NASA Archives

Venera 13 Venus Probe Creative Commons Photo

Aerospace & Defense

The Soviet Union Soft-Landed 8 Venera Spacecraft on the Surface of Venus Between 1970 and 1982, in 870 Degrees Fahrenheit and 92 Times Earth’s Atmospheric Pressure. The United States Has Never Landed on Venus Once.

Ninety-two bars is roughly what you feel 3,000 feet underwater. Soviet engineers answered it by building what were effectively robotic deep-sea vessels aimed at...

Harrison KassSeptember 12, 2026

Venera 14 Probe Image Creative Commons Photo

Aerospace & Defense

On March 5, 1982, the Soviet Venera 14 Lander Survived 870 Degrees Fahrenheit and 92 Times Earth’s Atmospheric Pressure to Reach the Surface of Venus. Its Soil Instrument Deployed Exactly as Designed and Measured the Camera Lens Cap the Spacecraft Had Just Ejected.

Perseverance and Curiosity have spent years on Mars choosing targets and repositioning instruments. Venera 14 had under an hour before Venus destroyed it. Every...

Harrison KassSeptember 11, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

NASA’s X-43D Was Designed to Hold Mach 15 — About 11,000 Miles per Hour, 3 Miles Every Second — for 30 Seconds of Powered Flight. Development Was to Begin in Fiscal Year 2005, Run 4 Years, and End in 3 Flights a Year Apart. Not One Vehicle Was Ever Built.

Ninety miles in half a minute. The X-43D would have been an unmanned, hydrogen-fueled scramjet demonstrator built by NASA and Boeing, with active cooling...

Brandon WeichertSeptember 11, 2026

The X-43A was a small experimental research aircraft designed to flight-demonstrate the technology of airframe-integrated supersonic ramjet or "scramjet" propulsion at hypersonic speeds above Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. Its scramjet engine is an air-breathing engine in which the airflow through the engine remains supersonic.

Aerospace & Defense

NASA Spent About $230,000,000 Over 8 Years and Flew the X-43A 3 Times. Its Scramjet Held Mach 9.68 for About 10 Seconds on 16 November 2004, and the Funding Ended Within Weeks — Before the Team Had Published the Results.

On 16 November 2004 a 12-foot NASA research aircraft separated from a booster at almost Mach 10 over the Pacific, lit a hydrogen-fueled scramjet,...

Harry J. KazianisSeptember 10, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

The US Space Force X-37B Spaceplane Is 29 Feet Long, Weighs 11,000 Pounds and Has a Payload Bay 7 Feet Long. Nobody Outside the Program Has Ever Been Told What Goes Inside It.

The X-37B is 29 feet long with a 15-foot wingspan, weighs 11,000 pounds, and has a payload bay about 7 feet long. It launches...

Harrison KassSeptember 9, 2026

F-16XL fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Aerospace & Defense

F-16XL Fighter Had 27 Hardpoints and Could Carry Twice the Payload of a Standard F-16 But Lost the Competition to the F-15E

General Dynamics took the lightweight F-16, gave it a cranked-arrow delta wing with 120 percent more area, raised the hardpoint count from 9 to...

Harrison KassSeptember 7, 2026

Space and Technology

A Russian 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.

At around one in the morning on April 3, 1972, four red-hot titanium spheres fell out of the sky onto farmland near Ashburton on...

Harry J. KazianisSeptember 7, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

NASA X-43A Flew at Mach 9.6 and 110,000 Feet — No Air-Breathing Aircraft Has Gone Faster in the 22 Years Since

The fastest air-breathing aircraft ever flown was twelve feet long, weighed about 3,300 pounds, carried nobody, and was designed to be thrown away. On...

Steve BalestrieriSeptember 7, 2026

Artist's Concept of Voyager. NASA Photo.

Aerospace & Defense

Voyager 2 Reached Uranus in January 1986 and Neptune in August 1989. Four Decades Later it Remains Humanity’s Only Close Look at Either Planet

In 1977, NASA launched two spacecraft during an ultra-rare window of celestial mechanics that humanity would not experience again for roughly 175 years. The...

Harrison KassAugust 30, 2026

Aerospace & Defense

80,000 Feet and We Have ‘Cracks’: The SR-71 Blackbird Could Hit Mach 3 and Fly to the Edge of Space but the Titanium Skin That Made That All Possible Faced 1,000 Degree Temps

SR-71 Blackbird engineers found that spot-welded titanium parts made in summer were failing early in service, while parts welded in winter held up. Nothing...

Steve BalestrieriAugust 29, 2026

19FortyFive

All posts tagged "NASA"

Aerospace & Defense

The Soviet Union Soft-Landed 8 Venera Spacecraft on the Surface of Venus Between 1970 and 1982, in 870 Degrees Fahrenheit and 92 Times Earth’s Atmospheric Pressure. The United States Has Never Landed on Venus Once.

Aerospace & Defense

On March 5, 1982, the Soviet Venera 14 Lander Survived 870 Degrees Fahrenheit and 92 Times Earth’s Atmospheric Pressure to Reach the Surface of Venus. Its Soil Instrument Deployed Exactly as Designed and Measured the Camera Lens Cap the Spacecraft Had Just Ejected.

Aerospace & Defense

NASA’s X-43D Was Designed to Hold Mach 15 — About 11,000 Miles per Hour, 3 Miles Every Second — for 30 Seconds of Powered Flight. Development Was to Begin in Fiscal Year 2005, Run 4 Years, and End in 3 Flights a Year Apart. Not One Vehicle Was Ever Built.

Aerospace & Defense

NASA Spent About $230,000,000 Over 8 Years and Flew the X-43A 3 Times. Its Scramjet Held Mach 9.68 for About 10 Seconds on 16 November 2004, and the Funding Ended Within Weeks — Before the Team Had Published the Results.

Aerospace & Defense

The US Space Force X-37B Spaceplane Is 29 Feet Long, Weighs 11,000 Pounds and Has a Payload Bay 7 Feet Long. Nobody Outside the Program Has Ever Been Told What Goes Inside It.

Aerospace & Defense

F-16XL Fighter Had 27 Hardpoints and Could Carry Twice the Payload of a Standard F-16 But Lost the Competition to the F-15E

Space and Technology

A Russian 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.

Aerospace & Defense

NASA X-43A Flew at Mach 9.6 and 110,000 Feet — No Air-Breathing Aircraft Has Gone Faster in the 22 Years Since

Aerospace & Defense

Voyager 2 Reached Uranus in January 1986 and Neptune in August 1989. Four Decades Later it Remains Humanity’s Only Close Look at Either Planet

Aerospace & Defense

80,000 Feet and We Have ‘Cracks’: The SR-71 Blackbird Could Hit Mach 3 and Fly to the Edge of Space but the Titanium Skin That Made That All Possible Faced 1,000 Degree Temps

Trending

Recent Posts

Archives