Curated playlist
Spaceflight
- Earth orbit rendezvousGemini 8 made the first docking of two spacecraft on March 16, 1966. It tested Earth orbit rendezvous methods.
- Interplanetary contaminationEvery spacecraft we send into the Solar System carries life with it. Microbes ride on rovers and inside astronauts.
- Human spaceflightThe Apollo 13 crew used their lunar lander as a lifeboat after an oxygen tank failed.
- SpaceflightIn June 1944, a V-2 rocket became the first human-made object to reach space. It climbed to 189 km on a test flight.
- Space explorationSpace exploration began with a German V-2 rocket that reached 176 kilometers up in 1944.
- Space advocacyIllustrations and Disney shows helped sell space travel to the public before NASA existed.
- Space AgeThe Space Age began when the Soviet Union put Sputnik 1 into orbit on the 4th of October 1957.
- Mission control centerA hall in Russia's mission control still shows Mir's final orbits. It serves as a memorial to the space station.
- NASA Space Science Data Coordinated ArchiveNASA's space science archive once sent its data out on tape by mail. Networks began carrying it in the mid-1980s.
- Religion in spaceOn Christmas Eve, 1968, three astronauts orbiting the Moon read from the Book of Genesis.
- Space architectureIn 1968, designers pushed NASA to cut a window into Skylab. Engineers had objected to the idea.