Spaceflight Now: Features

Space shuttle Columbia is midway through a year-long, routine maintenance and modification period. Spaceflight Now recently visited Boeing's shuttle plant at Palmdale, California for this special report.
   SPECIAL REPORTVideo

Video vault: Rocketcams
Spaceflight Now presents a collection of video clips from onboard cameras carried aloft by rockets during recent launches. The cameras provide dramatic views as the unmanned boosters depart planet Earth.
   FULL STORY
Rocketcam
Video shows journey of shuttle rocket booster
In an effort to examine how the insulation on the space shuttle external fuel tank survives during launch, NASA has flown several "rocketcams" to capture the view. Today we have two clips taken from the camera mounted on a solid rocket booster showing separation from the shuttle and splashdown in the Atlantic.
   VIDEO: SEPARATION FROM EXTERNAL TANK
   VIDEO: SPLASHDOWN INTO ATLANTIC
SRB rocketcam
New millennium concept: Rockets like auto engines
Rocket engines that work much like an automobile engine are being developed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Pulse detonation rocket engines offer a lightweight, low-cost alternative for space transportation.
   FULL STORY [Feb. 28]
Pulse
Prediction of 2000's top five space stories
On the first day of 2000, Spaceflight Now attempts to predict the top five stories that will make headlines in space news this year. This forecast is based purely on the opinions of our staff.
   FULL STORY [Jan. 1]
Mars
The top ten space stories of the year
Spaceflight Now and its sister-site Astronomy Now have chronicled the ups and downs of the space program in 1999. Here is our selection of the top stories of the year.
   FULL STORY [Dec. 31]
Top Ten
Cape engineers tackle launching from Mars
NASA's Kennedy Space Center has been picked to develop the Mars Ascent Vehicle. The craft will be used to launch Martian rock and soil samples from the Red Planet's surface in the second half of this decade.
   FULL STORY [Dec. 1]
Mars
100 shuttle launches
STS-51DAs NASA launched the 101st space shuttle flight on November 30, we looked back to the past 20 years of blastoffs in a special gallery feature.

   FLIGHTS 1 TO 25

   FLIGHTS 26 TO 50

   FLIGHTS 51 TO 75

   FLIGHTS 76 TO 100

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