Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
The Commercialization of Space: The Final Frontier
How the aeronautical industry’s profit motive achieved escape velocity.
Astronauts
The Texanist
May 5, 2019
The Texanist: Have Texans Played a Big Role in the Space Program?
A Dallas man knows all about the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. It’s the people he wonders about.
Food & Drink
April 18, 2018
Tacos in Space! How NASA Feeds Its Astronauts
NASA’s food scientists in Houston keep the astronauts on the International Space Station healthy and well fed. Thermostabilized seafood gumbo, anyone?
The Daily Post
April 16, 2015
A Teenage Girl From Houston Wrote Her Astronaut Dad a Note He Could See From Space
More like awwwstronaut, right?
Business
September 23, 2014
SpaceX Plans To Send People From Brownsville To Mars In Order To Save Mankind
Elon Musk has some big plans.
January 21, 2013
John Glenn’s Historic Orbit, 50 Years Out
On February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth.
True Crime
January 20, 2013
Lust in Space
The lovesick antics of diapered astronaut Lisa Nowak are some combination of funny and sad but seemingly not revealing of anything larger, until you realize that her tragic, tabloidy breakdown says everything you need to know about NASA’s many troubles.
Web Exclusive
April 30, 2010
Goodnight Moon
Forty years ago, the attention to space exploration was constant. And the faces of the exploration gave rise to a group of larger than life individuals—the astronauts.
The Culture
June 30, 2006
Eileen Collins
“It’s funny: I’ve never been scared on a shuttle mission. It’s just the nature of the job. You’re busy, you’re focused, you’re well trained, and you go, ‘You know, if I’m going to die, there’s nothing I can do about it.’”
Books
April 1, 2006
Liftoff!
In this exclusive excerpt from Stephen Harrigan’s new novel, Challenger Park, a female astronaut confronts mommy-track issues on the way to outer space.
Film & TV
August 31, 1996
Film • Al Reinert and William Broyles, Jr.
Scripting success.
Art
November 1, 1984
Tiptoeing On the Ocean of Storms
What astronaut Alan Bean saw on the moon changed his life. Now, with paint and canvas, he’s trying to let the rest of us see it too.
News & Politics
July 1, 1981
Space Cadet
Astronauts used to be dashing pilots. Now they’re doctors, scientists, and . . . sanitary engineers.
News & Politics
June 30, 1979
Moon Struck
Ten years ago the Apollo astronauts, technicians and scientists all, landed on the Moon and touched what poets only dreamed. But that touch changed their lives.