascent in 1961. And the ‘Rocket Man’ himself, actor William Shatner, became the oldest person inread more
On April 28, Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins passed away at the age of 90, following a fight with cancer. And just as the Apollo 11 astronaut and space exploration pioneer departs the Earth, NASA’s Ingenuity solar-powered helicopter makes history as the first aircraft to fly on another world. On April 19,read more
[Updated Feb. 19 to reflect Perseverance and Ingenuity’s successful landing] Mars became a fair bit busier this month, with no less than three missions—each from a different country—having arrived at the red planet over the past few weeks. The UAE’s Al-Amal and China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft entered orbit earlier in February, and NASA’s Mars 2020read more
Pioneering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson died on February 24, 2020, at the age of 101. Johnson’s calculations were critical in ensuring the success of the early Mercury and Apollo spaceflight missions. Along with fellow mathematicians Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, Johnson was the subject of the 2016 book Hidden Figures, documenting the contributionsread more