Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, a daily news publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018.
In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History. In 2023, the National Space Club Florida Committee recognized Pearlman with the Kolcum News and Communications Award for excellence in telling the space story along the Space Coast and throughout the world.
Latest articles by Robert Z. Pearlman

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
NASA photographer Josh Valcarcel captured Zena Cardman in a pose evocative of one of the first female astronaut's portraits.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
The next astronauts to fly to the moon now have a mission patch to represent their journey. NASA debuted the official Artemis 2 insignia, its first emblem for a moon-bound crew in more than 50 years.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
The Helix nebula may point to the ultimate fate of our sun — and Earth.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
Fram2 crew was surprised to not see any evidence of human activity at the South Pole from 285 miles above.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
The first astronauts to enter a polar orbit chose the obvious animal to serve as their zero-g indicator: a plush polar bear. The doll also has an emperor penguin embroidered on its chest.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
Looking like a soccer ball with glowing blue eyes, the Japanese Experiment Module Internal Ball Camera-2 is put to test aboard the International Space Station.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink internet satellites to orbit on Monday (March 31), on the first of the company's two planned liftoffs for the day.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
NASA's Orion crew module test article is framed by the well deck of the U.S. Navy's USS Somerset as teams practice Artemis 2 recovery ops.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
NASA's flight directors have taken a page from the astronauts they support, if not also the Masters, Hells Angels and Saturday Night Live's Five-Timers Club. There is now a flight director's jacket.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
The space telescope's image of a odd-looking spiral galaxy is, in reality, two distant galaxies overlapping each other.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
The Space Launch System (SLS) core stage and rocket boosters have now been stood up and mated in preparation for NASA's Artemis 2 moon mission.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
John Scalzi cased out the Armstrong Museum before writing "When the Moon Hits Your Eye." The author may have been confused of planning a heist given the way he eyed an Apollo 11 moon rock on display.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured bright aurora activity on Neptune for the first time.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
A nearly month-long mission is ready to lift off, with preparations being made at the Kennedy Center. To be clear, not NASA's Kennedy Space Center, but the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
Paris, France is seen lit up in this photo taken aboard the International Space Staton.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
Earth to astronaut Barbie, we have a new space collectible, but probably not for all of the reasons Mattel intended. The toy company has released a Barbie Miss Astronaut 60th anniversary doll.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
The Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of a star and a spiral galaxy, both in the constellation Virgo. But the photo is an optical illusion.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
Many galaxies are visible in this deep field exposure, and its just a part of a larger mosaic, zoomed in 16 times.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
The spacesuit worn by the first Briton in space, the Soyuz that brought the first UK astronaut back to Earth and the only Apollo capsule to be on display outside the U.S. will soon be on the move.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
A pod of bottlenose dolphins seemingly took interest in the capsule that dropped out of the sky, circling and surfacing as SpaceX team members worked to recover their spacecraft.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
After splashing down off the coast of Florida, the latest crew to return from the International Space Station arrived by jet in Houston.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
The first astronauts to fly on two different commercial spacecraft during a single mission, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, returned to Earth with ISS crewmates Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
It was the opening scene of "Apollo 13" and was recreated for the Neil Armstrong biopic "First Man." It was also included in director Mark Craig's "Last Man on the Moon," inspiring "Apollo 1."

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
SpaceX is poised to land its Crew Dragon Freedom with the two ISS crewmates who launched on it and two astronauts who arrived at the space station in June on Boeing's Starliner. Here's how to see it.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Published
What do you get when you fold together the contributions of four space station-bound astronauts from the U.S., Japan and Russia? A zero-gravity indicator in the form of a crocheted origami crane.
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