NASA

You Think Today's NASA Mission Posters Are Lame?

Photos courtesy Bonhams​A while back, there was some general web guffawing over what was perceived as NASA's lame mission posters, which have trended towards spoofing popular movies. (We kinda liked them, actually.)Now we're getting a glance at how bad things used to be.On Tuesday -- the 40th anni ... More >>

New On The Net: Scorn For NASA Having A Little Fun

​What's hot on the web today? Making fun of NASA for goofy mission posters.Gizmodo got its hands on mission posters made for internal NASA use -- they're on the web at the agency's Space Flight Awareness page -- and went to town."NASA Mission Posters Are Hilariously Painful," reads the headline, a ... More >>

NASA Had Proof Of Water On The Moon Sitting In Their Storage Closet

​NASA famously bombed the moon last year in a desperate attempt to prove there's water on it. While water was indeed discovered, we have yet to hear any reliable figures on collateral damage to the affected areas or the native population.It turns out, instead of almost triggering a Earth-Moon war ... More >>

There's Absolutely Nothing That Could Possibly Go Wrong With NASA's New Human-Looking Robot

Photo by General Motors​NASA and General Motors have announced a new space robot, called Robonaut 2, or R2 for short (The name "Desperately Hoping to be Relevant via Outdated Pop Culture References," or RHROPCR, was apparently rejected for being too long.)"Our challenge today is to build machines ... More >>

Your Car Isn't Broken, It's Just Become A "Stationary Driving Platform," If You Use NASA's Spin

​Used cars long ago become "pre-owned."  Kamp Krusty isn't a "fat camp," it's an "image enhancement camp." Torture is now "enhanced interrogation."The silly-euphemism bar is set pretty high these days. But NASA is taking a shot at winning the competition, not because it is easy but because it ... More >>

See Your Tax Dollars At Work: The Space Station Flying Over Houston

Photo courtesy NASA​This week will be a great one for seeing the International Space Station -- especially tonight, NASA says.Assuming the night sky stays clear, the ISS will be visible for three minutes starting at 6:09 p.m.Look five degrees above north-northwest and track it as it heads to 11 de ... More >>

NASA Wants To Know Where To Point Its Mars Camera; We've Got Ideas

So NASA is apparently taking public suggestions for where to point the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. No doubt the agency is anticipating a slew of requests for Victoria Crater or Olympus Mons, and I salute such educational endeavor ... More >>

Used Space Shuttles Now Almost ONE-THIRD Off!!! And That's Not All!!!

​NASA announced today that the cost of buying a used space shuttle for display in your museum, educational facility or backyard has dropped from $42 million to the low, low, low price of just $28.8 million!!And that's not all!!The delivery of these fine, almost one-of-a-kind vehicle has been moved ... More >>

NASA Still Struggling With The Whole Pee-Drinking Thing (And Who Can Blame Them?)

​NASA, which is bound and determined to turn its astronaut corps into a bunch of watersports enthusiasts, has hit another roadblock.The hugely expensive ($250 million!) system on the space station that is supposed to magically make urine drinkable (or, we guess some fetishists might say, even more ... More >>

Newest Report Not Great News For NASA; Time To Think "Outside The Box," As They Probably Still Say There

​The long-awaited report on NASA's future has come out and, as expected, it's bad news for anyone hoping for a return to the moon."Panel Says NASA Should Skip Moon, Fly Elsewhere" is the headline on AP's report:Norman Augustine, chairman of the White House-appointed panel reviewing the agency's sp ... More >>

Shoot the Moon: A Playlist for Today's Lunar Bombing

In case you were asleep this morning when it happened, we bombed the moon. Twice!​Our unprovoked attack upon our unsuspecting orbital neighbor was ostensibly for purposes of locating water particles in the dust cloud kicked up by the impact, but really, we're pretty sure it's the end result of so ... More >>

NASA's Biggest Job On This Shuttle Flight: Milking Publicity

​The latest space shuttle mission opens up a new, bold era in NASA history -- the desperate attempt to remain hip and relevant and therefore worthy of federal budget dollars.Commentators have pointed out how the agency seems to be embracing pop culture, but it seems to be getting to the point ... More >>

Houston 101: Neighborhood Of Astronauts

​Nowadays, being an astronaut just doesn't have the cachet it once did. But back in the 1960s, astronauts were celebrities, and an obscure neighborhood near Clear Lake was their Beverly Hills.Timber Cove was a development of what today would be considered smallish homes -- no McMansions here -- on ... More >>

The Five Worst Movies Being Shown On The International Space Station

​Maybe this has come out before -- the list seems to be a year old -- but we noticed today a story in the British paper The Guardian about the list of DVDs NASA has provided to the International Space Station.The actual list is here, released under the Freedom of Information Act. Movies are appare ... More >>

The Moon Landing, In Sharp Newly Restored Video

Photo courtesy NASAScore one for the British press.We mentioned a while back that a London paper was reporting that NASA had discovered and restored tapes of the moon landing that had been missing for 40 years.The timing seemed highly coincidental, but it's true. And NASA just now has released the r ... More >>

Five Best Apollo 11 Myths

Photo courtesy NASAA salute to Mr. JablonskiHey, guess what!! Monday brings the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing!!Oh, you heard? Well, get ready to hear more -- this weekend and Monday will no doubt be a "One small step for man" marathon.Which is fine -- the moon mission was a crazy, a ... More >>

Slainte -- Let The Pee-Drinking Begin!

