After achieving international fame as the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin fought to get back into orbit. But, as a national hero, the Soviet government seemed to consider him too valuable to risk sending up a second time. Still, Gagarin continued to try. In 1967, he was finally given an assignment—as backup pilot—for the [...]

Comedian Stephen Colbert won as write-in candidate to have the new International Space Station section (currently called “Node 3″) named after him. Not NASA’s choice In second place was the name “Serenity”. The choice of the name “Colbert”, however, probably has people at NASA feeling less than serene. The contest is not binding, however, and [...]

The other day, an article on MSNBC discussed how Obama’s space plan was misunderstood…and therefore, unloved. Here’s the alleged misunderstandings: 1. The Obama plan is killing the space program. This is false. The budget for NASA is slightly increased, not cut, under the Obama budget. However, in real life this allegation is not quite what [...]