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/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0500 GMT)
NASA's maiden moonshot: NASA officially opened its doors 60 years ago Monday (Oct. 1). Ten days later, the nascent space agency launched its first mission and moonshot. The Pioneer 1 probe, inherited from the Air Force and Army Ballistic Missile Agency, lifted off atop a modified Thor missile to fly by the moon, but fell far short of its goal.
/ 8:20 a.m. CT (1320 GMT)
MS-08 lands: Oleg Artemyev, Drew Feustel, and Ricky Arnold have returned home from a 195-day stay aboard the International Space Station. The three Soyuz MS-08 crew mates touched down in Kazakhstan Thursday (Oct. 4), concluding the space station's Expedition 56. Artemyev, Feustel and Arnold worked on science research, conducted spacewalks, played tennis, and continued NASA's "Year of Education on Station" during their six months on orbit.
/ 9:00 a.m. CT (1400 GMT)
'The Challenger': Thirty-two years after she was lost with his crew mates aboard NASA's space shuttle Challenger, Christa McAuliffe's story is under development as a new feature film. Argent Pictures' "The Challenger," to be directed by Martin Zandvliet ("Land of Mine"), will follow the journey of the fallen first teacher-in-space. Actress Michelle Williams ("Venom") has been cast as McAuliffe.
/ 4:00 p.m. CT (2100 GMT)
Earthrise craters: Two craters on the moon have now been given names in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission that flew the first astronauts to the moon in 1968. The International Astronomical Union named "Anders' Earthrise" and "8 Homeward" after an iconic photo of Earth above the lunar surface as captured by Bill Anders on Apollo 8. Both craters appear in the "Earthrise" photo.
/ 1:50 a.m. CT (0650 GMT)
Rick Searfoss, 1956-2018: A U.S. astronaut who flew twice as pilot and then commanded his third and final space shuttle mission, Rick Searfoss died Sept. 29 at age 62. A member of NASA's 13th class of astronauts, Searfoss flew on shuttles Columbia and Atlantis, logging a total of 39 days in orbit on missions STS-58, STS-76 and STS-90. He later served as a test pilot for XCOR Aerospace.
/ 1:00 p.m. CT (1800 GMT)
First Man, annotated: Opening Friday (Oct. 12), Universal Pictures' "First Man" presents the story behind the first mission to land men on the moon, focusing on the experiences of Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong. From the start, the filmmakers strove for accuracy, but there were scenes where they departed from real history. Screenwriter Josh Singer and Armstrong's biographer Jim Hansen have revealed what they got right — and wrong — in "First Man: The Annotated Screenplay," published by Titan Books.
/ 6:45 a.m. CT (1145 GMT)
Soyuz launch failure: Aleksey Ovchinin and Nick Hague are safely back on Earth after an anomaly two minutes into their launch forced an emergency landing on Thursday (Oct 11). The Russian cosmonaut and U.S. astronaut had been bound for the International Space Station aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft to join Expedition 57/58. Ovchinin and Hague experienced seven times the force of gravity during the ballistic re-entry, but were reported to be in good condition by the recovery team on the ground.
/ 4:30 p.m. CT (2130 GMT)
Above and Beyond: Rory Kennedy grew up in a household where astronauts were family friends and NASA's moonshot was a point of family pride. As President John F. Kennedy's niece, she had a connection to space history and it was because of that she wanted to make "Above and Beyond: NASA's Journey to Tomorrow," a documentary film that looks back at NASA's 60 years of achievements and in the process, identifies the next moonshot: to save Earth.
/ 6:35 p.m. CT (2335 GMT)
First Man easter eggs: On first watch, "First Man" is flush with space history details, from its accurate spacecraft sets to its use of flight transcripts for script cues. Take a closer look though, and you can find even more nods to NASA's past and Neil Armstrong's legacy. Director Damien Chazelle included cameos and other "easter eggs" in "First Man" that only space history enthusiasts might notice.
