If Chris Ferguson commands a shuttle mission of Atlantis in the next few weeks, it will be his second time commanding Atlantis. But, he’ll only be flying if there’s a serious emergency aboard STS-125—Endeavor’s mission to perform the final Hubble Space Telescope (HST) repair. Ferguson commanded STS-126 back in November 2008. (Yes, STS-125 is flying [...]

As NASA’s next manned spacecraft seems destined to be mothballed, SpaceX—a private space company—prepares to ready its Falcon 9 rocket for a first flight. If the United States decides to privatize manned spaceflight—and that seems to be the Obama administration’s plan—then post-Shuttle astronauts may ride aboard a Falcon 9. All the pieces of the Falcon [...]

Of the many reasons the Soviets failed to reach the moon, perhaps none is stranger than the possible role of Joseph Stalin. The Chief Designer and the Soviet Lead Sergey Korolyov was the Chief Designer of the Soviet space program. His role was similar to that of Werner von Braun for the Americans—critically important. Like [...]