Located at NASA’s Sonny Carter Training Facility near Johnson Space Center (JSC), the NBL serves as the perfect training center for astronauts as they prepare for their spaceflight missions. Although astronauts do not achieve true weightlessness in the NBL, the simulations do provide each crew member with a solid spacewalking foundation which better prepares them for the extravehicular activities (EVAs) they will conduct in zero gravity. 

The NBL isn’t your average pool. It measures 202 ft. long, 102 ft. wide, and 40 ft. deep, holding approximately 6.2 million gallons of water! It’s also split into two sections so that simultaneous training sessions can occur. 

In today’s photo gallery, scroll through some of our favorite images of the NBL!

Learn more about this unique astronaut training center by solving space or watching this Thought Leader Series presentation!

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For more than half a century, men and women have lived and worked in space to learn more about the Earth and our solar system, and to study the effects of zero gravity on the human body. Now, astronauts are preparing for humanity’s next giant leap – a return to the Moon and a push to Mars.

In today’s photo gallery, take a look back at some of these brave explorers who have boldly traveled into space for the good of all humankind, and don’t forget to learn more about them in our International Space Station Gallery during your next visit!

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In our new Spacecraft Spotlight blog series, we are featuring different spacecraft and highlighting their unique features and significant contributions to the history of space exploration. This month we are spotlighting the space shuttle, the world’s first reusable spacecraft.

NASA’s Space Shuttle Program at a glance

• First shuttle launch: Columbia, April 12, 1981
• Final shuttle launch: Atlantis, July 21, 2011
• Total miles traveled: 542,398,878 miles
• Total orbits: 21,152 orbits
• Total missions flown: 135 missions

The space shuttle is one of NASA’s most iconic spacecrafts. It launched like a rocket, but landed like a plane. The shuttle was in a word, revolutionary.

Its re-usability marked a first for human spacecraft, but the shuttle did more than make history. It captured the hearts and minds of people all around the world. No one had ever seen anything like NASA’s space shuttle. It seemed to have jumped right out of a science-fiction story!

NASA built five shuttle orbiters for human spaceflight – Challenger, Endeavour, Discovery, Atlantis, and Columbia. A sixth prototype orbiter, Enterprise, was used in glide tests prior to the first shuttle flight.

From helping construct the International Space Station (ISS) to launching the Hubble Space Telescope, the shuttle accomplished much during its 30-year career. Many scientific investigations were conducted onboard, and the invaluable knowledge gained from their results has improved life in space and on Earth.

The shuttle stood out in many ways from traditional spacecraft. Its large cargo bay allowed for bigger payloads, and since it was reusable, it offered a more economic option for flying human spaceflight missions. It could also accommodate more crew members. While Apollo capsules could carry three astronauts, the shuttle could carry up to eight!

And the shuttle broke through boundaries, bringing together diverse crews from all over the world, across all backgrounds. It was the shuttle that flew the first American woman and African-American in space, as well as the first teacher. The shuttle fostered international collaboration and made space more accessible.

While its time has come and gone, it is hard to forget NASA’s space shuttle, which left a huge impact on the history of human space exploration and pushed the limits of human space travel. The retired shuttles are housed at their final destinations at museums across America where people from all over the globe travel to see them.

The shuttle still lives on with NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), which will utilize the remaining inventory of RS-25 flight engines (once used to power the shuttle) to power the first four SLS missions!

Learn more about the space shuttle here.

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From NASA’s hidden figures to the promise of landing the first person of color on the lunar surface with Artemis, African-Americans have a rich history in human space exploration – past, present, and future.

In honor of Black History Month, we created a gallery featuring some of these African-American trailblazers below:

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Want more Black history? Try taking our Black History Month Trivia quizzes, read about 3 African-American space pioneers, or learn more about NASA’s African-American astronauts. You can also watch the NASA clip below to see just how important a role Black history has played in human space exploration.

The post Celebrating Black History Month appeared first on Space Center Houston.

Through the decades, rockets have been modified and improved, built bigger, faster, and more powerful. They have launched astronauts, scientific instruments, experiments, and spacecraft that are still exploring deep space.

In today’s photo gallery, take a look back on some of these impressive shots of rocket launches, and don’t forget to stop by our SpaceX Falcon 9 booster exhibit during your next visit!

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In our new Spacecraft Spotlight blog series, we are featuring different spacecraft and highlighting their unique features and significant contributions to the history of space exploration. This week we are spotlighting Explorer 1, America’s first satellite.

