Welcome to the NSS blog. Feel free to comment on any post (comments are moderated so won’t show up immediately). Contributors to the NSS Blog are unpaid volunteers. Unless specifically labeled an NSS position or press release, all blog posts represent the views of the author and not of NSS, even if written by an NSS officer.
Space Basics By Dale Skran (with a thank you to Stan Rosen, Randy Gigante, Hoyt Davidson, and Bruce Pittman for their suggestions!) Copyright 2019 A...
In noting the parallels between debris or pollution in the seas of the world and debris in orbit, but also the lack of mechanisms in...
By Dale Skran, Chair, NSS Executive Committee I recently gave a talk titled “New Rides to the Moon” at the Morris Museum Astronomical Society in...
By Melissa Silva In what will likely be one of the final “firsts” in Earth-orbital spacewalking, at 7:38 a.m. EDT yesterday, astronauts Christina Koch and...
By Dale Skran Copyright 2019 On October 9th, a Russian Proton lofted Northrup Grumman’s first satellite life-extension vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Mission...
Former Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, A Space Age pioneer and the first human to perform an extravehicular activity, or spacewalk, died today, October 11, at...
From Dale Skran, Chair of the NSS Executive Committee: Karlton Johnson, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Space Society, has a great...
Opinion by Dale L. Skran Just before Elon Musk made his impressive Starship progress update, NASA Administrator Bridenstine tweeted out the following: This statement left...
This long essay defends the NSS Vision against those who, like the author of the book being reviewed, think “we shouldn’t colonize Mars or the Moon, or even vacation there.” Ben Bramble, an Australian philosopher who teaches at Australian National University, has penned a YAASS (Yet Another Anti-Space-Settlement) book. These books are multiplying like flies, so space settlement advocates must be gaining ground to generate such an abundant response.
In HOTOL & Skylon: The Story of Britain’s Spaceplanes, Rob Coppinger covers the story of both in great detail, with the reminiscences of many who played integral roles in these ambitious programs. The book shines when it captures the enthusiasm and excitement of those involved, and there are extensive quotes from many who devoted years of work on these projects.
Anyone seeking a short but comprehensive introduction to human spaceflight would do well to start with this book. It reviews its history, highlights the accomplishments and tragedies, and describes the equipment used. It also looks at living in space, what space travelers experience, and how they work.
Back in 1966, Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon. Apogee Books has provided an English-language NASA translation of a detailed report originally released by the USSR Academy of Sciences.
By Robin Scott NSS Chapter Middle Tennessee Space Society (MTSS) President Chuck Schlemm performs outreach, directly contacting about 560 attendees (STEM teachers, school faculty, students,...
By Burt Dicht NSS Space Coast Correspondent Some weeks in spaceflight are just busy. This one was something more. Over a period of four days,...
By Burt Dicht NSS Space Coast Correspondent A large anvil cloud hanging over Florida’s Space Coast added some uncertainty to the final hours of the...
Applications open 1 Oct – 1 Dec, 2026 The National Space Society’s Global Space Debates is a unique, 100% virtual program that brings high school...
