On Jan. 8, 2020, NASA astronaut Christina Koch became the first woman from any nation to pass the milestone of 300 days on a single spaceflight. Koch eclipsed the previous record of time in space for a woman, 289 days, on Dec. 28, 2019. NASA’s Peggy Whitson set the mark between Nov. 17, 2016 and Sept. 3, 2017.
American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko participated in a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Twice as long as a typical crew, the effort was to learn more about the effects of microgravity on the human body.
During the summer of 1965, the United States began to pull even in the space race with the Soviet Union. The eight-day Gemini V endurance mission doubled America’s spaceflight record set two months earlier. It also tested technology that would help make longer missions possible in the future.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program took another step forward with the successful launch of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner on an unpiloted Orbital Flight Test (OFT). The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifted off at 6:36 a.m. on Dec. 20, 2019 from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
On Dec. 20, 2019 at 6:36 a.m. EST, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner will liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The unpiloted Orbital Flight Test to the International Space Station will be the first for the company’s spacecraft as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying a Dragon spacecraft on the company’s 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station.
When a person is called a “rocket scientist,” it can be referring to someone who supports space exploration, or it can simply mean he or she is very intelligent. A “rock star” usually refers to a member of a successful musical band or someone highly renowned in a particular field. Dr. Brian May could be considered both.
In an address to Congress in 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to “land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth” before the end of the decade. With the flight of Apollo 12, 50 years ago, NASA achieved that goal a second time.
NASA’s new Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite will provide scientists and meteorologists with a better understanding of the dynamic zone high in the atmosphere where terrestrial weather meets weather in space. This is the area through which radio communications and GPS signals travel. Changes in weather can effect both.
Building on the success of the first piloted Gemini mission, NASA prepared to launch its most ambitions flight to date – Gemini IV. During June 1965, two astronauts would not only stay in orbit four days, one would attempt America’s first spacewalk. It was another example of advancing technology enabling new avenues of exploration.