All Stories

We pick up where Part One left off! When you hear 'space race' you probably (correctly) think about the 1960s Soviet Union v. U.S. race to put an astronaut on the Moon. But a few hundred years before, the space race was all about Venus. 

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.

When you hear 'space race' you probably (correctly) think about the 1960s Soviet Union v. U.S. race to put an astronaut on the Moon. But a few hundred years before, the space race was all about Venus.

The oldest Earth rocks we have are 4.3 billion years old, and samples we've brought back from the Moon are even older. But what what does that have to do with craters on Mars? 

Right now there are seven women on Mars... kind of.

Right now there are seven women on Mars... kind of.

Our museum collection is sometimes a working one. That means that scientists come to do aviation or space research using objects in the Museum. 

We were devastated when we heard of Nikki Giovanni's passing earlier this week. We are in the process of sharing our favorite episodes from the past and felt it was fitting to bring you back our QueerSpace episode featuring Nikki among other futurist artists. 

Over six missions, the Apollo astronauts collected and brought back 842 pounds of Lunar samples. Who decides what rocks go where? And how did the National Cathedral get a rock to put in a stained glass window??

Europa Clipper is soon to be on its was to the outer solar system to study one of Jupiter's most interesting moons. In addition to the really awesome science it will do, the spacecraft will carry a "message in a bottle" etched with your names and a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón.