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April 1, 2018

/ 8:45 p.m. CT (0145 GMT Apr 2)


Tiangong-1 re-entry

: China's first prototype space station is no more. After six and a half years in orbit, including 24 days crewed by 6 taikonauts, the Tiangong-1 (Celestial Palace) space lab made an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, breaking apart during its fiery fall. Any debris from Tiangong-1 fell into the south Pacific Ocean.


April 2, 2018

/ 8:00 a.m. CT (1300 GMT)




Mission Ctrl-P

: For the first time in its nearly 20-year-long history, the International Space Station is upgrading its printer. Working with NASA, HP has developed the new Envy ISS, a modified OfficeJet inkjet printer capable of working in zero-g, meeting NASA's unique requirements for the orbiting lab and filling the needs of its astronaut crew.


April 4, 2018

/ 8:35 a.m. CT (1335 GMT)


Starliner MO OFT patch

: Boeing's CST-100 Starliner is the centerpiece of its first mission patch, as debuted by the Boeing mission ops (MO) team on Tuesday (April 3). The Orbital Flight Test (OFT) emblem, which also shows locations on Earth key to the mission, represents the NASA contracted team that will command the flight from Starliner mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston.


April 5, 2018

/ 11:00 p.m. CT (0400 GMT Apr 6)


'Rocket Men'

: Robert Kurson was five years old when Apollo 8 launched the first humans to the moon, but it was not until four decades later that he found it was "the greatest space story ever told." A chance encounter with the mission's spacecraft ultimately led to Kurson talking with its crew and then writing "Rocket Men" about their journey.


April 7, 2018

/ 12:05 a.m. CT (0505 GMT)


'E' is for Apollo

: The U.S. Postal Service on Friday (April 6) released a new set of stamps highlighting science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, education. A diagram of NASA's Apollo spacecraft is featured on the engineering stamp as a "positive" example of the discipline.


April 9, 2018

/ 7:05 p.m. CT (0005 GMT Apr 10)


Air and Space director

: The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum has named its next director. Ellen Stofan, NASA's former chief scientist, succeeds Jack Dailey after 19 years. A planetary geologist who has studied Venus, Mars, Saturn's moon Titan and Earth, Stofan began her professional career as a college intern at the museum.


April 11, 2018

/ 8:00 p.m. CT (0100 GMT Apr 12)


Moonwalker vs. moon watchmaker

: Apollo 15 commander David Scott has a judge's go to proceed with a lawsuit over the marketing of a replica moon watch. Bulova and Sterling (Kay) Jewelers referred to Scott's connection to the chronograph in their promotional material without the astronaut's consent, allegedly violating his right to publicity and control over his persona. On April 4, a judge rejected a summary judgement, finding Scott's claims had standing.


April 13, 2018

/ 6:05 p.m. CT (2305 GMT)




Gateway to the... moon

: "Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission" opens to the public at the Saint Louis Science Center on Saturday (April 14). The Smithsonian traveling exhibit, which is on the second stop of a three-year, four-city tour, features the Apollo 11 command module. The Saint Louis Science Center has added more than 100 of its own related artifacts to the display, as well as a replica '60s living room, a launch pad gantry and full-size, climb-aboard mockups of the Apollo command and lunar modules.


April 20, 2018

/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0500 GMT)


'Mercury 13'

: Eleven years after he directed "In the Shadow of the Moon," a documentary about the Apollo astronauts, filmmaker David Sington has collaborated with Heather Walsh to direct a companion hour about the women who could have also flown to the moon. Now streaming on Netflix, "Mercury 13" tells the story of the women pilots who underwent the same tests as NASA's first astronauts.


April 20, 2018

/ 6:00 p.m. CT (2300 GMT)


Vladimir Lyakhov, 1941-2018

: A Soviet-era cosmonaut who flew to three different space stations, Vladimir Lyakhov died on Thursday (April 19) at 76. Lyakhkov lived in Earth orbit for a total of 333 days as the commander of the Soyuz 32, T-8 and TM-6 missions to the Salyut 6, 7 and Mir space stations in 1979, 1983 and 1988, respectively.


April 23, 2018

/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0500 GMT)


Astronaut Hall of Fame

: More than a dozen space explorers were at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday (April 21) to see Thomas Jones and Scott Altman be inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. Combined, the two honorees flew on eight space shuttle missions, helping to service the Hubble Telescope and build the International Space Station. Jones and Altman were the 17th class to be inducted into the Hall, which now honors 97 astronauts.


April 23, 2018

/ 7:00 p.m. CT (0000 GMT Apr 24)


NASA's new administrator

: Jim Bridenstine was sworn in as NASA Administrator by Vice President Mike Pence on Monday (April 23). A naval pilot, politician and the director of an air & space museum, Bridenstine is the 13th person to be administrator in NASA's 60 years and the first head of the agency born after the Apollo moon landings.


April 26, 2018

/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0500 GMT)


Space Terrains

: Master Replicas Group has introduced its new Space Terrains, models of the surface of the moon and Mars. The cast-resin terrains, which are being offered under a license with the Smithsonian, are based on the data and high resolution images from NASA spacecraft. The first terrains include the moon's Tycho crater and Mons Olympus, the solar system's largest volcano, on Mars.


April 27, 2018

/ 1:00 p.m. CT (1800 GMT)




Year to abort

: Engineers at Johnson Space Center in Houston are outfitting a boilerplate Orion capsule to fly a three-minute test flight next year. Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) will validate the launch abort system (LAS) developed to save astronauts' lives in event of a problem with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The AA-2 capsule will launch on a smaller solid rocket booster for the atmospheric test.



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