We invite you to Launch a Conversation with your friends and family about launches in American history and what was going on during those times.

In this guest blog, Dr. Elizabeth Kessler explores the contributions of the Hubble Space Telescope and how it has changed the way we envision our universe.

We are pleased to announce that the Sally K. Ride Papers, consisting of over 23 cubic feet (38,640 pages!) of archival material chronicling Ride’s career from the 1970s through the 2010s, have been fully scanned and are available digitally. Air and Space fans can help make them more accessible by transcribing them in the Smithsonian Transcription Center.

The Mars 2020 rover is scheduled to launch this summer, and today is a milestone in the mission: the Mars 2020 rover has finally gotten a name.

In 2020, February gets an extra day. Instead of 28 days, this year February will have 29 days. Almost everyone if familiar with the concept of leap year, but the reasoning behind it is a little complicated. Museum geologist Bob Craddock explores leap years in this new blog.

In the final episode of season 2, Emily, Nick, and Matt discuss the implications of tardigrades on the Moon, and why scientists are working hard to ensure that microbes from Earth aren’t contaminating our search for life in the solar system. 

Emily, Matt, and Nick unpack story behind their new favorite space movie (yes, it’s even better than Armageddon!).

Recent research conducted by the Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter (LRO) team indicates that moonquakes on our Moon were caused by active lunar faults -- meaning that the Moon is currently tectonically active and that the moonquakes are a result of the shrinking Moon. 

In this guest blog post, Chesley Bonestell expert Melvin Schuetz reflects on the Bonestell artwork "A Fog-Filled Canal on Mars."

This guest blog post by space artist Ron Miller explores the impact illustrator Chesley Bonestell had on his life, and recounts 50 years of telling Bonestell's story.