Curated playlist
Crewed spacecraft
- Project MercuryChuck Yeager, first to break the sound barrier, was ruled out of Project Mercury. He lacked a college degree.
- Project GeminiGemini's capsule was built around Gus Grissom, and 14 of 16 astronauts could not fit inside.
- Apollo command and service moduleEvery Apollo command and service module mission ended with the larger section burning up on purpose.
- Space ShuttleBefore the Space Shuttle's boosters fired, its engines bent the whole stack forward. Engineers called it the "twang."
- Apollo Lunar ModuleApollo 13's lunar module became a lifeboat for three astronauts. It was designed to support two men for 45 hours.
- Command module ColumbiaApollo 11's command module Columbia won its name because it sounded like a Jules Verne space gun.
- Salyut 5Salyut 5 was a secret Soviet military space station that was presented as a civilian one. Its military name was OPS-3.
- Apollo (spacecraft)Apollo's launch escape system flew on 19 flights and was never needed. It could pull the crew capsule clear.
- Lunar GatewayBuzz Aldrin called the Lunar Gateway moon station idea "absurd." NASA developed the project for years anyway.
- Orion (spacecraft)On March 1, 2026, NASA's Orion spacecraft carried four astronauts into deep space for the first time.
- International Space StationPeople have lived aboard the International Space Station without a break since 2 November 2000.
- SkylabSkylab, America's first space station, was built from a leftover Moon rocket stage.
- Salyut 3Salyut 3, a Soviet space station, had a gun bolted to its hull. It was presented as a civilian station in 1974.
- MirIn 1997 a cargo ship crashed into the space station Mir and punctured a module. The crew sealed its hatch.
- SpaceX StarshipSpaceX's Starship left its launch pad at Starbase in Texas at 13:33 UTC on the 20th of April 2023. It was the first flight of the complete two-stage vehicle. Three engines were disabled during the launch sequence, and more failed as the…