NASA

Posed in Hampton, Virginia, Katherine Johnson stands before a backdrop of gathering clouds, "symbolic of the obstacles ... that she had to face in her career," says curator William Pretzer.

Smithsonian Curators Remember Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician Highlighted in 'Hidden Figures,' Who Died at 101

An African American woman who battled workplace discrimination, Johnson performed crucial calculations to send astronauts into space

An artist's concept of the solar system

Where Will NASA Explore Next? Here Are the Four Shortlisted Missions

Targets include Venus, Jupiter’s moon Io and Neptune’s moon Triton

Captain Edward J. Dwight, Jr., the first African American selected as a potential astronaut, looks over a model of Titan rockets in November 1963.

Ed Dwight Was Going to Be the First African American in Space. Until He Wasn't

The Kennedy administration sought a diverse face to the space program, but for reasons unknown, the pilot was kept from reaching the stars

Luca Parmitano and Christina Koch with milk and a cookie.

The First Cookies Baked in Space Have Returned to Earth

They took up to 130 minutes to bake, but the cookies could help scientists make future space missions a little more palatable

The hypothetical dream spacecraft flies over Uranus and past its rings and moons, too.

Astronomers Prepare a Mission Concept to Explore the Ice Giant Planets

NASA scientists imagined some innovative technologies that could enhance a future mission to Uranus or Neptune

On December 28, 2019, Christina Koch broke the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, according to NASA.

Astronaut Christina Koch Breaks Record for Longest Spaceflight by a Woman

By the end of her mission in February, Koch will have spent 328 days in space

The North Island brown kiwi is a flightless, nocturnal bird that lays the biggest egg relative to its body size.

What Bird Lays the Biggest Eggs Compared to Its Body Size? Where Does 'Lame Duck' Come From? And More Questions From Our Readers

You've got question. We've got experts

Science thanks you for your service, elephant seal!

Seals With High-Tech Hats Are Collecting Climate Data in the Antarctic

Scientists hooked the animals up with sensors that monitor how heat moves through deep ocean currents

NASA's Sun-Orbiting Probe Reveals New Secrets of Our Host Star

The first findings from the Parker Solar Probe change what we know about the workings of our nearest star

After DART smashes into an asteroid, the Hera spacecraft will analyze the impact.

A Spacecraft Will Follow NASA's Asteroid-Smashing Mission to Measure the Effects of the Impact

The European Space Agency's Hera mission will collect data after NASA's DART mission impacts the asteroid Didymos B

NASA Names Most Distant Object Ever Explored 'Arrokoth,' the Powhatan Word for Sky

The space rock's initial nickname, Ultima Thule, drew criticism for its ties to Nazi ideology

Five chunks of dough in silicone pouches were sent to the space station, awaiting baking.

With a 'Zero G' Oven, Astronauts Can Have Their Cookies, but They Can't Eat Them Too

The experimental Zero G oven will be able to bake one cookie at a time, and it's possible the treats may come out as cookie balls or cylinders

It’s Death By A Million Cuts on This Slasher Planet!

NASA Celebrates Halloween With These Interstellar Horror Posters

The artwork highlights the weird world of exoplanets where it rains glass and planets circle zombie stars

An artists interpretation of the Yeti Galaxy.

Behold This 'Cosmic Yeti,' a Monster Galaxy From the Beginning of Time

Astronomers recently spotted 12.5 billion-year-old light from the giant galaxy, which helps explains the evolution of the early universe

NASA astronauts Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir (right).

Watch the First All-Female Spacewalk

Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will exit the International Space Station to replace a power controller that failed last weekend

Eileen Collins in space in 1995, when she became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle.

What It Was Like to Become the First Woman to Pilot and Command a Space Shuttle

Eileen Collins talked to <i>Smithsonian</i> about her career in the Air Force and NASA, women in aerospace and more

NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor mixes cement samples for the MICS mission aboard the International Space Station.

Why Astronauts Are Mixing Cement Aboard the International Space Station

Experiments show that cement will set in space, but moon colonists may have to tweak the mixture to make it work in low gravity

An artist's illustration of the planet K2-18b and another planet, K2-18c, that orbits closer to the parent star. Both planets orbit a red dwarf about 110 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo.

Water Vapor Detected in the Atmosphere of an Exoplanet in the Habitable Zone

The planet K2-18b, about 110 light-years away, could have swirling clouds and falling rains of liquid water droplets

A natural color view of Titan and Saturn taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 6, 2012, at a distance of approximately 483,000 miles (778,000 kilometers) from Titan.

Dragonfly Spacecraft to Scour the Sands of Titan for the Chemistry of Life

The NASA rotorcraft, resembling a large quadcopter drone, will fly through the orange clouds of the ocean moon in the outer solar system

A Crashed Spacecraft Might Have Put Earth's Most Indestructible Organisms on the Moon

The microscopic tardigrades were part of a lunar library sent aboard the Beresheet lander that crashed last April

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