Following the two successful Sputnik launches by the Soviet Union in 1957, America felt mounting pressure to launch a satellite of its own. After a failed first attempt later that year, the United States needed its confidence restored.

Given just 90 days to develop and build the satellite, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California rose to the challenge. On Jan. 31, 1958, Explorer 1 launched, carried into space by a Jupiter-C rocket, which was a modified Redstone ballistic missile.

Explorer 1 became the first American satellite to orbit the Earth and the first to make a scientific discovery from space. With the successful launch of Explorer 1, the space race began.

Though Explorer 1 stopped transmitting just a few months after launch, on May 23, 1958, it remained orbiting the Earth until March 31, 1970, when it burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. According to NASA’s JPL, Explorer 1 orbited the Earth a total of 58,376 times.

Image credits: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center Collection

The first scientific discovery from space

Explorer 1 carried the very first scientific instruments into space. The primary payload was Dr. James van Allen’s cosmic ray detector – a Geiger counter. It was designed and built by van Allen, who headed the University of Iowa’s physics department.

The device, which took up over a third of the satellite’s total length, was designed by the physicist to quantify the radiation surrounding the Earth in orbit.

Van Allen’s science instrument led to a significant discovery – a belt of intense radiation trapped by Earth’s magnetic field. The Explorer 3 mission helped to confirm his belt theory, and later missions like Explorer 4 and Pioneer 3 provided more data that helped van Allen to discover a second, outer radiation belt. Together, these belts were named the Van Allen radiation belts, after the man who discovered them.

To this day, scientists are still trying to understand the van Allen radiation belts since such intense radiation can damage electronics, potentially jeopardizing spacecraft and critical electronics on future missions.

The success of Explorer 1 and subsequent satellites helped pave the way for the creation of NASA, which officially opened its doors within the same year as the launch of America’s first satellite.

NASA has continued to bring science into space and has made countless scientific discoveries since the launch of America’s first spacecraft, continuing to build off Explorer 1’s foundation.

Learn more about the Van Allen radiation belts and Explorer 1 here.

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Retired NASA astronaut Michael “Rich” Clifford died recently due to complications from Parkinson’s Disease. He was 69.

Clifford went to space three times in his NASA career, spending 27 days and more than 665 hours in orbit. He also was the first NASA astronaut to make a spacewalk while docked to a space station.

NASA career

Clifford was selected as an astronaut in 1990, after graduating from the United States Military Academy and Georgia Tech. He was also a Master Army Aviator who had more than 3,400 flight hours before his selection. Clifford flew into space as part of three space shuttle missions, STS-53 in 1992, STS-59 in 1994, and STS-76 in 1996.

After returning home from STS-59, Clifford was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s Disease. Despite this diagnosis, he was assigned to the crew of STS-76 and flew back into space in 1996. In fact, that’s where he made history.

During that third mission, the Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir. Clifford then performed a six-hour spacewalk to install experiment packages on Mir. It was the first time an American astronaut had performed an EVA (extra-vehicular activity) while docked to an orbiting space station.

Clifford left NASA in January 1997 to accept the position of Space Station Flight Operations Manager for Boeing Defense and Space Group. He was also a recipient of the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement, NASA Space Flight Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal.

Part of Independence Plaza

Clifford has a small tie to the history on display at Space Center Houston. The STS-49 mission in 1992 was designed to salvage the crippled Intelsat VI satellite and place it into its planned orbit. To do this, STS-49 crewmembers Rick Hieb, Thomas Akers, and Pierre Thuot had to execute the first three-person spacewalk to capture the satellite.

Clifford played a small but significant part in making that record-breaking spacewalk possible. During the mission, at the Johnson Space Center’s underwater EVA training facility, Rich and two other astronauts put on EVA suits and together squeezed into the submerged airlock mockup to verify that a three-person spacewalk was possible.

A piece of flown hardware from the successful STS-49 mission is on view in our Independence Plaza exhibit. Inside shuttle replica Independence’s payload bay in the Plaza is nestled the STS-49 cradle that carried the booster motor for use in the Intelsat VI rescue.

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Travel though space history in our Starship Gallery timeline and see a new artifact – Gene Kranz’s Mug.

Flight controllers gave this custom mug to Flight Director Gene Kranz after a flu outbreak among his Mission Control team in the mid-1960’s. They jokingly called him “Flu FD,” short for “flu flight director.”