/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0500 GMT)
50 years in Space Pens: Fisher Space Pen is marking a half century of its pens in space with a new limited edition space pen set. The Apollo 7 50th anniversary pen celebrates the 1968 mission that first carried the company's AG-7 pressurized pens into Earth orbit. The new space pen is plated in gold titanium and is engraved with a design that depicts the Apollo 7 spacecraft flying through space.
/ 9:15 p.m. CT (0215 GMT Oct 20)
BepiColombo to Mercury: A joint European and Japanese mission to the planet Mercury, BepiColombo lifted off on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle on Friday (Oct. 19). The third mission to study our solar system's innermost planet, BepiColombo is the first to send two spacecraft and first to be launched by Europe. The trip to Mercury will take seven years and involve one flyby of Earth, two passes by Venus and six flybys of Mercury before entering orbit in 2026.
/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0500 GMT)
Apollo 7 at 50: Astronaut Walt Cunningham was the guest of honor at a 50th anniversary gala celebration for the Apollo 7 mission held Saturday (Oct. 20) in Dallas. The Frontiers of Flight Museum welcomed astronauts, guests and the Lt. Governor of Texas to hear Cunningham recount the mission and view the Apollo 7 spacecraft on display.
/ 6:05 p.m. CT (2305 GMT)
Cosmosphere satellite: "Liberty Bell 7," the Mercury spacecraft that carried Gus Grissom on the second U.S. piloted spaceflight, is set to go on display in Overland Park, Kansas in early 2019 to preview the future home of the Cosmosphere Innovation Space. A satellite location for the Cosmosphere museum in Hutchinson, the Bluhawk site will feature rotating exhibits until the Innovation Space opens.
/ 12:00 a.m. CT (0500 GMT)
'Gene Kranz Day': Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner proclaimed Oct. 23, 2018 to be Gene Kranz Day in honor of the Gemini and Apollo flight director. The declaration was made at a Space Center Houston luncheon that saluted Kranz's contributions to space history and raised $300,000 for the restoration of his former workplace, NASA's Mission Operations Control Room at the Johnson Space Center.
/ 6:05 p.m. CT (2305 GMT)
S.S. John Young: Northrop Grumman's next Cygnus cargo spacecraft to carry supplies to the International Space Station will fly under the name of NASA's only astronaut to launch on Gemini, Apollo and shuttle missions. The S.S. John Young, which honors the late moonwalker, will lift off on Northrop Grumman's 10th Cygnus mission (NG-10).
/ 4:30 p.m. CT (2130 GMT)
Greetings from Space: Mattel has launched a Hot Wheels Tesla Roadster toy celebrating the cherry red car that SpaceX sent into orbit on board a Falcon Heavy rocket in February. The "Greeting from Space" Tesla Roadster is packaged with stats about the far-out vehicle and an image of the real car (with "Starman" driver) high above Earth.
/ 3:05 p.m. CT (2005 GMT)
NASA artifacts audit: A new report from the NASA Office of Inspector General addresses a spate of historic artifact losses due to what investigators found to be NASA's "reluctance in asserting ownership." The review included the agency's loss of a prototype lunar rover, an Apollo lunar sample return bag and a set of spacecraft hand controllers. The audit recommended NASA improve its procedures and assess if it is the "most effective owner" of the artifacts.
/ 7:00 a.m. CT (1200 GMT)
Moon rocks resurface for sale: Twenty-five years after they were last sold, a trio of lunar samples are returning to the auction block at Sotheby's. The moon rocks, which the Soviet Union's Luna 16 probe brought back to Earth in 1970, were gifted to the widow of the "Chief Designer" of the Russian space program, Sergei Korolev. Sotheby's sold the tiny moon stones for $442,500 in 1993. The gallery now estimates upwards of $1 million at the Nov. 29 auction.
/ 2:30 p.m. CT (1930 GMT)
Armstrong auction: Thousands of personal mementos from the collection of moonwalker Neil Armstrong are up for auction. The three-day sale includes items Armstrong carried to the moon, keepsakes from his childhood and souvenirs spanning his professional career. The sale of the Armstrong Family Collection by Heritage Auctions starts on Thursday morning (Nov. 1) in Dallas, Texas.
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