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February 1, 2018

/ 1:30 a.m. CT (0730 GMT)


Lessons Learned

: Fifteen years after it was found and recovered from where it tragically fell back to Earth in pieces, the space shuttle Columbia is serving a new mission at NASA. The space agency's new Apollo, Challenger, Columbia Lessons Learned Program now uses the orbiter's debris to help educate workers inside and outside of NASA to learn from the past to make the future more successful.


February 2, 2018

/ 2:45 p.m. CT (2045 GMT)


Leonid Kadenyuk, 1951-2018

: Trained as a Soviet cosmonaut and an American payload specialist, Leonid Kadenyuk became the first astronaut from an independent Ukraine to fly in space. Kadenyuk, 67, died on Wednesday (Jan. 31) in Kiev. His first and only spaceflight was onboard the space shuttle Columbia's STS-87 mission in 1997.


February 5, 2018

/ 7:30 a.m. CT (1330 GMT)


Bringing Columbia Home

: The effort to find and recover the remains of the space shuttle Columbia and its crew 15 years ago was the largest ground search in U.S. history and yet it has gone largely untold, until now. Michael Leinbach, who was the shuttle's launch director and led the reconstruction of the debris, and co-author Jonathan Ward reveal the recovery's story in "Bringing Columbia Home."


February 6, 2018

/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0600 GMT)


Fourth electric car in space

: Should all go to plan, the maiden flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy will put a Tesla Roadster on a path to become the fourth electric car in space. The midnight cherry convertible may become the first car to depart on a billion-year Mars elliptic orbit, but the first-ever electric cars in space were the Apollo lunar rovers launched by the Saturn V rocket almost 50 years ago.


February 6, 2018

/ 3:35 p.m. CT (2135 GMT)




First Falcon Heavy lifts off

: Riding atop the thrust of 27 rocket engines, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy lifted off on its first test flight Tuesday (Feb. 6), launching from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Carrying a mass simulator in the form of Elon Musk's personal cherry red Tesla Roadster, the Falcon Heavy, per SpaceX, is now the most powerful operational rocket in the world.


February 7, 2018

/ 10:45 a.m. CT (1645 GMT)




'Starman' in deep space

: As the finale to its first Falcon Heavy launch, SpaceX sent back live video of Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster and its Starman passenger soaring into space on Tuesday (Feb. 6). The surreal sight was only made more fantastical by the small details that were out of view, a collection of "easter eggs" stashed inside the car.


February 8, 2018

/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0600 GMT)


Mercury All American

: A new high-top has the "right stuff" to honor the 60th anniversary of NASA's Project Mercury and a company's role in it. The Mercury All American made by Heddels and PF Flyers, the latter previously part of B.F. Goodrich, is styled after the original astronauts' boots and the athletic shoe they wore to train. Limited to 21 pairs, the sneakers are built out of aluminized nylon, nickel alloy, parachute cord and other spacesuit materials.


February 12, 2018

/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0600 GMT)


Skyrocketing sales

: Less than a week after one was launched into space, the market for Tesla Roadsters has skyrocketed — at least in miniature toy form. The Mattel Hot Wheels version of the red Roadster released in 2016 had been selling on eBay for $5 to $15, until Elon Musk put one aboard SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. Since then, the toy cars have been commanding upwards of $100.


February 16, 2018

/ 1:45 p.m. CT (1945 GMT)


Die Astronautin

: An astronomer is replacing a fighter pilot in a private competition to send the first German woman to space. Suzanna Randall, 38, of ESO, the European Southern Observatory, has replaced fighter pilot Nicola Baumann in the Die Astronautin initiative. Randall will train and compete alongside meteorologist Insa Thiele-Eich, the daughter of veteran astronaut Gerhard Thiele, for a chance to fly on a privately-funded mission to the space station.


February 20, 2018

/ 10:30 p.m. CT (0430 GMT Feb 21)


Space market size

: Before it expands its on orbit operations with the launch of two large inflatable space stations, Bigelow Aerospace is looking to quantify the market for platforms above Earth. To that end, and to establish its sales and customer service arm, the company has formed Bigelow Space Operations. BSO will investigate the global space market while working to secure new payloads for the International Space Station, ahead of its own stations.


February 22, 2018

/ 5:15 p.m. CT (2315 GMT)


Command module encased

: After almost a month of work, the California Science Center completed its new display for NASA's Apollo-Soyuz Test Project command module, giving visitors a clearer view of the spacecraft flown on the first joint U.S. and Russian mission in 1975. A glass case with interior lighting has replaced the ASTP command module's previous Plexiglas wrap, improving visibility while also meeting new Smithsonian conservation standards.


February 27, 2018

/ 9:10 p.m. CT (0310 GMT Feb 28)


Soyuz MS-06 crew lands

: NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin are now back on Earth after 168 days on the International Space Station. The three Expedition 54 crew mates on Tuesday (Feb. 27) landed aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft on the snowy steppe of Kazakhstan. The trio took part in hundreds of science investigations, saw the arrival and departure of five visiting vehicles and performed a total of six spacewalks during their time on orbit.


February 28, 2018

/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0600 GMT)


Orion walkway

: NASA on Monday (Feb. 26) mounted the crew access arm for its Space Launch System mobile launcher at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The walkway, which is capped by a white room, will be the bridge astronauts use to board the Orion spacecraft on the launch pad. The crew access arm was hoisted to the tower's 274-foot level to align it with Orion's hatch when atop the SLS.



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