Space Newsspace history and artifacts articlesMessagesspace history discussion forumsSightingsworldwide astronaut appearancesResourcesselected space history documents
: Once again, rockets have given "proof through the night" that the United States knows how to celebrate its existence. On New Year's Eve, Freedom 250 began a six-night special illumination of the Washington Monument, including full-size projections of NASA's Saturn V and Space Launch System (SLS) moon boosters. The towering images helped to kick off a full year of events marking the United States' 250-year anniversary.
: Two large structures that once were key to NASA's successes in orbit and at the moon will soon fall back to "earth" as they are toppled at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. The tall-as-a-Saturn-V-rocket Dynamic Test Stand and the half-as-high Propulsion and Structural Test Facility are no longer in use and no longer safe. In their prime, they supported testing of NASA's moon-bound rocket stages and the space shuttle.
: The 2026 class of inductees entering the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame includes veteran NASA spacewalkers Tom Akers, who in 1992 was part of the first three-person EVA, and Joe Tanner, whose seven spacewalks supported upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope and assembling the International Space Station. The two will increase the hall's ranks to 113 when honored at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on May 16.
: Playmobil is bringing the future of Mars exploration straight into children's rooms with its new "ESA Space Range" line of play sets. Developed with the European Space Agency, the collection has a research rocket, an exploration rover, a space glider and an astronaut with a robot companion. The Space Range builds upon earlier co-branded space toys while advancing the agency's commitment to increase pubic engagement.
: SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour is back on Earth, having left the International Space Station a few weeks earlier than planned to bring a medically-compromised crew member home. Crew-11 astronauts Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov safely splashed down off the coast of California after 165 days on the station. This was the first time a medical evacuation cut a U.S. space mission short.
: One of the two art exhibitions debuting with the newly-renovated Flight and the Arts Center at the National Air and Space Museum this July is devoted to one of the first artists to smuggle art to the moon. "The Ascent of Rauschenberg" celebrates the flight and space-theme works by Robert Rauschenberg on the centennial of his birth. The exhibition will showcase 40 works including pieces made for the NASA Art Program.
: For the first time in 57 years, a rocket that will carry astronauts to the moon stands atop Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Like Apollo 10 before them, the Artemis II crew will not land on the lunar surface, but rather rehearse activities and test their spacecraft systems in preparation for the next mission to touch down. Before they launch, the Space Launch System rocket will undergo a fueling test.
: Apple TV has announced Friday, March 27, for the return of "For All Mankind," its critically-acclaimed alternate space history series. Season five opens back at Happy Valley on Mars, in the years since the Goldilocks asteroid heist. A 36-second clip released as a teaser and date announcement, shows an astronaut riding a motorcycle across the surface of the red planet as a voiceover says that the next move is up to him.
