In 1984, NASA sent about 3,300 honeybees into space to test comb-building without gravity; the colony built about 31 square inches of honeycombIn 1984, honeybees traveled aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger for a unique student experiment. These bees successfully built honeycomb an...
24 Aug, 2026, 04.17 PM IST
In 1969, she helped Apollo 11 carrying Neil Armstrong land on the moon. Indiana woman wrote the code that made it happen. She was MIT's first female programmerMargaret Hamilton, a computer scientist from Indiana, played a crucial role in NASA’s Apollo programme by leading the team that developed t...
24 Aug, 2026, 02.32 PM IST
In 1975, Soviet Union sent a cannon to space and tested it from Salyut 3 station, just six months before US and Soviet astronauts met in orbit for the Apollo-Soyuz mission during the Cold WarIn January 1975, the Soviet Union fired a 23mm cannon from its Salyut 3 military space station as a test of its orbital defence system. The...
24 Aug, 2026, 12.07 PM IST
In 1966, Michael Collins lost a camera and a micrometeorite experiment during a Gemini X spacewalk; both drifted away into orbitDuring the Gemini X mission in 1966, astronaut Michael Collins faced setbacks when he lost both his camera and a scientific experiment duri...
23 Aug, 2026, 01.50 PM IST
After Apollo 11 returned to Earth in 1969, Neil Armstrong spent his 39th birthday behind a glass wall from his wife; NASA kept him in a 3-week quarantine while scientists investigated a Lunar threat that probably never existedApollo 11 astronauts underwent a three-week quarantine after returning from the Moon. This precaution was taken due to the unknown biologic...
23 Aug, 2026, 12.18 PM IST
In 1973, Skylab lost its heat shield and reached 130°F; NASA cooled the station with a parasol built from fishing rods and foil-like fabricIn 1973, Skylab, the United States' first space station, suffered from overheating just after its launch. Ingenious engineers quickly came ...
22 Aug, 2026, 06.30 PM IST
In 2004, NASA’s Genesis sample capsule crashed in Utah at up to 193 miles per hour; scientists later recovered valuable solar-wind samplesNASA's Genesis mission faced a dramatic mishap in Utah when its capsule crashed after gathering precious solar wind samples. The failure of...
22 Aug, 2026, 02.40 PM IST
In 2013, NASA beamed laser data from lunar orbit at 622 megabits per second, demonstrating faster space communications than radioIn 2013, NASA's Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration set a groundbreaking standard by achieving data transmission speeds of 622 megabits...
22 Aug, 2026, 02.30 PM IST
In 1965, NASA deliberately crashed Ranger 9 into the Moon, creating live TV from crater Alphonsus with more than 5,800 imagesOn March 24, 1965, Ranger 9 made a historic descent, sending back thousands of photos that effectively debunked Soviet assertions regarding...
22 Aug, 2026, 02.10 PM IST
NASA left a camera on the moon for 31 months; when Apollo 12 brought it home, scientists found bacteria that appeared to be aliveAfter 31 months on the moon, a bacterium discovered on the Surveyor III camera is believed to be a case of contamination. A thorough re-eva...
22 Aug, 2026, 01.20 PM IST
Trump pledges 'golden age' of space travelUS President Trump plans to boost American space travel and lunar missions. The United States aims to compete with China for a moon landing...
21 Aug, 2026, 05.39 PM IST
NASA is paying Rs 5 crore prize to solve a hidden space problem that requires no rocket scienceNASA has launched the Orbital Clarity Challenge, offering up to $500,000 to inventors who can develop affordable tools to measure the thin ...
21 Aug, 2026, 05.11 PM IST
In 1971, Apollo 15 secretly left a tiny aluminum astronaut on the moon; beside it was a plaque naming 14 dead American and Soviet space travelersIn 1971, a hidden aluminum tribute was installed on the Moon, commemorating the bravery of fourteen astronauts and cosmonauts who lost thei...
21 Aug, 2026, 02.00 PM IST
Rescue mission for aging NASA space telescope failsKatalyst's LINK craft was launched in early July to approach the observatory, also known as Swift, some 216 miles (347 km) in space, grap...
20 Aug, 2026, 08.11 AM IST
New NASA images show massive 60-foot crater created when SpaceX Falcon 9 stage hit the MoonNASA released new photographs of the SpaceX rocket crater on the Moon. These images were captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter space...
19 Aug, 2026, 09.06 PM IST
During Apollo, NASA fired grenades and crashed abandoned spacecraft into the Moon, measuring the tremors to investigate its hidden interiorDuring the Apollo missions, NASA cleverly detonated explosives on the Moon to investigate its seismic activity and inner structure. Seismom...
11 Aug, 2026, 06.01 PM IST
In 1970, NASA deliberately crashed Apollo 13’s rocket into the Moon; the impact made the lunar interior “ring” for over three hoursDespite facing a harrowing crisis, the Apollo 13 mission still managed to execute a scientific experiment. They intentionally crashed the u...
11 Aug, 2026, 05.57 PM IST