Skylab | Learning To Live And Work In Space
The First US Space Station Skylab was the United States’ first space station and followed the successful Apollo program. Launched by a left-over Saturn V rocket, Skylab was manned by…
Hubble Space Telescope | Revealing The Universe’s Hidden Treasures
Our Eye In Space The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is one of NASA ‘Great Observatories’ located in low Earth orbit. During its years of service, Hubble has made priceless discoveries…
The Space-based Chandra X-ray Observatory
High Energy Sources The Chandra X-ray Observatory is one of the NASA ‘Great Observatories’ along with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.…
Earth Observation Satellites
Monitoring From Above Earth observation satellites are those launched primarily by government agencies and specifically designed for Earth monitoring from orbit! They are similar in design to spy satellites but…
The ‘Flashy’ Iridium Satellite Constellation
Catch A Satellite Flash! The Iridium satellite constellation is a telecommunication network providing voice and data coverage to satellite phones all over the globe. First launched in May 1997, a…
The US Air Force’s Mysterious X-37B Spaceplane
Secret Squirrel in Orbit The Air Force’s X-37B spaceplane resembles NASA's iconic Space Shuttle, but they are quite different in many regards. The X-37B started out as a NASA program…
What Is The Global Positioning System (GPS)?
Locations With Military Precision! Basically, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system comprised of at least 24 satellites. The Government built the system in the late 1970’s…
NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS)
Studying Earth's Magnetosphere Designed to study the Earth's magnetosphere and how the Sun’s and Earth’s magnetic fields connect and disconnect, known as magnetic reconnection. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission involved…
Sputnik-1 | The World’s First Artificial Satellite!
USSR First To Launch Sputnik-1 was the name of the world’s first artificial Earth-orbiting satellite launched by the USSR on October 4th 1957! The small polished metal sphere broadcasted radio…
Learn About Hazardous Space Junk!
Man’s Space Trash Space debris, or space junk, is mostly man-made objects that orbit uncontrolled around Earth. It is estimated there are more than 670,000 pieces of debris greater than…