NASA Has The Coolest Vending Machines In The World

NASA's held its annual open house earlier this month, and like any good space dork I was there. There, of course, was all manner of exciting and interesting stuff to see, tended by scientists who seemed genuinely surprised and delighted by the fact that so many locals want to come...

May 1, 2025

Before It Came To New York, Space Shuttle Enterprise Flew Over The Roman Forum

These days, photos of Space Shuttles piggybacking on 747’s tend to signal . For Enterprise, the prototype Shuttle used by NASA to test the concept, one of those last trips came almost thirty years ago. After critical tests were completed Enterprise was retired then flown around the world to various...

May 1, 2025

The Supercar’s New Clothes

We love our supercars to death. We obsess over their top speeds and great power. But what is it like to actually use one? Over 500 miles of European motorway, we discover an inconvenient truth. The Apollo Command Module did not have a rear window. What the spacecraft had instead...

May 1, 2025

Watch All 135 Space Shuttle Launches At Once

From comes this spectacular video from showing all 135 of NASA's Space Shuttle launches simultaneously. It ably captures the drama, power, and danger of our ascent into space. The video starts as the final countdown begins, timed so that you can see the three main engines firing at approximately 6.6...

May 1, 2025

A Crazy Guy Just Jumped Out Of A Balloon At 96,000 Feet, Hit 536 MPH, And Landed

Skydiver Felix Baumgartner just accomplished a feat that adds to Red Bull's ever growing arsenal of extreme sports accomplishments. Baumgartner took a pressurized balloon to 96,640 feet and jumped out. He hit speeds of 536 MPH on the way down and in New Mexico. It's an improvement over . Our...

May 1, 2025

Famous Spaceships And The Cars That Are Just Like Them

If there's anyone reading this who hasn't pretended their car was a spaceship on a long, boring night drive in the middle of nowhere, then click that close box now. A dark road, the glow of your instruments, stars in the sky — why wouldn't you pretend to be in...

May 1, 2025

The Ford Raptor Goes Head To Head Against The Curiosity Mars Rover

Ford has released this very helpful guide comparing the new to the 2012 model NASA Curiosity Mars Rover, for those of you comparison shopping. Both are impressive vehicles, and this nice, tall-format chart really takes the guesswork out of a complex evaluation. I suspect most buyers in the Earth-centered market...

May 1, 2025

Live From NASA: Blogging The Curiosity Mars Rover Landing

We're hours away from humanity's most advanced robot explorer ever landing on another planet. Curiosity, the car-sized, six-wheeled mobile laboratory, will very soon slam into the Martian atmosphere, then be placed on the surface of the planet in a way never before tried. This rover has the potential to change...

May 1, 2025

Why It's Great We Send Robots To Mars And Why People Should Follow

While I was last night, I knew in the back of my head at some point there would be a particular comment posted. It's a comment that gets posted any time there's an article about space exploration anywhere. It may be trolling, but it's consistent and common enough to address....

May 1, 2025

Seven Reasons Curiosity Is The Baddest Rover Ever

giz-nasa-rover2-final While Curiosity was still flying through space, way before it , scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were busy working with a clone rover back on earth. In a simulation area called the Mars Yard, scientists put the duplicate Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) through a series of experiments to...

May 1, 2025

These NASA Video Games Are Pretty Damn Good

If there was the fun, cool uncle of government agencies, NASA would have to be it. Not only does he have an amazing job (landing robots on Mars), but Uncle Nasa also gives us cool gifts. Not like stupid Uncle Department of Agriculture, who's always trying to pawn off corn...

May 1, 2025

The Man In Charge of Moving The Shuttle Through LA Once Rolled A French Car

On September 20th, the 26th and final mission of the will be a perilous journey to that most strange region of space, Los Angeles. Yesterday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California Science Center President Jeffrey Rudolph held a press conference announcing the route and plans to get the spaceship...

May 1, 2025

NASA Prototype Lander Crashes Like A Drunk Robot, Then Explodes

As a nice counterpoint to the Curiosity landing, NASA today demonstrated they have the capacity to fail spectacularly as well. A prototype lander, , designed as a testbed for greener fuels, crashed today during a test flight. The prototype lander is about 10 feet in diameter and weighs 2,300 lbs....

May 1, 2025

These Are The Space Cars Of NASA

Cars –- they aren't just for Earth anymore! Proving that America still has mad space exploration skills, NASA sent a to research conditions on the Red Planet. But while the Curiosity has gotten a great deal of attention in the news lately, it isn't the first time we've sent a...

May 1, 2025

How To Build A Car On Mars

I'm pretty sure we're going to have a Mars colony one day. In fact, my retirement plans kind of hinge on it. I'm not so deluded that I think I'll be able to ship my beloved Beetle and over with me, so I'm going to have to pick up a...

May 1, 2025