HQ | Organizations | APPEL Knowledge Services

NASA’s Stardust sample-return capsule is seen with heat shield intact after is successfully landed at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range.

This Month in NASA History: Tenth Anniversary of Stardust’s Encounter with Comet Wild 2

January 7, 2014 // by APPEL News Staff

A decade ago, Stardust rendezvoused with Comet Wild 2 to become the first mission to capture and return a cometary sample to Earth.

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts-Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders-held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. Said Lovell, "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth." They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.

This Month in NASA History: Apollo 8 Turns 45

December 19, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

Forty-five years have passed since the crew of Apollo 8 orbited the moon.

Several tiny CubeSat satellites are shown in this image photographed by an Expedition 33 crew member on the International Space Station on 4 October 2012. The satellites were released outside the Kibo laboratory using a Small Satellite Orbital Deployer attached to the Japanese module's robotic arm. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide, flight engineer, set up the satellite deployment gear inside the laboratory and placed it in the Kibo airlock. The Japanese robotic arm then grappled the deployment system and its satellites from the airlock for deployment. A portion of the station's solar array panels and a blue and white part of the earth provide the backdrop for the scene.

CubeSats: An Emerging Platform for Mass Collaboration

December 16, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

By Glen A. Robertson, David T. Young, and John D. Sprague Small satellites provide opportunities to pursue space exploration challenges through mass collaboration—enabling many minds to solve tough problems using small platforms.

Propulsion systems engineer Greg Barnett prepares a rocket injector for a hot fire test at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Research Brief: Novel Processes for Advanced Manufacturing

December 10, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

Hurdles remain for next-generation manufacturing techniques such as three-dimensional (3D) printing before they go mainstream.

Cover of “NASA’s First A: Aeronautics from 1958 – 2008.”

A Historical Perspective on NASA’s First A

December 6, 2013 // by APPEL News Staff

The golden age of aeronautics research is an institutional memory, and like all memories it can get a little fuzzy, cautions aviation and technology historian Dr. Robert Ferguson.