Marina Koren
The Moment That Made Neil Armstrong’s Heart Rate Spike
Real-time data from the Apollo 11 astronauts, carefully monitored by Mission Control, capture the frenzied maneuvers that put men on the moon.
-
![]()
Indian Space Research Organisation Handout/Reuters Five Stories We’re Watching
Atlantic writers look ahead at India’s moon landing, WeWork’s giant IPO filing, Taylor Swift’s Lover, and more.
-
![]()
NASA / JPL The Aging Spacecraft of Deep Space
NASA is rationing watts to keep its oldest mission going.
-
![]()
Courtesy of DoubleTree by Hilton The Great NASA Bake-Off
High-tech agriculture would keep far-flung astronauts alive, but making something delicious would keep them happy.
-
![]()
Joan Wong; Photos courtesy of NASA The Coming End of an Era at NASA
Soon, if no mission returns to the moon, no one on Earth will have set foot on another world.
-
![]()
AP The Soviet Space Program Was Not Woke
Sending the first women into space isn’t the same as developing an astronaut program that values equality.
-
![]()
NASA The Outdated Language of Space Travel
“Manned” spaceflight doesn’t make sense anymore.
-
![]()
Ruby Aitken; Photos courtesy of NASA / Getty The Secrets of Moondust
Lunar samples, untouched by Earth’s atmosphere for decades, will soon emerge from a NASA vault.
-
![]()
NASA The Best Banter From Apollo 11
Between the high-stakes maneuvers, the crew joked around, listened to music, and drank way too much coffee.
-
![]()
Joan Wong / Images courtesy of NASA The Apollo Engineer Who Almost Wasn’t Allowed in the Control Room
JoAnn Morgan stood out against the sea of men in skinny ties and glasses. But she was right where she belonged.
-
![]()
Ruby Aitken What Is the Apollo 11 Landing Site Like Now?
The American flag is bleached white. But some of the boot prints could remain undisturbed for tens of thousands of years.
-
![]()
Joan Wong; NASA / Getty Just Leave Michael Collins Alone
The Apollo 11 astronaut is famous for orbiting the moon in solitude. Now he wishes you’d give him some space.
-
![]()
NASA The Fraught Effort to Return to the Moon
NASA wants to put people back on the lunar surface in 2024, but it doesn’t have the budget.
-
![]()
NASA What John F. Kennedy’s Moon Speech Means 50 Years Later
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
-
![]()
Topical Press Agency / Getty / The Atlantic Why Men Thought Women Weren’t Made to Vote
During the suffrage movement, conventional wisdom held that civic duty was bad for the ovaries.
-
![]()
Bogardus / Schlesinger Library / The Atlantic The Pioneering Female Doctor Who Argued Against Rest
Physicians once advised menstruating women against mental exertion, fearing it would ravage their health.
-
![]()
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS A Startling Spike on Mars
Methane gas is a potential indicator of life on the red planet, but it’s proving difficult to track.
-
![]()
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory NASA Will Go Looking for Alien Life
The agency plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan, a moon of Saturn with some crucial ingredients for habitability.
-
![]()
CSIRO / Alex Cherney A Howling Cosmic Signal Came From a Faraway Galaxy
Astronomers get closer to understanding one of the most perplexing phenomena in the universe.
-
![]()
NASA / JPL-Caltech A Robot Has Been Stuck on Mars for Months
NASA will conduct a delicate rescue mission to free a probe trapped just inches below the Red Planet’s surface.
-
![]()
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute Saturn’s Largest Moon Would Make an Unbelievable Vacation Spot
You’d need an oxygen mask and enough layers to contend with beyond-freezing temperatures, but could leave the sunscreen at home.
