After several days of harrowing uncertainty, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite finally made its fiery descent through the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. more ›

UPDATE (12:35 p.m.): Well, now the satellite's orientation has shifted, so the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite might land in the U.S., after all. Keep calm and carry on, people. more ›

Tomorrow, beginning at 5:04 a.m. eastern standard time, the tilt of the Earth's axis will be situation neither away from nor towards the Sun, marking the autumn equinox and the beginning of fall. And while that's pretty neat in and of itself, it's the yearly D.C. Henge event that really has us excited. more ›

We love space, astronauts and science around these parts. But we wouldn't really be very honest if we weren't slightly unnerved at the fact that when a defunct six-ton satellite is going to come crashing to Earth, NASA isn't exactly sure where it is going to land. more ›

What better way to get in the mood for a space shuttle launch than to talk to an astronaut about one? DCist sat down with Alvin Drew, a D.C. born and bred astronaut who recently flew aboard the final Discovery mission. more ›

Preparing for the last space shuttle launch, an upcoming lecture by DCist's very own space correspondent, a win for a local planetarium and rockets in the D.C. sky are all in this week's Look Up. more ›

One of the most coveted tickets of the year for space fans to get their hands on is to the annual John H. Glenn Lecture at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. This year, the series took a step back to the very beginning with the lecture's namesake, Senator John Glenn and his fellow Mercury astronaut Commander Scott Carpenter, who spoke to the packed IMAX theater about the nascent steps of the American space program. more ›

We've already experienced ten days over 90 degrees in Washington, D.C. this year, so it's hard to believe summer hasn't even started yet. Next Tuesday marks the summer solstice for the northern hemisphere, as Earth reaches the point in its orbit where its tilt edges us closest to the sun. more ›

Our resident astronomy expert is out for the week, so you'll have to depend on the government for the technical explanation of what this huge explosion on the sun actually means. (It involves a Solar Radiation Storm and CME-driven shock, both of which sound, uh, kind of terrifying.) more ›

In 1962, then NASA Administrator James E. Webb began to invite artists to have special access to the astronauts, engineers and spacecraft during the tail-end of the Mercury program, just as Gemini was getting off the ground. NASA | ART includes over 70 artworks from the nearly 50 year span that has so far gathered 3000 pieces in both NASA and the Air and Space Museum's collections. As co-curator Burt Ulrich notes, the exhibit is meant to "see how far we've come as a nation, and as human beings." more ›

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of American human spaceflight with stargazing events, rocket challenges, planet "dances," and space shuttle launches. more ›

Cheers erupted from the staff at the National Air & Space Museum this afternoon as NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, over a live feed from Kennedy Space Center, officially announced that space shuttle Discovery will find a new home at the Udvar-Hazy Center. more ›

Celebrations in honor of the the first person to traveled to space -- cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who launched in the Vostok 1 for one 108-minute orbit around the Earth on April 12, 1961 -- are an annual tradition. And they're awesome. Especially so this year, when Yuri's Night participants will mark the golden anniversary of Gagarin's circle around the world. more ›

Good morning, space fans. I know it's been awhile since we posted a Look Up column (every winter, space takes a backseat to photography, as you know), but we have a few good bits for you today. Read on for once-in-a-lifetime launch viewing opportunities, how the Japan earthquake permanently altered the Earth, and some debunked space myths. more ›

Washington, D.C. native Alvin Drew was the sixth and last astronaut strapped in a few minutes ago aboard the space shuttle Discovery at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is Drew's second shuttle mission, his first since STS-118 in 2007. more ›

Happy Winter Solstice! Check out all the photographers who stayed up most of the night and braved the freezing cold to get a shot of last night's total lunar eclipse. On behalf of those of us who try to get folks excited about science and astronomy, it was almost more fun to watch Twitter last night and see the sheer number of people who went outside for a glimpse of the last one of these we'll see until 2014. more ›

We wrote about it last Monday, but wanted to remind you that tonight's sky will feature a total lunar eclipse – the last one we'll see until 2014. more ›

A clear sky is welcome news, as the best meteor shower of the year, the Geminids, peaks tonight. You won't even have to stay up extraordinarily late for these beauties: the 'shooting stars' will be visible from around 11 p.m., with as many as 120 streaking through the sky per hour. If you can't weather the cold, watch NASA's radar capturing the fireballs all night. more ›

