As a private lunar industry nears liftoff, preservationists seek to guard the artifacts from the first space race. In 2011 NASA made a nonbinding request that no craft land within a 1.2-mile ...

The space race has been covered in both documentary films, shows, and movies. Never before has an intimate telling of the ...

This story appears in the July 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine. Rapid advancements in spaceflight occurred during the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Ballistic ...

NASA aims to travel to the moon again—and beyond. Here’s a look at the 21st-century race to send humans into space. Private spaceflight is not a new concept. In the United States, commercial ...

This story appears in the January 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine. On the edge of a parking lot at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, stands a relic from a time ...

The creator of SpaceShipOne says private space flight's about to take off. At the dawn of a new era, SpaceShipOne is minutes away from being released by its launch aircraft. White Knight, on ...

Hubble and its fellow observatories give us an unprecedented, crystal-clear look at the far reaches of the cosmos. Explore these orbiting pioneers and learn what they've discovered. 3 min read The ...

Today’s high-tech spacesuit materials are a far cry from the cotton and rubber used by early high-altitude pilots. This story appears in the July 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine.

This story is an expanded version of a page that appears in the August 2017 issue of National Geographic magazine. “The weather is absolutely perfect,” an NBC broadcaster announced from an ...