Space Newsspace history and artifacts articlesMessagesspace history discussion forumsSightingsworldwide astronaut appearancesResourcesselected space history documents
: Purdue University has digitized thousands of pages containing the words spoken by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong at his many talks, addresses and speeches. The online archive reveals the moonwalker's handwritten notations and quips, which he made while preparing his remarks. The physical documents, which were donated by Armstrong's wife Carol, are just one part of his archives held by the Indiana school.
: Sixty-two years ago on Thursday (Oct. 3), Wally Schirra lifted off on his Mercury mission wearing his personal wristwatch, a newly-released 2nd-generation Omega Speedmaster. Though he could not know it at the time, his choice led to six-decade-long legacy of Omega watches flying in Earth orbit and beyond. Now, a new "The First Omega in Space" Speedmaster honors that history by combining heritage details with a modern calibre.
: Guests touring Space Center Houston will soon be able to experience a "day in the life" of an astronaut living in lunar orbit aboard NASA's Artemis Gateway. The visitor center for Johnson Space Center on Tuesday (Oct. 8) took delivery of Northrop Grumman's first full-size mockup of a cis-lunar habitat, which evolved into the Gateway's HALO, or Habitation and Logistics Outpost. The module is being added to the center's Artemis exhibit.
: With space shuttle Endeavour covered in protective scaffolding and a white wrap, construction workers have erected a diagrid above and around it. Now they have reached the roof. To mark the milestone, the California Science Center in Los Angeles is topping off the Samuel Air and Space Center with three ceremonial beams signed by many of the architects, engineers, builders, staff and supporters who made ascending to this point possible.
: In a feat involving rocketry and robotics, SpaceX has successfully captured a rocket in mid-air returning to its launch pad using a giant pair of arms like chopsticks. The catch, which was one of the goals of Sunday's (Oct. 13) fifth integrated flight test of the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster, advanced SpaceX's pursuit of "full and rapid reusability." While the booster was recovered, Starship sank in the Indian Ocean as planned.
: A SpaceX Falcon Heavy has launched NASA's first mission to an ocean world beyond Earth. Europa Clipper is now on a six-year cruise to Jupiter, where it will make 49 flybys of the icy moon Europa in search of the ingredients necessary for life to exist. The solar powered-probe is carrying eight science instruments, a plaque inscribed with an ode to water, 100 translations of the word "water" and a chip with 26 million people's names.
: Blue Origin has donated a New Shepard booster and capsule to the Smithsonian. The rocket, which was the first to reach space and then land on its legs, will stand in "RTX Living in the Space Age," a gallery now being renovated in the National Air and Space Museum. The capsule will be in "Futures in Space," an exhibit about advancements including space tourism. Both Blue Origin donations will debut with their galleries in 2026.
: Axiom Space and Prada on Wednesday (Oct. 16) revealed the new look for astronauts walking on the moon. The space services company and Italian fashion house collaborated on the outer cover layer for Axiom's AxEMU spacesuit, which NASA's Artemis III crew will wear at the lunar south pole. The white spacesuit replaces the darker-colored prototype previously shown while the suit was still in the early stages of development.
: A large, early piece of space shuttle history embarked on a short road trip in California on Thursday (Oct. 17). The mock orbiter "Inspiration" was delivered to a facility for its restoration. The model was built in 1972 to sell NASA on Rockwell's design concept for the spacecraft and then used to fit check payloads flying on the shuttle into space. When ready for display, "Inspiration" will go to the Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey.
: The public can now see the moment when spaceflight and snack history was made: the first crunch of a Doritos chip in space. The new imagery from the Polaris Dawn mission and an interview with mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon reveal how the chips performed ("It was awesome!" says Menon). Doritos also arranged for a collectSPACE taste test of the "Zero-G Cool Ranch" chips as compared to their Earth equivalents.
: Blue Origin's 27th New Shepard mission to cross the boundary between Earth and space was the first flight of the RSS Kármán Line, the company's 2nd human-rated capsule. The suborbital launch Wednesday (Oct. 23) lofted 12 payloads, including a small stack of miniature monoliths modeled after the monuments in "2001: A Space Odyssey." The flown black slabs will be mounted on the covers of a new deluxe edition of the book.
: NASA's first dexterous humanoid robot to fly into space is now on public display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. Robonaut 2 (R2) demonstrated its ability to assist and take over tasks from astronauts before short circuiting and being returned to Earth for repairs. R2 is exhibited opposite its 2011 ride to orbit, space shuttle Discovery, as a static but intact robot.
: After almost three weeks of weather waive offs atop an already extended mission, Crew-8 is back on Earth after 235 days in space. Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett and Jeanette Epps of NASA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Pensacola, on Friday (Oct. 25). The mission was almost a month longer than the longest time a SpaceX Dragon has been in space.
: When Edgar Mitchell lifted off for the moon on Apollo 14 in 1971, he wore his NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster atop his spacesuit and below it, a personal Rolex GMT-Master chronometer. The latter sold for a record $2.2 million at RR Auction on Thursday (Oct. 24). The watch, which can be seen in imagery from the mission, is one of only two moon-flown Rolexes to have been sold and commanded the most paid for an astronaut timepiece.
How good are you at recognizing astronauts? Would you be able to tell a real space traveler from an actor if the person in question was wearing a costume spacesuit? What if they were in a TV commercial, but never named? Have you seen Capital One's ad about a school's Career Day? Did you see former shuttle and space station astronaut Karen Nyberg standing next to baseball star Derek Jeter? "What's in your wallet?"
: Taikonauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze are on their way to spending six months on the Tiangong space station after launching on board China's Shenzhou-19 spacecraft on Tuesday (Oct. 29). Cai previously flew on Shenzhou-14 in 2022; his two crewmates are first-time fliers. Wang is the only female flight engineer currently in the taikonaut corps and she is the third Chinese woman to launch into space.
: Swatch found the inspiration for its latest addition to its Omega collaboration in the photographs taken by the Apollo astronauts. The new MoonSwatch "Mission to Earthphase" features both moon and Earth phase indicators, a first in watchmaking history. The open-edition $325 Bioceramic watch displays both the phase of the moon as it appears from Earth and Earth as it appears if viewed from the lunar surface at the same time.
