September 23, 2023
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Breaking News
  • [ September 22, 2023 ] NASA is bringing an asteroid sample back to Earth – here’s when, how and why News
  • [ September 22, 2023 ] Artemis 2 astronauts go to the launch pad for launch day practice News
  • [ September 22, 2023 ] NASA astronaut looks forward to family hugs, peace and quiet, after yearlong flight News
  • [ September 20, 2023 ] SpaceX launches Falcon 9 on record-breaking 17th flight for booster Falcon 9
  • [ September 19, 2023 ] Radar-imaging satellite lost as Rocket Lab Electron rocket suffers launch failure News
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Bob Crippen

News

April 12 marks 60 years since Gagarin’s spaceflight, 40 years since shuttle debut

April 12, 2021 Stephen Clark

Sixty years ago Monday, a 27-year-old Russian test pilot named Yuri Gagarin strapped into a Vostok capsule in Central Asia and rode into orbit atop a launcher derived from a Soviet nuclear missile, becoming the first human to travel into the void of space. Twenty years later, in 1981, the era of reusable spacecraft dawned with the first launch of NASA’s space shuttle.

Video

April 14, 1981: Landing of Columbia on STS-1

April 14, 2016 Justin Ray

VIDEO: The winged spaceship Columbia returned to Earth with a pinpoint landing at Edwards Air Force Base on this day 35 years ago, concluding the maiden flight of the space shuttle.

News

April 12, 1981: 35 years since the maiden space shuttle launch

April 12, 2016 Justin Ray

America’s first space shuttle launched on this day 35 years ago as the reusable flying machine, Columbia, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center with John Young and Bob Crippen aboard.

News Headlines

  • NASA is bringing an asteroid sample back to Earth – here’s when, how and why
    September 22, 2023
  • Artemis 2 astronauts go to the launch pad for launch day practice
    September 22, 2023
  • NASA astronaut looks forward to family hugs, peace and quiet, after yearlong flight
    September 22, 2023
  • SpaceX launches Falcon 9 on record-breaking 17th flight for booster
    September 20, 2023
  • Radar-imaging satellite lost as Rocket Lab Electron rocket suffers launch failure
    September 19, 2023
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  • Live
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