Watch how the Space Shuttle launched

Take a virtual tour of the Space Shuttle

This interactive 3D experience allows users to navigate the Space Shuttle virtually, moving through the cockpit, crew cabin, airlock, and payload bay to view the vehicle's layout and systems from the inside.

Watch the Challenger disaster unfold in real time

On January 28, 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart just 73 seconds after liftoff. This live CNN broadcast captures the tragedy as it happened—second by second—showing the shock and confusion of one of NASA's darkest moments.

A modified Boeing 747 ferried Space Shuttles across the country

NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft—two specially modified Boeing 747s—were used to transport Space Shuttles between landing sites and launch facilities, playing a critical logistical role throughout the shuttle program.

The Space Launch System: NASA's most powerful rocket ever

The Space Launch System is intended to be the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA. Possible missions include returning to the moon and perhaps even reaching Mars. This speculative and mostly silent video uses animation to explore the inner workings of the SLS, showing it launching and in space flight.

Explore what Challenger was supposed to do on its mission

STS-51L's planned seven-day mission included deploying satellites, studying Comet Halley, conducting fluid dynamics experiments, and broadcasting live lessons from orbit—routine scientific and educational tasks that were never carried out after the shuttle was lost shortly after launch.

View the docket of future SpaceX launches

SpaceX has established an efficient schedule for launches of ISS crew shuttles and Starlink satellites, with blastoffs occurring just under once every four days in 2023—a pace that has since accelerated as the company has won more contracts.

Watch a supercut of the various iterations of SpaceX's Starship rocket

The first version, called Starhopper, was named with the vision of developing rocket stages that could safely land after use, enabling reusability to cut costs. The endeavor was an enormous engineering challenge that required years of testing.

See a timeline of the space race

This interactive timeline chronicles the space race from its Cold War origins to the moon landing, highlighting key figures, pivotal moments, and rapid technological advancements. It combines archival photos, video, and links to related material.

The basic science of rockets

How do rockets work? What is the science behind a rocket launch? How does a rocket go into space? In this short and simple video, we discuss the science of rocket propulsion and what takes to get these vehicles into orbit.

Explore a series of NASA visualizations tracking satellites and space debris

The series illustrates the population of objects orbiting Earth as of February 2024, using data from US Space Command. These include active satellites, defunct spacecraft, rocket bodies and debris fragments larger than roughly 10 centimeters in low Earth orbit.

Explore a NASA timeline of the entire Voyager mission

This infographic leads users through the entire Voyager mission timeline, starting at its conception and moving through launch, to each destination, and finally, the Voyagers' crossing into interstellar space.

Most elements of the International Space Station were installed over two decades

Space shuttles delivered storage carriers, docking compartments, airlocks, solar arrays, and labs, which were assembled in low Earth orbit. The station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm, alongside maneuvering spacewalkers, has assisted with this assembly since its installation in 2001.

A data visualization exploring six decades of spacewalks

Astronauts' initial small step for mankind may standout, but how many steps have we taken so far? Space and moonwalks further our understanding of spaceflight, celestial bodies, and space itself. Created to resemble a constellation map, this chart...

Watch how dozens of everyday human tasks are performed in space

This playlist features clips of astronauts aboard the International Space Station explaining how they cook, eat, sleep, and conduct research in microgravity. Other activities to pass the time, including watering plants and playing soccer, are also shown.

Overcoming industry skeptics, SpaceX provides low-cost, high-publicity spaceflights

From recovering and reusing rocket components to launching a mannequin and Tesla into orbit to the tune of David Bowie's "Starman," Elon Musk drove public interest and government contracts to his company as he transformed space launches into spectacles.

Space tourism opportunities have been explored since the end of the Apollo era

In the 1970s, Rockwell International, a NASA contractor, and others investigated manufacturing passenger modules that could fit into the Space Shuttle's payload bay. NASA also opened spaceflights to nongovernment professionals, but many such programs were ended after the Challenger disaster, which killed the first Teacher in Space participant.

Watch a firsthand account of Hubble's first service mission to repair its faulty mirror

Hubble senior project scientist David Leckrone recalls initial public ridicule over the microscopic manufacturing error that put NASA's reputation at stake. In this behind-the-scenes interview, he breaks down the innovative fix deployed by space shuttle astronauts during Hubble's first servicing mission.

Watch a tour of a 3D visualization of the Pillars of Creation

Combining observational data from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes has allowed NASA scientists to create a multiwavelength model of the star-forming region at the heart of the Eagle nebula.

Watch the hypersonic flight of a reusable aircraft

Stratolaunch completed a second hypersonic flight of its Talon-A2 autonomous vehicle, showcasing reusable hypersonic aircraft capabilities. The aircraft carried payloads and Department of Defense experiments while achieving Mach 5 speeds.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Apollo 11’s design relied on shedding parts to reach, land on, and leave the moon

Despite Apollo 11 starting as a 3,000-ton spacecraft, the only part of it that returned to Earth was the small command module, which splashed down in the Pacific Ocean carrying three astronauts and moon rocks.

Visualize chaos with the orbit of three or more objects bound by gravity

In this simulation, users can simulate randomized and preset orbital configurations for up to 10 celestial bodies to observe the system's evolution in an interactive 3D space. The same configurations can produce different orbital behavior—a feature of chaos—by making small changes to an object's mass under advanced settings.

Visualize the components of fireworks

This article provides animated diagrams depicting how different parts of fireworks function. The elements work together through timed mechanisms to produce desired effects.

Gregory Jarvis was an Air Force veteran who flew as a civilian payload specialist on Challenger

A Hughes Aircraft engineer with a background in electrical engineering, payload specialist Gregory Jarvis was assigned to STS-51L to study how fluids and satellite propellants behave in weightlessness during shuttle maneuvers.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Space tourism rockets emit up to 100 times more CO₂ per passenger than airplanes

Rocket launches release significant amounts of water vapor, nitrous oxide, and rocket propellants, which generate greenhouse gases and air pollutants. High-altitude emissions can persist for years, affecting the ozone layer.

A timelapse of sprouting seeds

Germination is the process where an organism sprouts from a seed or spore. This timelapse captures the process in an inspiring, two-minute video so you can see the whole story of the seed quickly.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.