Photo by bobbymondToday NASA made history again, breaking down barriers: For the first time (that we know of), astronauts drank their own urine in space.The piss was said to be "purified" and "recycled" and all that, but the bottom line is the bottom line: They might as well sign up for this website ... More >>

Tonight: Will NASA Discover A Sense Of Humor?

Photo courtesy The Colbert ReportTonight's the night!On tonight's Colbert Report, the nation will learn whether NASA has a sense of humor or not.They famously had a contest to name the new node on the space station; they didn't take any of our suggestions. But Colbert's fans put him over the top thr ... More >>

Further Breakdown Of The Chron Cuts

Photo by Lori GreigIt might seem like we're harping on the recent round of layoffs at the Houston Chronicle just because we're journalists too ("Hey, how come you don't do ten posts about the layoffs at Schlumberger!!"), but -- as we've said before -- we perhaps naively hold to the thought th ... More >>

The Distillery: N.A.S.A.'s The Spirit of Apollo

Truth be told, we envy N.A.S.A.'s bumptuous production acumen almost as much as we envy principal astronauts Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon the depths of their Rolodexes - even if, somehow, they couldn't rope Lil Wayne into their genre-mashup free-for-all. Seriously - as you'll see below - N.A.S. ... More >>

See Yourself On TV From Space!

Photo courtesy NASAHere's something neat from NASA that will let you while away your cubicle hours waiting for the corporate ax to fall: live shots of Earth from the space station.The International Space Station will be streaming live video from external cameras seven days a week at this website. Th ... More >>

“Creating Space City, USA”

“Houston…the Eagle has landed.”

NASA Killed A Cancer Cure, Suit Alleges

The world may have known a cure to cancer ... if only that darn Columbia space shuttle didn't disintegrate over Texas six years ago and if only NASA had been a little more careful taking care of the cargo and debris that landed back on earth.At least that's what a Pennsylvania company is arguing.Acc ... More >>

Tell NASA Where You Want Hubble to Point

Hot on the heels of a new report from the Baker Institute suggesting NASA concentrate on improving conditions here on Earth and postpone all this "outer space" foolishness, NASA has come up with yet another neat little thing to help reignite enthusiasm for what it does. We say "yet another" in refe ... More >>

NASA's Ongoing Pee-Drinking Problem

Once again, we learn via the Houston Chronicle, NASA is having trouble getting its astronauts to drink piss.It's apparently not because they think the idea is disgusting; it's because they can't get their pee-cleansing machine to work.The Urine Processor Assembly has been balky ever since it was ins ... More >>

Trouble Brewing Between NASA And Obama

All is not smooth in the relationship between NASA an incoming president Barack Obama.Not smooth at all, unless you count red-faced screaming fits by the head of NASA, his demands to speak directly to Obama, and his telling the person handing NASA for the president-elect's transition team she is not ... More >>

Highest-Ranking NASA Woman Ever Prepares For Re-Entry To Private Life

Shana Dale, the highest-ranking woman in NASA history, is leaving the agency after three years as second-in-command.NASA's press release on the subject said she announced the decision today, but readers of her blog were tipped off about it last week. (Clearly, we were not readers of her blog.)Dale s ... More >>

Woman Puts Bag Down For One Second, Loses It (In Space)

Has anyone seen my bag? It was here a minute ago. I swear to Christ, I put it down for one second, turned around and the next thing you know...it's drifting aimlessly into the great void of space. Its circuit's dead. There's something wrong. Can you hear me, Little Bag? Can you hear me, Little ... More >>

NASA At 50: Five Bad Astronaut Movies

Other Ways NASA Could Have Fixed Their New Moon Rocket

NASA's New Moon Rocket Questioned Again

Pee For Me, Please

Frenchie's Italian Restaurant

Ballunar Liftoff Festival

NASA hosts 100-plus hot air balloons

In the Shadow of the Moon

Reliving the glory of America's giant leap for mankind

Mint Condition

Someone Cut the Wires on Our Space Equipment? Time to Head to the Bar. Unless, of Course, You Were Wanting to Have Sex...

Wonder If Texas Monthly Will Run a "Drunk Astronaut" Cover

Rocket Scientists Can't Spell

Space Case

Totally Spaced

See red skies at night in Roving Mars

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Birthday Surprise

Preservationists get help in the oddest way

Off the Beaten Path

Get a taste of the old Kemah's salty flavor at these classic eateries

Not Rocket Science

NASA can get political -- for Tom DeLay

Space Center & Me

Or, how I learned to stop caring and accept the dumb

Best Sporting Goods Store

Sun & Ski Sports

Best New Downtown Bar

Grasshopper/Red Lights

Science Friction

Architect Constance Adams designed an inflatable house that could take American astronauts to Mars. NASA wants to build it, but Congress keeps bursting the bubble.

Moon Shots

At the MFA, lunar imagery blurs the line between science and art