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Moon

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Why the UAE’s Mars Mission Is the Arab World’s Moon Shot

In July 2020, ahead of the period of time when Mars and Earth are at their closest, the UAE will launch its first Mars orbiter mission

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Meet the New Generation Driving the UAE’s Space Program

In 2020, the UAE will launch a Mars space probe expected to reach the Red Planet by 2021 in time for the UAE’s 50th anniversary

A rendering of the Hope probe leaving Earth

10 Things You Should Know About the UAE Space Program

In 2006, the UAE began establishing knowledge transfer programs in preparation of a grand vision: to go to Mars

Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, July 24, 1969

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

How Neil, Buzz and Mike Got Their Workouts in on Their Way to the Moon and Back

To counter the effects of weightlessness, NASA equipped Apollo 11 with an Exer-Genie for isometric exercises

The new app allows users to walk on the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

Education During Coronavirus

The Augmented Reality App That Lets You Experience the Moon Landing

Tied to a new series from the Smithsonian Channel, the app is the closest you can get to being on the moon without time-traveling to 1969

Anaxagoras, who lived in the fifth century B.C., was one of the first people in recorded history to recognize that the moon was a rocky, mountainous body.

An Ancient Greek Philosopher Was Exiled for Claiming the Moon Was a Rock, Not a God

2,500 years ago, Anaxagoras correctly determined that the rocky moon reflects light from the sun, allowing him to explain lunar phases and eclipses

Future of Space Exploration

Astronomers Make Massive Discovery on the Far Side of the Moon

The heavy core of a giant asteroid may be buried beneath the moon’s South Pole-Aitken basin

The Museum of the Moon is just one of many events taking place across the United States celebrating the 50th anniversary of landing on the moon.

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

A Cross-Country Guide to Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing

It’s been half a century since humankind touched down on the surface of the moon, and we’re not done praising the feat

This lunar extravehicular visor assembly, photographed by Cade Martin at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar- Hazy Center, was worn by Neil Armstrong on the Moon in July 1969. Armstrong’s helmet visors were designed to protect against hazards, from micrometeoroids to infrared light.

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

What You Didn’t Know About the Apollo 11 Mission

From JFK’s real motives to the Soviets’ secret plot to land on the Moon at the same time, a new behind-the-scenes view of an unlikely triumph 50 years ago

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Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

We Chose to Go to the Moon

A collection of stories to celebrate the semicentennial of the Apollo 11 mission

The Smithsonian has completed its multi-year conservation project of the Neil Armstrong spacesuit, digitizing the historic Apollo artifact so that soon authentically realized duplicates can be downloaded for study and appreciation.

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

In Celebration of 50 Years Since the Moon Landing, Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit Set to Return to Public View

Duplicates of the 3D scanned historic Apollo artifact will also tour Major League ballparks this summer

The Apollo 10 Command Module, "Charlie Brown," as seen from the detached Lunar Module, "Snoopy."

A Smithsonian Curator Reflects on Apollo 10, the Mission That Made Landing on the Moon Possible

Fifty years ago, the astronauts who crewed the “dress rehearsal” for Apollo 11 paved the way for history to be made just a couple months later

To all the looney lunar landing deniers and conspiracy theorists out there, NASA has just four words to say: "Apollo: Yes, We Did."

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

Yes, the United States Certainly DID Land Humans on the Moon

Moon-landing deniers, says space scholar and former NASA chief historian Roger Launius, are full of stuff and nonsense

The Lee Lincoln Scarp, one of the potentially active faults on the Moon.

New Research

The Moon Is Slowly Shrinking, Which May Be Causing ‘Moonquakes’ on Its Surface

Analysis of seismic data collected on the Apollo missions shows the moon is probably tectonically active

The SEIS instrument on the surface of Mars.

Future of Space Exploration

NASA Detects First ‘Marsquake’

A 2 to 2.5 magnitude quake on the Red Planet is the first seismic activity detected outside the Earth and the Moon

A photographic plate of the 1919 total solar eclipse, taken by Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin and Charles Rundle Davidson during an expedition to Sobral, Brazil. The 1919 eclipse was used by Arthur Eddington, who observed it from the island of Principe off the west coast of Africa, to provide the first experimental evidence of Einstein's theory of relativity.

What the Obsolete Art of Mapping the Skies on Glass Plates Can Still Teach Us

The first pictures of the sky were taken on glass photographic plates, and these treasured artifacts can still help scientists make discoveries today

An artist's concept of the Axel rover rappelling into a lunar pit.

NASA Considers a Rover Mission to Go Cave Diving on the Moon

The deep caverns and pits that dot the lunar surface could hold clues to the moon’s history and perhaps provide shelter for future human exploration

An artist's concept of the Beresheet lunar lander on the moon.

Israel’s Private Lunar Lander Blasts Off for the Moon

The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet will gradually raise its orbit to reach the moon, landing after about a month and a half of flight

Apollo 14 Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. assembles equipment on the lunar surface on February 6, 1971.

Earth’s Oldest Known Rock May Have Been Found on the Moon

Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space, collected the rock sample during Apollo 14

A Meteor Struck the Moon During Sunday’s Total Eclipse

It may be the first time that such an event was documented from Earth

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