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It may not have a cantina, but this Virginia spaceport is firing up its local economy

Jul 13, 2023
Last year, the world set a Space Age record by launching more than 180 rockets into orbit. And every launch pumps money into local coffers.
The control room in NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. About 2,000 people work at the center.
Kimberly Adams/Marketplace

How the "new guys" of NASA's Group 8 opened up space travel to the rest of us

Feb 7, 2023
In the 1970s, NASA welcomed women and minority astronauts for the first time. Meredith Bagby's new book explores the impact that they made in the world of space travel.
As the first women and minorities in America's space program, NASA's Group 8 — some of whom are seen here — were a whole new face for space travel.
NASA/AFP via Getty Images

The new moon mission

Nov 27, 2019
This week in Spain, European research ministers are discussing how to allocate as much as $14 billion over three years to the European Space Agency.
Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Amazon wants to deliver broadband from orbit

Apr 8, 2019
Amazon recently confirmed plans to provide internet connectivity from orbit.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at a press conference in Santa Monica, California.
David McNew/Getty Images

GPS glitch could confuse navigation devices on April 6

Mar 18, 2019
Older equipment may lose its grip on space and time when its clocks roll over.
A taxi driver uses a navigator while driving in Tokyo.
TARO KARIBE/AFP/Getty Images

U.S. space economy set to blast off in 2019

Jan 2, 2019
Will America be leading the way?
Virgin Galactic's SpaceshipTwo takes off for a suborbital test flight of the VSS Unity on December 13, 2018, in Mojave, California. 
GENE BLEVINS/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

One of the few photographs of Neil Armstrong on the moon shows him working on his space craft on the lunar surface. The 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission is celebrated July 20, 1999.
NASA/Newsmakers/Getty Images

When Hollywood producers need to get the future right, they call a futurist

Sep 13, 2018
Hulu releases "The First" tomorrow, a series set in the 2030s about the first human mission to Mars.
Hulu's "The First" imagines what the first mission to Mars might be like.
Courtesy of Paul Schiraldi

What "Armageddon" got right about space drilling, and what it (mostly) didn't

Aug 16, 2018
Little about the 1998 blockbuster is true to life, but mining asteroids and comets is "humanity’s future, I’m pretty convinced of that," one expert says.
From left, Steve Buscemi, Will Patton, Bruce Willis, Michael Duncan, Ben Affleck, and Owen Wilson are on a mission to save Earth from an asteroid in “Armageddon.”
Getty Images/Handout