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Space Travel

Artist's rendering of KITE

Cool Finds

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

American Ingenuity Awards

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

Future of Space Exploration

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.

New Research

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.

Trending Today

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.

Trending Today

Adopt a Piece of Space Junk and Learn About Its Dangers

An amusing project about a very real problem

Jeff Bezos

American Ingenuity Awards

Is Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin the Future of Space Exploration?

No one had ever launched, landed and relaunched a rocket into space until the company’s historic achievement

The crew of the International Space Station's Expedition 38

New Research

Space Makes Astronauts Grow Taller, But It Also Causes Back Problems

The inches gained during long stays in space don’t stick around once the adventurers return to Earth

Pan Am promoted its "First Moon Flights" Club on radio and TV after the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, saying that "fares are not fully resolved, and may be out of this world."

I Was a Card-Carrying Member of the “First Moon Flights” Club

My card is now a historical museum artifact, but I’ll never give up my dream to fly to the Moon

Trending Today

Schiaparelli Mars Lander Likely Crashed on Descent

The European Space Agency lost contact with the Schiaparelli probe after it jettisoned its heat shield and deployed its parachute

Six Places on Earth That Scientists Say Look Like Other Planets

The eerie resemblance these locales have to Mars and beyond has attracted researchers for years

Cool Finds

What to Know About NASA’s Historic Astronaut Beach House

The famous bungalow is on track to be repaired by 2018 when SpaceX is hoped to launch humans into space once again

Cedar 7 at take-off

The Bizarre Tale of the Middle East’s First Space Program

In Lebanon, reminders of what could have been still stand

An illustration of the Schiaparelli lander detaching from the Trace Gas Orbiter as it makes its way to the surface of Mars

Trending Today

Five Things to Know About the Schiaparelli Probe Heading for a Touchdown on Mars

A lot is riding on the European Space Agency’s first Mars lander

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off on NASA's final space shuttle mission from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 8, 2011.

Trending Today

Many of NASA’s Recent Successes Actually Date Back to the Bush Administration

Some leaps, launches and grand plans for the future

Space Patrol depended more on good stories, excellent production values, and an empathic cast of characters than it did on expensive visual special effects. As a result it had a large adult audience, which didn’t stop merchandise being created with younger viewers in mind.

How Artists, Mad Scientists and Speculative Fiction Writers Made Spaceflight Possible

A new book chronicles spaceflight’s centuries-long journey from dream to reality

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