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After a successful splashdown in the Atlantic, Alan Shepard is lifted aboard a U.S. Marine helicopter. The Mercury Freedom 7 capsule, below, was water tight and in good enough shape to be reused. Photo Credit: NASA
This Month in NASA History: The First American Soared through Space
May 22, 2015 // by

Mercury-Redstone 3, the first American manned mission to space, engaged the world—and cleared a path to the moon.

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Artist’s impression of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite, one of the major projects assessed by the GAO. SMAP launched successfully during the assessment period. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Government Brief: NASA Maintains Positive Trend for Large-Scale Projects
May 20, 2015 // by

A recent GAO report confirmed that cost and schedule growth among NASA’s major acquisition projects remains low compared with previous years.

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Author Don Cohen (left), Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 project manager Ralph Basilio (center), and APPEL instructor Anthony Luscher (right) were among the speakers at Knowledge 2020 2.0.
The Value of Mistakes
May 14, 2015 // by

What do some of the greatest engineering innovations have in common? They started with a mistake.

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The first color image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, taken by the News Horizons spacecraft when it was still 71 million miles away. Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
New Horizons Prepares to Reveal a New World
May 8, 2015 // by

After traveling more than 3 billion miles through space, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is the first mission to explore the farthest reaches of the solar system.

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One of the final images to be sent back from MESSENGER, this April 16 image depicts the ejecta blanket of a newly formed impact crater. MESSENGER has sent back more than 250,000 images over the course of its mission. Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
MESSENGER Mission Ends But Its Value Lives On
April 28, 2015 // by

NASA’s Mercury orbiter is completely out of fuel. But that hasn’t stopped it from returning groundbreaking data about the innermost planet.

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The XB-70 Air Vehicle 1 using drag chutes to slow down after landing. Photo Credit: NASA/Air Force
This Month in NASA History: NASA Took Over the Valkyrie Program
April 21, 2015 // by

On April 25, 1967, the XB-70—a high-altitude supersonic long-range bomber—flew under the NASA banner for the first time.

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James Van Laak talks with Training Specialist Travis Millner and participants in APPEL’s Foundations of Aerospace at NASA course about some of his experiences during his successful career at the agency. Photo Credit: NASA APPEL/Donna Wilson
Succeeding at NASA: From Concept to Reality
April 16, 2015 // by

James Van Laak, former Operations Manager for the International Space Station (ISS), shared hard-earned wisdom with APPEL’s Foundations of Aerospace course participants.

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NASA astronaut Scott Kelly preparing for the One-Year Mission in a soyuz simulator at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Two Men. One Year. The Future of Human Spaceflight.
April 14, 2015 // by

On March 27, 2015, two spaceflight veterans blasted off for a year in low Earth orbit (LEO) that will ultimately help humans travel to Mars.

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Artist’s concept of an astronaut conducting a spacewalk from Orion to examine the boulder obtained during the Asteroid Redirect Mission. Image Credit NASA
Asteroid Redirect Mission Charts a Path Leading Toward Mars
April 8, 2015 // by

NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) recently identified a boulder as the ideal stepping stone in the journey to Mars.

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