Space Travel

From left to right, the astronauts of Apollo 1: Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee.

The Legacy of the Apollo 1 Disaster

Fifty years after a fire killed three astronauts and temporarily grounded U.S. space exploration, a new exhibit honors the fallen crew

Get a Front Row Seat to This Year's Rocket Launches at Kennedy Space Center

This year, up to 20 launches could take off from Florida’s Space Coast

The doormouse hibernates to conserve resources in harsh conditions. Similarly, scientists envision humans hibernating to endure long-distance space travel.

Can Humans Ever Harness the Power of Hibernation?

Scientists want to know if astronauts can hibernate during long spaceflights. First, they need to understand what hibernation is

Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan inside the lunar module on the moon after his second moonwalk of the mission. His spacesuit is covered with lunar dust.

Eugene Cernan: The Last Man on the Moon and So Much More

His experience helped make spaceflight safer

A special fish tank designed for experiments aboard the International Space Station.

Fish Don’t Do So Well in Space

The International Space Station’s resident fish shed light on life in microgravity

SpaceX Gets Back in Orbit: Watch Its Latest Rocket's Remarkable Landing

After successfully deploying ten satellites into orbit, the rocket's first stage adeptly landed on a floating platform

Awwwww.

Japan Tries (and Fails) to Launch a Tiny Rocket

Sending teensy satellites into space isn’t just an experiment in cute—it's an effort to reduce the cost of sending tech into space

Jeanette Epps tries on a space suit

The International Space Station Will Finally Welcome a Black Astronaut

In May 2018, flight engineer Jeanette J. Epps will begin her mission on the ISS

An artist’s conception of the Lucy spacecraft flying by the Trojan asteroid Eurybates (left) and Psyche, the first mission to a metal asteroid (right).

NASA Just Announced Two New Missions, But Shelved Others

Though the new missions have exciting prospects, some scientists aren’t thrilled by the decision

John Glenn stands in the NASA mailroom surrounded by thousands of letters sent to him.

John Glenn and the Sexism of the Early Space Program

Fan mail sent to the astronaut reveals the rigidity of gender roles in the 1960s

The Nazi Engineer Who Created the First Ballistic Missile

Wernher Von Braun became interested in space flight from an early age. This lead him to develop of one of the Nazi's most devastating weapons

Artist's rendering of KITE

Japan Testing "Space Tether" to Knock Junk Out of Orbit

The KITE experiment will use a half-mile long cable to guide some of the 500,000 chunks of space junk out of orbit

John Glenn, standing top right, looks at a model of the ship that took him to space with other astronauts from the Mercury space program in an undated photograph.

For a Larger-Than-Life Space Icon, John Glenn Was Remarkably Down-to-Earth

Friends and colleagues recall his abiding love for Smithsonian’s work, the history of spaceflight and peanut butter buckeyes

Read the Letter Written by John Glenn to Honor Jeff Bezos for Blue Origin

Two weeks before he died, the legendary astronaut wrote a letter in recognition of the 2016 American Ingenuity Awards

A visualization of Eyal Gever's #Laugh art project

This Artist Wants to Send a Sculpture of Your Laughs Into Space

#Laugh is on orbit to become the first art piece created in space

Two trainees work on repairs.

How to Experience a Mission to Mars (If You Still Want to Come Back)

Space Camp for adults? It's definitely a thing

The Best Books About Science of 2016

Take a journey to the edge of human knowledge and beyond with one of these mind-boggling page-turners

This vertically exaggerated view shows scalloped depressions in a part of Mars where such textures prompted researchers to check for buried ice, using ground-penetrating radar aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. They found about as much frozen water as the volume of Lake Superior.

This Massive Martian Field of Ice Could Fill Lake Superior

The frosty deposit could be a lifeline for future human explorers on the Red Planet

Astronauts enjoy a Thanksgiving feast on the International Space Station in 2014. Turns out that modern space food is something to be grateful for.

What Do Astronauts Eat on Thanksgiving?

It’s not as bad as you might think

A map of some of the space junk surrounding the Earth.

Adopt a Piece of Space Junk and Learn About Its Dangers

An amusing project about a very real problem

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