The Challenger disaster, which happened 40 years ago, is a stark reminder of the importance of listening to experts. The story begins with Bob Ebeling, an engineer at Morton Thiokol, who was deeply troubled by the idea of launching the space shuttle in cold weather. He and other engineers had data s
Judith Resnik, a brilliant engineer from Akron, made history as the second American woman in space. She flew aboard the Discovery in 1984, but her life was tragically cut short when the Challenger exploded in 1986. Resnik was always confident about the safety of space missions, even joking that the
Back in 1977, President Jimmy Carter was having some beef with NASA. He thought the space shuttle program was just a way to keep the agency alive, not a genuine need. Despite his skepticism, Carter ended up saving the space shuttle project, which became one of NASA's most famous vehicles. Plus, his
Have you ever wondered what happens to space robots once their space mission is over? Well, NASA's Robonaut-2, or R2 for short, found a new home at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Virginia. This humanoid robot, which looks like it's straight out of a sci-fi movie, was last seen ri
The California Science Center is celebrating a big achievement: the new home for space shuttle Endeavour has hit a new high! On Thursday, three steel beams were raised nearly 200 feet in the air to top off the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. This puts the center closer to its goal of being finis
