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Space Exploration

Articles and publications tagged Space Exploration across the Atmosphere.

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Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and Technology
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and TechnologyOct 28, 2026
James Webb, Vannevar Bush, and Basic Research in Space
In November 1962, NASA administrator James Webb wrote a letter to President John F. Kennedy after a contentious meeting about the Apollo program. In that meeting, they had litigated the overall goal of the US space program, and arrived at a sort of agreement in principle. They both wanted the United States to achieve “preeminence …
HistoryHistory of Exploration
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and Technology
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and TechnologySep 15, 2026
The 1962 Iowa Summer Study
Author’s note: this article was originally published in The Space Review. In June of 1962, scientists from around the United States descended on Iowa City for a summer study on science in space. Among the roster of over 200 attendees were names like Van Allen, Kuiper, Shoemaker, Spitzer, Whipple, Drake, and Sagan. They were enticed …
AstronomyGeology
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and Technology
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and TechnologyAug 23, 2026
The First Photograph of the Earth From the Moon: A Visual History
On August 23, 1966, the team behind NASA’s Lunar Orbiter I captured the first image of Earth as seen from the Moon. You will sometimes see an updated version of this image, in fantastic resolution with all imperfections erased. It is an impressive restoration created by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) in 2008, …
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AstronomyGeology
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and Technology
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and TechnologyAug 10, 2026
Kodak’s “Pre-Invented” Lunar Orbiter Camera; or, The Fate of SAMOS Readout
In 1966 and 1967, NASA sent five robotic spacecraft into orbit around the Moon. Constructed for the primary purpose of finding landing sites for Apollo, the Lunar Orbiters also enabled nearly comprehensive mapping of the Moon in stunning detail. The quantity and resolution of the photographs returned by Lunar Orbiter was unprecedented, thanks to a …
3
HistoryHistory of Exploration
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and Technology
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and TechnologyApr 11, 2026
The Echoes of Apollo
Last week, people flew around the Moon. It feels surreal to be able to type those words. When I talk to people who witnessed the Apollo program, I like to ask them what they remember. Most were children at the time, and their answer is often some version of: “Oh, I wanted to be an …
AstronomyHistory
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and Technology
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and TechnologyFeb 2, 2026
Spectacle on Other Worlds
The first spacecraft from Earth to touch another world carried no people, but it did carry a unique sort of flag. Early on the morning of September 14, 1959, the Soviet space probe Luna 2 impacted the surface of the Moon. Engineers had placed stainless steel spheres aboard the spacecraft, designed to send tiny pentagonal …
HistoryHistory of Exploration
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and Technology
Inverting Vision – Reflections on the History of Science, Exploration, and TechnologyMar 1, 2024
The First Time NASA Photographed a Lunar Lander
The Odysseus lunar lander built by Intuitive Machines (IM) recently became the first U.S. robot on the Moon’s surface since the Surveyor landers in the 1960s. Earlier this week, IM worked with NASA to get pictures of the lander from orbit. The resulting image is impressive, showing the lander as a tiny speck in the …
HistoryHistory of Exploration

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