Category Archives: Technology

After a year orbiting the asteroid Vesta, the space probe Dawn is now on its way to the dwarf planet Ceres, slated to arrive there in 2015. In August, the car-sized Curiosity rover landed safely on Mars, joining the still … Continue reading →

On June 4, 2010 Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX, launched their Falcon 9 rocket for the first time. The flight successfully placed its upper stage into orbit. The corporation had only been in existence for seven years. … Continue reading →

Between 1966 and 1968, NASA launched seven unmanned spacecraft toward the moon. Two of them crashed, but five of them successfully landed on the lunar surface. Managed and operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, they were designed to … Continue reading →

The telescope is one of those items that people both rarely think about and take entirely for granted. 2008 was the 400th anniversary of its invention in 1608. When Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he didn’t have a spyglass to … Continue reading →

One of the more amusing urban legends relates to the space pen. According to the story, during the space race back in the 1960’s, NASA needed a pen that would write in the zero gravity of space. Without gravity, the … Continue reading →

My interest in astronomy and all things space goes back to at least the age of four. I read my first science fiction book when I was in third grade. In many of the early science fiction stories asteroid miners, … Continue reading →

Go outside tonight after the sun has long set. Find a place where there are no streetlights and you haven’t a flashlight or match. Choose a night when the moon is not up and its cloudy. Now, toss your car … Continue reading →

It may not seem like it, but the world changed on May 31, 2012. Less than a year after the Space Shuttles were retired, an American spaceship had once again reached the space station and returned safely. Launched on a … Continue reading →