"It is in the DNA of our great country to reach for the stars and explore. We must not stop."
It will be your generation that ultimately decides our nation's future in space... whether we linger here on the beach or set sail upon the vast ocean of space. If this video inspires you, I would encourage you to learn more by earning your Space Exploration merit badge.
Here's a cool new infographic from SPACE.com showing how SpaceX's Dragon capsule works. In December 2010, the Dragon became the first spacecraft ever placed in orbit and recovered by a private company. The first operational missions of the Dragon will be flown for NASA to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, but the spacecraft is designed to carry up to seven people or a combination of personnel and cargo to low Earth orbit (LEO).
On Monday, June 13, a prototype for the Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project lifted itself off the ground and flew up to 7 feet for 27 seconds. This marked the first free closed-loop flight of the project, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Applause broke out in the control room as the lander gently sat back down. Just one cool application of robotics technology!
Never before have images been taken from another spacecraft of a space shuttle berthed at the International Space Station (ISS). But on May 23rd, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli (@astro_paolo on Twitter) had the opportunity to take these historic shots of shuttle Endeavour docked at the orbiting outpost. The images, including HD video, were shot from a Russian Soyuz capsule as it maneuvered around the ISS. These views are the culmination of 36 space shuttle missions to build the space station over the past 12 years. NASA wanted to capture these images before retiring the shuttle fleet after one final flight in July.
