Aviation & Space Exploration Story Briefs

From ancient to modern times, people have studied "the heavens" and wondered "what's out there?" Technology helps us to take a closer look. Meet the pioneers of space and aviation in this collection of stories.

When the U.S. was finally able to send a teacher into space, successfully, more than 20 years had passed since Christa McAuliffe's tragic death aboard...

February 3, 1959, is known as "the day the music died" when Buddy Holly (22), Ritchie Valens (17) and J.P. ("The Big Bopper") Richardson (28) died whe...

The Trifid Nebula (also known as M20 and NGC 6514) is a favorite of amateur astronomers. Its name means "divided into three lobes."

On the 30th of June, 1908, a meteorite impacted the Tunguska area in Siberia.

Tyler Stanger was a flight instructor who owned and operated Stang-AIR based at Brackett Field in La Verne, California. He was flying with Cody Lidle ...

This is the type of aircraft - a U-2 "spy plane" - which Major Richard S. Heyser flew over Cuba when his photos revealed the the USSR was placing miss...

The V-2 was developed by Hitler's team of rocket scientists, built by slave laborers and first used in September of 1944. The damage they caused, both...

Germany frequently used mobile launchers (instead of fixed sites) for the V-2, making it very difficult for Allied bombers to find - and eliminate - l...

What is the Milky Way? Our solar system, including the Earth, is part of a larger galaxy called the Milky Way.

This nineteenth-century illustration depicts William Parsons’ 3-foot telescope which the astronomer, also known as Lord Rosse, had constructed i...

William Parsons, an avid astronomer, owned the world's largest telescope of the 19th century. Measuring 72-inches, the huge telescope was known as the...

Historians believe that Lt. Col William Thaw was the first American to engage in aerial combat during the war.

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