All Stories

Project Paperclip was a program that brought German and Austrian engineers, scientists, and technicians to the United States after the end of World War II in Europe.

Although the Artemis I mission won’t have any astronauts riding along, there are other items on board to commemorate the occasion and conduct science to further the Artemis program and other research projects.

On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union successfully launched the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik. For some, Sputnik's launch inspired an interest in rocketry and brought many scientists into the space industry. One of those people was Homer Hickam, a high schooler in a small West Virginia mining town who would go on to work for NASA, write a memoir, and inspire a movie. On today’s episode we unpack that film – October Sky.

To tell the story of the Space Age, the new RTX Living in the Space Age exhibition will share how the Space Age impacts the lives of people worldwide, through the stories of people and objects which brought it about. Learn more about the upcoming reimagined gallery.

In October 1961, three chimpanzees were brought to Cape Canaveral to join two already there. One of the new arrivals was Enos, a native of Cameroon in west central Africa. Discover the story of the often forgotten chimp and his contribution to human space travel.

President Kennedy's decision to land men on the Moon before 1970 required the quickest, most efficient method possible. At the center of the United States success was an integral component of landing men on the Moon: the Moon rocket.  

The Archives of the National Air and Space Museum holds three million images in various photographic formats, covering the breadth and depth of the history of aviation and space flight. One such collection is the Herbert Stephen Desind Collection, which covers the history of space flight and exploration.  

Aeronautics curator Michael Neufeld examines the myth of the Nazi wonder weapons and the oft-repeated statement that if Germany had had the V-2 and other "wonder weapons" sooner, they may have won the war.

On July 20, 1969, a whole nation tuned in to see astronaut Neil Armstrong take one small step on the surface of the Moon, ushering in a new era of space exploration. But how did Armstrong and the Apollo 11 astronauts get to the Moon in the first place?

Today’s launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket, designed and manufactured by Space-X, is what space history curator Tom Lassman describes as “next generation” rocketry, but with roots in the 1960s “Space Age” and technology that helped bring Apollo 11 to the Moon.