NASA

Space Center Houston’s Moon 2 Mars Festival, presented by Wellby Financial, returns for its second year this spring break, Saturday, March 11 through Sunday, March 19, 2023! This festival celebrates NASA’s Artemis program that will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. It’s filled with family-friendly fun, featuring futuristic space tech and live music from renowned artists including headliner and Grammy Award winner Rick Springfield on Saturday, March 18. This time around, we’ve added even more innovative experiences that bring you and your crew closer than ever to space—including a flavor-fueled menu of festival-exclusive dishes created by our partners at Wolfgang Puck Catering. In addition to the limited-edition Moon 2 Mars Festival menu, our permanen...

For Women’s History Month, NASA and the International Space Station celebrate the women who conduct science aboard the orbiting lab. As of March 2019, 63 women have flown in space, including cosmonauts, astronauts, payload specialists, and space station participants. The first woman in space was Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova who flew on Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963. The first American woman in space, Sally Ride, flew aboard the Space Shuttle STS-7 in June of 1983. If conducted as planned, the upcoming March 29 spacewalk with Anne McClain and Christina Koch would be the first all-female spacewalk. Women have participated in science on the space station since 2001; here are the most recent and some highlights from their scientific work:Christina Koch, Expedition 59Christina Koch (pictu...

WASHINGTON — NASA has selected Blue Origin to develop a lunar lander to transport astronauts on Artemis missions starting at the end of the decade. At an event at NASA Headquarters May 19, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that the agency chose a team led by Blue Origin, with participation from Boeing, Draper and Lockheed Martin, among others, to develop a lander called Blue Moon that will join already under development by SpaceX to transport astronauts between the lunar Gateway and the surface of the moon. The value of the fixed-price award is $3.4 billion. John Couluris, Blue Origin program manager for the effort, said at the briefing that the company plans to invest “well north” of that amount to develop the lander. The contract includes a demonstration landing o...

Passion for aeronautics and space has a tendency to follow you through every phase of life and no one understands this better than Discovery Circle member Peter Crew. Crew’s love for space exploration began as a child and it has followed him throughout his journey of adulthood and even into retirement. At an early age, Crew was motivated by Alan Shepard’s maiden voyage in Freedom 7, the Mercury spacecraft, to pursue a career in aviation. This inspiration first led him to join United Airlines as a customer service representative. During this time, he also worked with Dial-a-Shuttle, an AT&T service that allowed the caller to listen to the commentary that was happening onboard the space shuttle when in flight. As he continued to work in the space industry and learn more about hum...