This personal item was on Kranz’s Mission Control console during the Apollo 11 & 13 missions. It’s currently on loan to the center from Catherine Colella in honor of Frances “Poppy” Northcutt, who was the first female engineer to work in Mission Control.

Kranz’s legacy

Gene Kranz is as legendary a figure at NASA Johnson Space Center as anyone, which is noteworthy since he never flew into space. His cool, decisive leadership kept his Mission Control teams on course and performing at a high level while keeping NASA’s astronauts safe.

To that end, Kranz’s position in history was honored recently by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The museum awarded Kranz its 2021 Michael Collins Trophy for Lifetime Achievement. Kranz received the award at an event earlier this November.

Kranz was honored for his remarkable accomplishments and success with NASA’s Mission Control for 34 years, from Project Mercury through STS-61, the first Hubble servicing mission.

He began his career in the U.S. Air Force, flying high-performance jet fighters including the F-80, F-86, and F-100. In 1958, he worked as a flight-test engineer for McDonnell Aircraft developing the Quail Decoy Missile for B-52 and B-47 aircraft.

Kranz became assistant flight director for Project Mercury with the NASA Space Task Group at Langley, Virginia, in 1960. He assumed flight director roles with Project Gemini and eventually the Apollo Program, including Apollo 11. His leadership during the Apollo 13 crisis became well known to subsequent generations thanks to the popular Ron Howard film Apollo 13 (1995) as well as Kranz’s own book and public speaking.

He continued providing expertise for many other NASA missions throughout his career, including the Skylab Program and Space Shuttle operations. Kranz receives this prestigious award as a result of a career of excellence and service in NASA’s space program.

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This fall, we are exploring how space inspires progress. Solve space today by unscrambling this image of the Goddard rocket, which paved the way for the mighty liquid-fuel rockets of today.

When you think of a rocket, what is the first image that comes to mind? Is it the mighty Saturn V that launched the first lunar missions? Perhaps it is the even mightier Space Launch System (SLS) that will return astronauts to the Moon?

What about the Goddard rocket? Or the Atlas? Little Joe?

Chances are, these probably aren’t the first rockets that come to mind. However, there most likely wouldn’t have been the Saturn V or SLS without them.

It might be hard to fathom, but some of the world’s most powerful liquid-fuel rockets came from rather humble beginnings.

Take a quick look at three rockets that shaped the future of human space exploration. These rockets helped pave the way for the mighty rockets of today, which ultimately serve as the inspiration behind the even mightier rockets of tomorrow.

Goddard’s Rocket

Would you believe that the world’s first liquid-fuel rocket to liftoff was a “rickety contraption” made from thin pipes? On March 16, 1926, in an icy field in Massachusetts, Robert Goddard’s rocket blasted off. Though it only reached an altitude of 41 feet and traveled for just 2.5 seconds, it flew rather fast at 60 mph.

Goddard’s rocket had made history and set the stage for the future of rocketry and space exploration. In fact, every liquid-fueled rocket we see launch today can be traced back to Goddard’s humble rocket.

Though rockets have come a long way since 1926, Goddard’s name still lives on. NASA later honored Goddard, commonly regarded as the father of modern rocketry, in the naming of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Little Joe

Testing spaceflight systems can get expensive. NASA found this out with the pricey Atlas rockets. When they needed a more affordable rocket booster to test the Mercury Project’s abort-escape system, Little Joe offered an economic solution.

Instead of spending $2.5 million on an Atlas rocket, NASA could spend $200,000 on a Little Joe.

The Little Joe made its mark as a Mercury capsule test vehicle, successfully launching for the first time from Wallops Island in Virginia on Oct. 4, 1959, where the solid-fuel rocket reached an altitude of nearly 40 miles!

The Little Joe launches facilitated the success of our nation’s first human spaceflight missions with the Mercury Project.

Atlas

Imagine being launched into space atop a modified missile. That’s exactly what John Glenn did in 1962 when he lifted off for the Friendship 7 mission.

According to NASA, the powerful Atlas rocket, which launched several Mercury astronauts into orbit and kept America competitive in the Space Race, was actually constructed as a missile in the ’50s.

With five major configurations, Atlas rockets have remained relevant through the years, from putting the first American into orbit in 1962 to launching the Perseverance rover to the red planet last year.

Interested in seeing an early rocket? During your next visit, stop by our Starship Gallery to view an identical replica of Goddard’s rocket, the first liquid-fuel rocket to fly.

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