Space Race

In 1969, America won the Space Race by landing on the moon. In the half-century since, technology has made just about everything easier except getting back up there. In this two part series, we explore some of the reasons why a modern moon mission is a long shot in its own right. In part one, […]

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin fulfilled the dreams of generations as they stepped out of the thin protective shell of their lunar lander and onto the alien surface of our moon. For the first time in history, mankind occupied not one, but two separate and distinct celestial bodies, making their […]

On April 12th, 1961, a Russian man named Yuri Gagarin made history aboard a Soviet Vostok 3KA-3 spacecraft. For years, the United States and Soviet Union had been using the barrier between our world and beyond as a benchmark to test each nation’s greatest technological and engineering advances, and on that day, Gagarin achieved an […]

We’ve all heard the story. Back in the 1960s, as the Americans and Soviets were competing for space (and global) supremacy, the United States supposedly spent millions to develop a pen that their astronauts could use in space. The Soviets, meanwhile, “just used a pencil.” It’s a classic tale used to criticize government spending and […]

Could a space station on the ground in southern Argentina’s Patagonia be a massive spying facility for the Chinese military? No, according to the Chinese government, but evidence suggests otherwise. The Chinese government insists the station’s sole purpose is the peaceful observation and exploration of space, asserting it played a key role in the landing of […]

For the first time since the Cold War, public interest is once again shifting toward space. But this time, it isn’t a looming competition between two super powers that’s caught our attention. A complex web of national efforts, corporate programs, and increasingly, military assets streak across the sky above our heads, pushing the boundaries of […]

The head of Russia’s Roscosmos told the media last weekend that his agency has a mission on the books that aims to find out once and for all if the United States really did put men on the moon in the 1960s and 70s — though it seems likely that the former deputy prime minister […]

Today, with companies like SpaceX, Blue Horizon, and Boeing working tirelessly to find ways to reach the stars for less money, it’s become a commonly accepted truth that the space shuttle, while ambitious and an incredible feat of engineering, was never the economic answer to maintaining an orbital presence. The shuttle program was an immense […]

The head of Russia’s Roscosmos told the media over the weekend that his agency has a mission on the books that aims to find out once and for all if the United States really did put men on the moon in the 1960s and 70s — though it seems likely that the former deputy prime […]

During the Cold War, American and Russian space faring efforts enjoyed a level of prestige (and more notably, funding) unparalleled in the modern world. In hind sight, we tend to attribute historic accomplishments like Yuri Gagarin’s momentous trip to into orbit and Neil Armstrong’s legendary first step onto another world as symbolic victories for our […]

[Update Oct. 4: The CIA has released the Sputnik documents. You can find them on the CIA’s website here.] The CIA plans to release a new batch of secret documents about the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik, which made history when it blasted into space 60 years ago Wednesday, Code and Dagger has learned. An article published […]

Today, with companies like SpaceX, Blue Horizon, and Boeing working tirelessly to find ways to reach the stars for less money, it’s become a commonly accepted truth that the space shuttle, while ambitious and an incredible feat of engineering, was never the economic answer to maintaining an orbital presence. The shuttle program was an immense […]