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79,433 pages · 13,741 images · since 1994 Browse A–Z Today in space history
Encyclopedia Astronautica The full story of spaceflight

Encyclopedia Astronautica

Sky & Earth In 1954 a grapefruit-sized meteorite smashed through the roof of a house in Sylacauga, Alabama, bounced off a radio and hit Ann Hodges on the hip as she napped on her couch, making her the first person known for certain to have been struck by a space rock Brendan Brown ·
Sky & EarthWhen Chris Hadfield came home from five months on the International Space Station in 2013, he said he could suddenly feel the weight of his own lips and tongue, and had to adjust the way he talkedExplorationIn 1968 a Soviet cosmonaut got within 200 metres of an empty Soyuz and burned almost all his fuel trying to dock, because it was upside down relative to him.Soyuz 3 pilot Georgy Beregovoy closed to within 200 m of the uncrewed Soyuz 2 on 26 October 1968 but failed to dock, using almost all of his orientation fuel without realising the target was upside down relative to his craft.Sky & EarthThe Moon looks bright white in the night sky, but its surface is actually about as dark as worn asphalt, reflecting only around 12 percent of the sunlight that hits it, and it only seems dazzling because it hangs against the total blackness of space
October 26

Today in space history

  1. 1962Ionosphere mission
  2. 1973Explorer 50
  3. 1995Meteorological mission
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Exploration

Rockets, missions and the people who flew them
Before Yuri Gagarin flew in 1961, the Soviet Union sent a life-size mannequin into orbit with a sign under his visor reading “dummy”, and so radio listeners wouldn’t mistake him for a real cosmonaut, he played a recording of a choir and a recipe for beetroot soupOn 24 October 1946 a camera mounted on a captured German V-2 rocket took the first photograph of Earth from space, from about 105 km over New Mexico
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Every rocket, spacecraft and crew, in one archive

79,433 pages and 13,741 images compiled since 1994, the reference NASA's own history office has pointed researchers to.