America sent monkeys into space before men. But Apollo sent men, not monkeys, to the moon.
According to a report late last year, Russia plans to send a monkey on a 520 day round trip flight to Mars. The Russians believe that the radiation would make such a trip by a human currently inadvisable.
The monkey would [...]

I don’t know for sure if this much is true…but there’s a report that the band Spandau Ballet will perform on a Virgin Galactic flight in 2012. My sources are blogs…and I don’t know what their sources are…so this is possible, but uncertain.
In any case, one lucky passenger should be able to see the band [...]

I had a correspondence with H. D. McDaniel, a man who worked at the Cape in the early sixties and beyond. He worked in “Launch Sequencing” which is monitoring preparations and activities up to (and including) the launch of a space vehicle.
This is a pretty obscure area. Even as a space buff, I really pay [...]

As any space buff knows, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth in February 1962, when he piloted the Friendship 7 spacecraft on a 3 -orbit mission.
Fifty years later, a group called “Americans in Orbit – 50 Years” plans to celebrate with a repeat of that historic flight. They intend to build [...]

In the late 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union performed one incredible feat after another in space. But they had a serious problem with Venus.
From February 1961 through November 1965, the Soviet Union tried a dozen times to get a probe to send data from Venus. Only three got there; they were called Venera 1, [...]

Right now, it’s only a study. And, considering the cost—and the difficulty these days of coming up with big money—it may never be built.
But Europe is looking at developing its own manned spaceflight capabilities. Currently, European astronauts can only get into space by hitching a ride on American or Russian spacecraft. (The Chinese fly their [...]

Guy Laliberte was once a street performer. Now, the Canadian billionaire and owner of the Cirque du Soleil is planning a trip into space
. He’ll be the world’s seventh space “tourist” when he’s launched aboard a Soyuz in September. He’ll be visiting the International Space Station.
During his 12 to 13 day mission, Laliberte plans to [...]

Apollo 10 is famous for—absolutely nothing. After the Apollo 11 moon landing, the previous mission was all but forgotten. That mission was 40 years ago this month.

Live TV from space
Apollo 10 was an amazing and hazardous flight. And one of it’s firsts was the first live color TV broadcast from space.
Back in 1967, Wally Schirra’s [...]

The behavior of the orbit of Mercury provided support for Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Today, people still continue to study the nearest planet to the sun—sometimes with space probes.

Storms on the planet
The Mercury Messenger has been whipping around the planet. And, it’s discovered that the the planet has dust storms whipping across it. This [...]

Last year, India landed (or crashed) something called the Moon Impactor Probe (carried by its Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft) into the moon. The main spacecraft continues its lunar orbiting mission.
Next time, they’re preparing to land.

With Russian help
India’s getting help from some real experts—the Russian space agency. The RSA is designing a small lunar rover, which will [...]