Apollo – Spaceflight Now

How SpaceX’s Starship stacks up to other rockets

April 17, 2023 Clive Simpson

SpaceX Starship is set to propel itself into the record books today on its maiden flight, becoming the tallest, heaviest and most powerful rocket ever launched by humankind into space, topping a role call of famous and history-making heavy-lift launch vehicles including the mighty Saturn 5 that first took humans to the moon.

Apollo 11 astronaut Mike Collins dies at 90

April 28, 2021 William Harwood

Michael Collins, the man who stayed behind aboard the Apollo 11 command module while crewmates Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the moon and walked into history, has passed away after a battle with cancer, his family announced Wednesday. He was 90.

Apollo astronaut Al Worden dies at 88

March 19, 2020 Stephen Clark

Former astronaut Al Worden, who orbited the moon and performed the first spacewalk in deep space in 1971, died Wednesday in Texas. He was 88.

Chris Kraft, legendary flight director, dies at 95

July 22, 2019 William Harwood

Former Johnson Space Center Director Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr., the man who created the iconic role of NASA flight director during the Mercury and Gemini programs and whose no-nonsense, uncompromising management style defined control room operations and discipline through the Apollo years and beyond, died Monday. He was 95.

Scientists reconstruct what Neil Armstrong saw as he landed on the moon

July 20, 2019 Stephen Clark

Using 21st century images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists have reconstructed the view Neil Armstrong had outside the window of the Apollo 11 lunar module as he guided the spacecraft to a safe landing site on the moon 50 years ago.

Commercial satellite images historic Apollo launch pads

July 9, 2019 Stephen Clark

Maxar’s eagle-eyed WorldView 3 satellite captured high-resolution views Monday of NASA’s twin Apollo-era launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, both now home to new launch vehicles 50 years after humans took their first steps on the moon.

Alan Bean, moonwalker turned artist, dies at 86

May 26, 2018 William Harwood

Alan Bean, a Navy test pilot and astronaut who walked on the moon and then spent two months aboard America’s first space station before leaving NASA and becoming an accomplished artist, painting moonscapes and space vistas that garnered widespread critical praise, died Saturday. He was 86.

Richard Gordon, Gemini and Apollo astronaut, dies at 88

November 9, 2017 Stephen Clark

Richard “Dick” Gordon, a Navy test pilot-turned-astronaut who pioneered spacewalking procedures and orbited the moon, died at his home this week in California. He was 88.

July 15, 1975: Apollo-Soyuz Test Project launched

July 15, 2016 Justin Ray

American and Soviet crews were launched today in 1975 for the first handshakes in space between the two superpowers as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Families, NASA honor fallen astronauts

January 28, 2016 William Harwood

On the 30th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, crew families, friends and space workers gathered Thursday to remember the 17 men and women who lost their lives on the high frontier, 14 in two space shuttle disasters and three in an Apollo-era launch pad fire 49 years ago Wednesday.