NASA Archives

Mars Probe Photo. Image Credit: Banana Nano.

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In September 1999 a NASA spacecraft that had flown 416 million miles to Mars was torn apart in the planet’s atmosphere — not by an explosion or bad luck, but by a units mix-up, one team using imperial pounds where another expected metric newtons, the same mistake that strips a bolt in a home garage.

It traveled 416 million miles to reach Mars. Then it flew too low into the atmosphere and was torn apart in minutes. The Mars...

Harry J. KazianisJune 21, 2026

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In September 2017, after 20 years in space, NASA deliberately flew the Cassini spacecraft into Saturn and let it burn up like a meteor — not because it had failed, but because it had found a possibly habitable ocean on the moon Enceladus that a dead spacecraft could one day contaminate.

Twenty years in space. Thirteen years orbiting Saturn. More than 450,000 images. And then, on September 15, 2017, NASA deliberately flew the Cassini spacecraft...

Harry J. KazianisJune 21, 2026

Artist's rendering of NASA's Galileo spacecraft flying past Jupiter's moon Io. Galileo made multiple close approaches to the volcanically active moon during its time at Jupiter, including a first pass in Dec. 1995, during its arrival in the Jupiter system.

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NASA spent 14 years keeping the Galileo spacecraft alive through a jammed antenna and brutal radiation, then in 2003 deliberately flew it into Jupiter to be destroyed — not because it had failed, but because it had found a probable ocean on Europa it could no longer be allowed to contaminate.

A jammed antenna. A radiation dose far beyond what it was built to survive. A decade of improvised repairs from hundreds of millions of...

Harry J. KazianisJune 21, 2026

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Voyager 1 launched in 1977 on a four-year mission and is still flying 49 years later, now so far away that in November 2026 a radio signal will take a full 24 hours to reach it — so when engineers say “good morning” on a Monday, the answer won’t arrive until Wednesday.

A four-year mission that has lasted 49 years. A spacecraft 15 billion miles away, running on 1970s computers and a dying plutonium battery. In...

Harry J. KazianisJune 21, 2026

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On 22 October 1975 the Soviet probe Venera 9 took the first photograph ever made from the surface of another planet, and half of it is missing because a lens cap would not come off — the same trivial failure that went on to beat the next three landers, two of which crossed the solar system and came home blind.

They beat the heat, the pressure, and the sulfuric acid. What kept beating them was the lid over the lens. On October 22, 1975,...

Harry J. KazianisJune 21, 2026

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On 15 December 1970 a titanium sphere named Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land on another planet, but its signal was so weak the Soviet control room logged it as another dead probe, until a radio astronomer replaying the tapes weeks later found 23 minutes of data buried in the noise.

The first machine ever to land on another planet was written off as dead. A torn parachute, a capsule toppled on its side with...

Harry J. KazianisJune 21, 2026

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A Soviet spacecraft built in 1972 to land on Venus finally made its landing 53 years later, on 10 May 2025 — except it came down on Earth, carried through a fiery reentry intact by the same titanium shell its engineers had built to survive the hottest planet in the solar system.

A titanium sphere built to land on Venus. A timer set wrong. Fifty-three years stranded in orbit around the wrong planet. When the toughest...

Harry J. KazianisJune 20, 2026

Russian Lander on Venus Artist Rendition

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On 5 March 1982, the Soviet Venera 14 lander reached the surface of Venus, ejected the protective cap from its camera lens, photographed the surrounding terrain — and then lowered its mechanical soil-testing arm directly onto the discarded lens cap, returning a clean measurement of the compressibility of Soviet plastic instead of Venusian rock.

The Soviet Union launched Venera 13 and Venera 14 in late 1981 with the objective of surviving long enough on the surface of Venus...

Harrison KassJune 20, 2026

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

NASA test pilot Neil Armstrong was one of seven men secretly chosen to fly the X-20 Dyna-Soar, a reusable Air Force spaceplane cancelled in 1963 two decades before the Space Shuttle — and the orbital mission it was designed for is now flown by the Space Force’s X-37B and China’s Shenlong

Summary and Key Points on the X-20: Years before the Space Shuttle, the US Air Force had designed a reusable, piloted spaceplane that launched...

Harry J. KazianisMay 31, 2026

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

In 2004 a twelve-foot unmanned NASA aircraft hit Mach 9.6 and set an air-breathing speed record that still stands today — then America cancelled the Mach 15 machine meant to come next and spent twenty years watching Russia and China field the hypersonic weapons it walked away from

Summary and Key Points: On November 16, 2004, a twelve-foot unmanned NASA aircraft lit a scramjet with no moving parts and rode it to...

Harry J. KazianisMay 31, 2026

19FortyFive

All posts tagged "NASA"

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In September 2017, after 20 years in space, NASA deliberately flew the Cassini spacecraft into Saturn and let it burn up like a meteor — not because it had failed, but because it had found a possibly habitable ocean on the moon Enceladus that a dead spacecraft could one day contaminate.

Uncategorized

NASA spent 14 years keeping the Galileo spacecraft alive through a jammed antenna and brutal radiation, then in 2003 deliberately flew it into Jupiter to be destroyed — not because it had failed, but because it had found a probable ocean on Europa it could no longer be allowed to contaminate.

Uncategorized

Voyager 1 launched in 1977 on a four-year mission and is still flying 49 years later, now so far away that in November 2026 a radio signal will take a full 24 hours to reach it — so when engineers say “good morning” on a Monday, the answer won’t arrive until Wednesday.

Uncategorized

Uncategorized

On 15 December 1970 a titanium sphere named Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land on another planet, but its signal was so weak the Soviet control room logged it as another dead probe, until a radio astronomer replaying the tapes weeks later found 23 minutes of data buried in the noise.

Uncategorized

A Soviet spacecraft built in 1972 to land on Venus finally made its landing 53 years later, on 10 May 2025 — except it came down on Earth, carried through a fiery reentry intact by the same titanium shell its engineers had built to survive the hottest planet in the solar system.

Uncategorized

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

NASA test pilot Neil Armstrong was one of seven men secretly chosen to fly the X-20 Dyna-Soar, a reusable Air Force spaceplane cancelled in 1963 two decades before the Space Shuttle — and the orbital mission it was designed for is now flown by the Space Force’s X-37B and China’s Shenlong

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

In 2004 a twelve-foot unmanned NASA aircraft hit Mach 9.6 and set an air-breathing speed record that still stands today — then America cancelled the Mach 15 machine meant to come next and spent twenty years watching Russia and China field the hypersonic weapons it walked away from

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