Latest articles by Hanneke Weitering
On this day in space! Aug. 20, 1977: NASA launched the Voyager 2 spacecraft on a mission to explore the outer planets.
On Aug. 19, 1997, the Philippines launched its own satellite for the first time.
On this day in space! Aug. 18, 1868: Total solar eclipse leads to discovery of helium
On this day in space, Aug. 17, 1877: American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Mars's moon Phobos.
On this day in space Aug. 16, 1963: NASA's M2-F1 aircraft prototype makes its first glide flight.
On Aug. 15, 1977, astronomers using Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope detected the famous "Wow!" signal, which remains unexplained to this day.
On Aug. 14, 1992, a space rock entered the atmosphere over Mbale, Uganda and exploded into hundreds of pieces!
The WorldView-3 Earth-observing satellite.
On Aug. 12, 2005, NASA launched its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission.
President Eisenhower inspects the Discoverer 13 capsule after its return to Earth.
On Aug. 10, 1972, an Earth-grazing fireball burst through the sky over North America. Here's what happened.
On Aug. 9, 1976, the Soviet space program launched its last moon mission. Luna 24 was a robotic sample return mission and the third of its kind.
Salyut 5 was a Soviet space station and part of the highly-secretive Almaz military space station program.
On Aug. 5, 2011, NASA launched the Juno spacecraft on a mission to study Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. Here's why it mattered.
On Aug. 4, 2007, NASA launched its Phoenix Mars Lander on a mission to touch down in the Martian arctic for the first time. Here's why it mattered.
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft aimed to orbit Mercury for the first time to hunt for clues of water on the tiny, innermost planet.
On Aug. 2, 1971, a lunar liftoff was televised for the first time on NASA's Apollo 15 mission, one giant leap for live TV from the moon.
You can always grab a pair ahead of the next solar eclipse!
On July 31, 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts drove on the moon for the first time. Here's how it happened and why it mattered.
On July 30, 1610, the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei became the first to observe rings around the planet Saturn. Here's why it matters centuries later.
On July 29, 1982, the Salyut 6 space station fell out of space and safely burned up in Earth's atmosphere along the way. Here's why it mattered.
On July 28, 1851, the first-ever photo of a total solar eclipse was recorded by a Prussian daguerreotypist named Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski. It changed solar astronomy.
On July 27, 1962, two Russian cosmonauts boarded a Soviet airliner and experienced weightlessness without going to space. Here's why it mattered.
