Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

All posts tagged "NASA"

Space Shuttle Discover at the Smithsonian 19FortyFive Original Photo from 2025 Space Shuttle Discover at the Smithsonian 19FortyFive Original Photo from 2025

Space and Technology

Returning from orbit, the Space Shuttle hit the atmosphere at 25 times the speed of sound and wrapped itself in plasma hot enough to melt steel — and the only thing between that fire and the astronauts inside was a skin of silica tiles so good at shedding heat you could pull one glowing from a furnace and hold it in your bare hand.

Coming home from orbit, the Space Shuttle slammed into the upper atmosphere at 25 times the speed of sound, compressing the air ahead of...

June 26, 2026
Apollo 11 Command Module 19FortyFive Original Photo from the Smithsonian Apollo 11 Command Module 19FortyFive Original Photo from the Smithsonian

Space and Technology

While Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon in July 1969, a Soviet robot was already circling overhead, racing to drill the lunar surface and rush its own samples back to Earth before Apollo 11 could splash down — until it crashed into a mountainside in Mare Crisium with the whole secret race nearly unknown to the public.

The story of Luna 15 is one of the great "what ifs" of the Space Race, and one most Americans have never heard. While...

June 26, 2026
Mars NASA Landers Mars NASA Landers

Space and Technology

NASA’s twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity were each built to last 90 days, but one drove the surface for six years and the other for almost 15 — kept alive by Martian winds that randomly cleaned their solar panels — until a planet-wide dust storm finally silenced Opportunity, whose last message read: “My battery is low, and it’s getting dark.”

NASA's twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity were each built to last 90 days. Kept alive by Martian winds that cleaned their solar panels,...

June 26, 2026
Voyager 2 Moving at Top Speed in Space Voyager 2 Moving at Top Speed in Space

Uncategorized

Voyager 2 is the fastest object humanity has ever launched into deep space, moving at 34,000 miles an hour — faster than a rifle bullet — and yet after nearly 50 years it would still need 75,000 more to reach the nearest star, a paradox that shows why crossing between stars will take something far stranger than a rocket.

Voyager 2 is one of the greatest engineering achievements in history. Launched in 1977, it visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune before sailing on...

June 25, 2026
Soviet Probe Crashing on Venus Soviet Probe Crashing on Venus

Uncategorized

In December 1978 the Soviet Union dropped two probes into the clouds of Venus carrying an instrument named “Thunderstorm,” built to find out whether the planet had lightning — and nearly 50 years later, the data those landers radioed back is still the best evidence anyone has, because every spacecraft sent since has failed to settle whether Venus storms at all.

When the Soviet Union sent two probes plunging into the atmosphere of Venus in December 1978, they carried an instrument named "Groza," the Russian...

June 25, 2026
Venus USSR Probe Venus USSR Probe

Uncategorized

The Soviet Union launched nearly 30 spacecraft at Venus and became the only nation ever to land on its surface and send back pictures — color photographs of a scorched volcanic plain under a yellow-green sky, shot in the few dozen minutes before the heat and pressure destroyed every probe that took them.

Exploring Venus is extremely challenging. A landing probe or lander must withstand crushing pressure, with atmospheric pressure roughly 90 times Earth’s, equivalent to being...

June 24, 2026
Soviet Union Buran Space Shuttle Soviet Union Buran Space Shuttle

Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security

In November 1988 the Soviet Union flew its own space shuttle, Buran, into orbit and landed it completely on autopilot with no crew aboard — something NASA’s shuttle never did — and then flew it exactly once, because within three years the country that built it no longer existed.

In November 1988 the Soviet Union flew its own space shuttle. Buran reached orbit, circled the Earth twice, and landed itself completely on autopilot,...

June 23, 2026

Trending

OUTBRAIN_19fortyfive.com JavaScript ADCODE END--->