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A look at the NASA's manned maneuvering unit (MMU) in detail.

This first-generation Robonaut, housed at the National Air and Space Museum,  was designed by the Robot Systems Technology Branch at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in a collaborative effort with DARPA.

An interview with Dante Lauretta, NASA's principal investigator on the OSIRIS-REx mission. In his new book, The Asteroid Hunter, Lauretta recounts the sample-return mission that brought rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu to back to Earth.

Before Zambia’s Independence Day in October 1964, Edward Makuka Nkoloso announced to the press, and all who would listen, the formation of the Zambian Space Program. He promised to beat both the United States and the USSR in sending humans to the Moon and pledged to send trained cats to Mars.

James E. Martin, an electronics technician who worked in the RCA Space Center, helped build the Ranger 7 spacecraft’s camera system, which sent back over 4,000 detailed images in less than 17 minutes before crashing into the Moon in 1964.

What's new in aviation and space.

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is fortunate to care for and display examples of some of the most historically significant human spacecraft, from NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, Apollo capsules, to Space Shuttle Discovery and Scaled Composite’s SpaceShipOne. Soon, the Museum will welcome another important vehicle, which represents a new way of accessing space for non-professional astronauts.

Gemini’s paraglider wing.

The story of NASM's three-foot-tall doll wearing a scaled-down copy of the real Mercury spacesuit. 

In total, six of unique Space Shuttle orbiters were built but Discovery stands out with the greatest flight history record: 39 missions and 365 total days spent in space. That’s quite a feat for the journeys the orbiter took, but it’s also a testament to the team that made each of those flights possible. On its 40th anniversary, Discovery’s curator Jennifer Levasseur takes a look at features that distinguish the vehicle from the other orbiters and looks back on its first flight and crew.