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: The family of a late NASA engineer has consigned his space memorabilia collection to auction and in doing so, has revealed his propensity for designing mission patches. Featured in the Goldberg Coins & Collectibes sale on Feb. 27 is the Clark McClelland estate and his 200 lots of space memorabilia. His emblem art is accompanied by the astronauts' replies, including a note by Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong.
: After four years sitting on a bookshelf on display, a moon rock has been removed from the Oval Office as part of the redecoration of the White House by the Trump administration. First requested by former President Joe Biden in 2021, the Apollo 17 sample was intended to represent the ongoing efforts by NASA to explore the moon and beyond. The moon rock will be given back to NASA, according to a space agency spokesperson.
: The U.S. Space & Rocket Center played host to a different type of launch on Tuesday (Feb. 4), as Disney's Marvel Studios used the site to broadcast the countdown to its first trailer for "The Fantastic Four: First Steps," opening in theaters on July 25. Fans online saw sweeping views of the center's space artifacts, while the movie's cast gathered under a Saturn V moon rocket to press the trailer's "launch button."
: In the recent book "The Barber, the Astronaut, and the Golf Ball," the authors introduce Carlos Villagomez, who befriended moonwalker Alan Shepard while cutting his hair and was gifted a signed golf ball. Shepard never said if the ball had been in his pocket while on the lunar surface, though Villagomez thinks it was. If indeed it flew, it could reveal a secret: Namely, what was the brand of golf ball that Shepard hit for "miles and miles"?
: The winners of the second annual International Space Art and Poetry Contest recently saw their works shown on board the International Space Station, ahead of the pen, paint and poetry pieces being returned to Earth and presented to the students and educators. The contest, which was established by private astronaut John Shoffner, run by his Perseid Foundation and sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory, had entries from 35 countries.
: The Cosmosphere space museum on Tuesday (Feb. 11) announced that astronaut Charlie Duke, the tenth man to walk on the moon, has gifted the Kansas institution with 15 flags he flew on Apollo 16 to the lunar surface in 1972. The banners were among the contents of Duke's personal preference kit aboard the lunar module "Orion." The Cosmosphere plans to add one flag to its collection and then decide what to do with the other 14.
: Space Center Houston on Friday (Feb. 14) opened "The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks," a new immersive film that envelops viewers in NASA's past and future missions to explore the lunar surface. Making its U.S. premiere after more than a year at 59 Studio's Lightroom in London, "The Moonwalkers" has been adapted to fill the walls and floor surrounding Space Center Houston's five-story-tall screen.
: Intuitive Machines' second Nova-C lunar lander, named "Athena," will deliver NASA and commercial payloads to the moon's surface on six footpads bearing mission-related designs on their undersides. Should Athena "stick" the landing, the recently-revealed pad prints (including the IM-2 mission patch and the names of all of the company's employees) will be embedded in the lunar regolith (or moon's top soil), hidden forever from view.
: The Boulder International Film Festival in Colorado will host the premiere of the new documentary "Apollo 1" on March 15. The film tells the story of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, who died when a fire swept through their spacecraft during a test on the launch pad. Directed by Mark Craig ("The Last Man on the Moon"), "Apollo 1" includes members of the crew's families, some of whom plan to be at the premiere.
