Stories of daring, stories of technological feats, stories of prevailing against the odds ... these are the stories we tell at the National Air and Space Museum. Dive in to the stories below to discover, learn, and be inspired. 

Showing 81 - 90 of 175

July 02, 2019 Buzz Aldrin’s Doctoral Thesis Story | Apollo 50

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin was the first astronaut to receive a degree of Doctor of Science (Sc.D). We explore his thesis on “Line-of-Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous.”

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July 01, 2019 Abe Silverstein and the Race to the Moon Story | Apollo 50

Abraham Silverstein (1908-2001), created and named the Apollo program and, most critically, pushed the adoption of liquid hydrogen as a rocket fuel for the boosters that launched Apollo. 

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June 27, 2019 AirSpace Season 2|Ep.8
Walking on the Moon
Story | AirSpace Podcast

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, AirSpace examines what we knew then, what we know now, and what mysteries of lunar science still remain.

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June 13, 2019 AirSpace Season 2|Ep.7
Rock on the Moon
Story | AirSpace Podcast

What music would you take along on a quarter-million mile road trip?

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April 25, 2019 AirSpace Season 2|Ep.4
AirSpace Live at SXSW
Story | AirSpace Podcast

In this special episode recorded at SXSW, Emily, Matt, and Nick recount stories of failure and how they’ve inspired a whole lot of success in science and space exploration

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March 20, 2019 Decades of Inspiration from Chesley Bonestell Story

This guest blog post by space artist Ron Miller explores the impact illustrator Chesley Bonestell had on his life, and recounts 50 years of telling Bonestell's story.

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December 21, 2018 Apollo 8 Astronaut Remembers Looking Down at Earth Story

Capt. James A Lovell, Apollo 8 astronaut, shares his memories of that historic mission at our Spirit of Apollo, 50th anniversary celebration.

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December 21, 2018 Photographing Apollo 8's Orbit Toward the Moon Story

The moment of humankind's first voyage to the Moon and back was captured in a series of photos taken by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observing Station in Maui, Hawaii. They show the trans-lunar injection rocket burn which sent Apollo 8 hurtling out of Earth orbit toward the Moon on December 21, 1968–perhaps the only such images that exist.

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December 21, 2018 Broadcasting Apollo 8 Live From Space Story

Fifty years ago, humans orbited the Moon for the first time. On Christmas Eve, the astronauts addressed the nation on a live television broadcast to Earth.

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December 21, 2018 First to the Moon: Apollo 8 and the Soviet Union Story

As we celebrate the anniversary of the pioneering Apollo 8 mission, many commentators and news stories will assert that NASA sent Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders to the Moon to beat the Soviet Union. In fact, the Soviets were planning to send two cosmonauts to loop around the Moon, but that statement of the agency’s intent is, at best, half true.

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