I don't know about you, but I'm having flashbacks to October 2009, when the media went nuts about NASA "bombing" the moon. more ›

Fans of space and aviation have a new place to nerd out starting today, as the National Air & Space Museum officially opens the Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery on the second floor of its space on the National Mall. An updated version of the old Pioneers gallery, it now holds major artifacts from aviation's "adolescence" in the 1920s and 30s, when, as the Smithsonian's Dr. Peter Jakab said during the press opening, we became "a species with wings, which changed how we saw our place in the world." The gallery displays American innovation at its best, where the artifacts are second to the human stories and struggles from designing never-before-imagined technologies to paving the roads to social equality. more ›

Early in October, we told you about NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's "Tour & Tweet" event. DCist photographer Steve Goldenberg signed up for the tour and took the set of photos in the gallery above; click through for his descriptions as they were led through the facilities. more ›

The fall weather may be appealing, but the gloomy skies the past couple of days haven't really helped anyone looking up for Comet Hartley 2, which made it's closest pass yesterday. It's still pretty darn close (just 11 million miles away!), so if the skies clear up you can find the icy comet to the left of Taurus in the constellation Auriga, starting a little after 10 p.m. Meanwhile, NASA's Deep Impact probe, on its EPOXI mission we discussed last week, ventures closer to Hartley every day, preparing for its fly-by on November 4. more ›

October greets us with a fun astronomical event: Comet Hartley 2 will be at its most visible with just a little help all month, and visible but steadily fading from view through the end of 2010. Sky & Telescope has all the comet info you need, including that it was discovered in 1986 and will make its closest known approach to Earth this year, passing at just 0.12 AU (an AU is a commonly used unit of distance that stands for 'astronomical unit' and equals the distance between the sun and the Earth, almost 93 million miles, so 0.12 AU is about 11 million miles). If you're away from the city lights, you may be able to see Hartley 2 as it reaches 5th or 6th magnitude on October 20 with your naked eyes; for the rest of us, a simple pair of binoculars should do the trick just fine. (Here's Hartley 2 being chased by Pac-Man on NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day.) more ›

Twice a year, the east-west streets of Washington, D.C. play host to the rising and setting sun. more ›

Look up to see an incredibly bright Jupiter this month. Tonight, in fact, the gaseous planet and Earth are closer than they will be for another 12 years. more ›

The easiest and perhaps most poignant way that NASA has connected the public with space exploration is through photography. Breathtaking photos of our first Earthrise, Hubble's extended gaze to the ends of the universe and brilliant studies of activity on our sun show us how much exists that we have yet to explore, things we couldn't even imagine until the photons hit film and CCD chips and were displayed for our relatively Earthbound eyes. more ›

Indeed, what's in the sky this week? Spaceblimps, that's what! Right here in D.C., there are very smart people sending things up into (near) space, as part of a competition that ended in late August with a launch in Camp Spring, Md. Hackerspaces in Space was created by a Chicago group to challenge teams anywhere and everywhere to "send a weather balloon, with payload, into near-space to capture pictures of the Earth's horizon, to return the payload safely to the ground, and to retrieve the payload." Local team HacDC was up to the challenge and built the "Spaceblimp" you see in the gallery above. more ›

>> The SpaceUP DC "unconference" is this Friday and Saturday. Your DCist Space Editor will be there, discussing space exploration and education issues with lots of other supporters. Not to mention a little networking, a little moonpie eating, and probably a lot of beer drinking at the happy hours afterward. No engineering or other experience required, just a passion for space and desire to see the next generation find out what's next. (Oh yes, I went there with the sappy Sorkin clip). You must register in advance, so get your ticket here. more ›

As if it's not challenging enough to see sky events in the big city, D.C. was plagued with cloud cover during most of the two-day peak of the Perseid meteor shower last week. Thankfully, the internet exists, so here are some awesome photos on Flickr and SpaceWeather.com from people elsewhere in the world, where the meteor shower "lived up to its promise." The Flickr blog featured some of the very best, but admittedly, our favorite take-away is this breathtaking Perseid timelapse "failure." more ›

Last week, we told you to keep an eye out for the Perseid meteor shower. Tonight and tomorrow will be the best nights for this year's show, as up to 50-80 meteors an hour will reach Earth and burn up into fireballs in the atmosphere. You may see them as early as dusk -- but for the real show, stay up late and watch until the early morning on both nights. more ›