For the first Earth Day in 1970, cartoonist Walt Kelly trenchantly captured the core tension of humanity’s relationship to its home world as expressed through environmentalism and climate change: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Any child of the 80s or 90s knows about Space Camp. But, what’s its origin story? And how did it become such a part of the millennial zeitgeist? (Even Mary Kate and Ashley solved a Space Camp mystery—spoiler alert: it was woodpeckers). Emily, Matt, and Nick break it down.

Every year in Russia during the week of April 12, the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight in space, also known as Cosmonautics Day, one hears Gagarin’s March replayed on radio and websites. The musical piece paints a picture of a bright and enthusiastic trek into the Soviet future with Gagarin at the lead.

The legacy of the Space Shuttle program was to some degree built around the results of its very first mission. The reusable spaceplane, the Space Shuttle, ushered in a new era of human spaceflight 40 years ago this week with the launch of STS-1 on April 12, 1981.

Ingenuity, the small, four-pound autonomous aircraft, will attempt the biggest of feats. The Wright brothers lifted their 1903 Flyer off the ground over a century ago and now the Mars Helicopter will attempt the same. Ginny is set to take off from the surface of the Red Planet no earlier than April 14.

Have you ever wondered how the stuff in space gets named? These days, there’s one organization that approves and keeps track of ALL of the official names from stars and asteroids to mountains on Mars and geysers on Enceladus. We break down the naming process and some of our favorites on today’s episode!

Philip Van Horn Weems became a world’s leading expert in navigational techniques for aviators by the late 1920s. So much so that aviation luminaries availed themselves of his navigational instruction. Read about his life and access some of the navigation-related artifacts and archival documents he donated to us.

The National Air and Space Museum marks an important milestone in its renovation project. Moving artifacts back into the west end of the Museum, which has been under renovation for two years.

The concept of black holes isn't new — scientists first theorized their existence in the early 20th century. But in the last few years, our knowledge of black holes has expanded exponentially — from the confirmation of supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies to the first ever image of a black hole captured by the Event Horizon Telescope. 

Our conservators and curators recently faced an interesting question: Is it practical to retain perishable material and what long-range obligations are required? To find the answers, a collaborative effort was required, allowing for preservation of our collection of space food.