Tom Stafford spoke Russian in orbit as the space race wound down
On July 17, 1975, an American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz docked in orbit. Years of thawing relations, language lessons and a shared hatch made it happen.
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Pluto failed one of three tests, and lost its planet status
On August 24, 2006, astronomers in Prague voted on a definition of a planet. Pluto passed two of its three tests and became a dwarf planet.
America's first space station began as a spare rocket stage
NASA built Skylab from a leftover Saturn upper stage for three crews. About 63 seconds into launch, its shield tore away and took a solar array with it.
One hour outside the ISS costs seven hours in a pool
Astronauts rehearse a spacewalk underwater for about seven hours per hour outside, then spend the night before in an airlock adjusting to suit pressure.
Carl Sagan's committee raced to choose Earth's sounds
Carl Sagan's committee had six weeks to choose the sounds, images and music that speak for Earth on Voyager's Golden Record.
New robot submersibles aim to explore the ocean's hadal zone
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NASA built Orpheus, a small robot submarine meant to survey the ocean trenches below 6,000 metres.
Webb's bigger mirror catches light too faint for Hubble
Webb's 6.5-metre mirror and infrared cameras see light Hubble could not. It found galaxies near Milky Way size sooner than standard models allow.
El Niño strength comes down to Pacific sea temperature
An El Niño is judged by how far the Pacific warms above normal. NOAA and NASA track it with buoys, floats and satellites, and 0.5C marks the start.
Artemis II flew people farther from Earth than ever before
Four astronauts looped around the Moon in April 2026 on Artemis II, the first crewed flight past low Earth orbit since Apollo ended in 1972.