Uncategorized

On July 26, 2005, the space shuttle Discovery launched on the first return-to-flight mission following the Columbia disaster that killed seven crewmembers a little over two years earlier. A few seconds after launching from Kennedy Space Center, a huge bird flew straight into the top of the shuttle’s external fuel tank. The bird didn’t cause […]

Senegal has officially joined the Artemis Accords, marked by a signing ceremony held at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 2025. The event brought together key representatives from both NASA and Senegal, including Brian Hughes, NASA Chief of Staff Department of State Bureau of African Affairs Senior Bureau Official Jonathan Pratt; Maram Kairé,

On July 25, 1984, the Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to embark on a spacewalk, also known as an extravehicular activity EVA. She spent three hours and 35 minutes doing welding experiments outside Russia’s Salyut 7 space station with her colleague Vladimir Dzhanibekov. They were cutting and welding metal and testing out

On July 23, 1999, the space shuttle Columbia launched into orbit to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory. This space telescope can detect X-ray radiation emitted by things in the universe that are hot and have a lot of energy, like supernova explosions and black holes. When it launched, Chandra was the most sophisticated X-ray telescope

On July 22, 1972, a spacecraft landed on Venus The Soviet space probe Venera 8 was the second spacecraft to successfully execute a soft landing on the planet’s surface. Venera 8 spent 117 days traveling to Venus and only survived for 50 minutes before the planet’s harsh atmosphere got the best of its hardware. But

On July 21, 1961, NASA astronaut Gus Grissom completed the second successful human spaceflight mission for the United States of America. His suborbital flight in the Liberty Bell 7 capsule lasted 15 minutes and 30 seconds and reached an altitude of 103 nautical miles. Everything went according to plan until just after Grissom splashed down

On July 20, 1969, human beings walked on the moon for the very first time Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin exited their lunar lander and planted their moon boots on the lunar surface at about 11 p.m. EDT 0300 GMT on July 21. Armstrong led the way down the ladder. When he

On July 19, 1985, a high school teacher named Christa McAuliffe was selected to become the first American civilian to fly to space. McAuliffe won NASA’s Teacher in Space Project and was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to ride aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Vice President George H. W. Bush made the announcement on

On July 18, 1980, India launched its first satellite into orbit. This made India the seventh nation to launch an indigenously built satellite. The Rohini RS-1 satellite lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at 8 a.m. local time. It was a small, experimental satellite weighing only about 77 lbs. 35 kilograms, and its

The Government of Cabo Verde, in collaboration with SatNav Africa JPO, successfully hosted the Africa Satellite Navigation Conference Pre-Event from 16-17 July 2025 in Parque Tecnológico Arquipélago Digital de Cabo Verde. With the compelling theme Leveraging GNSS Technology for Enhanced Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems in Africa, the hybrid event drew hundreds of participants, including representatives