Ed Dwight’s Passion for Flight and Art
In 1963, Air Force pilot Ed Dwight hoped to become the first African American in space. Dwight was not chosen, however, to be one of the first U.S. astronauts. But in May, 2024, Dwight rocketed into the record books as the oldest person to travel to space. Love of Flight Ed Dwight grew up […]
Stuff YOU Should Know
Stone’s Sentencing Scandal Remember Hillary’s emails? Last November, Roger Stone–Trump’s longtime friend and adviser–appeared in federal court for his role with WikiLeaks and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, in which he acted as a go-between. Stone later lied to Congress about it, and as a result, he was found guilty of all seven counts with which […]
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Australia Rocked by Mass Shooting It’s all too common here in the United States: a mass shooting that claims the lives of many innocent people in a short period of time. In fact, in the U.S., an average of one hundred people per day die as a result of gun violence. But in other countries, […]
Goodbye Cassini
After 20 years in space, and 13 years orbiting Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft’s mission ended dramatically last Friday. Here, btw takes a look at why the spacecraft was important, some of its key discoveries, and why it’s so hard to say goodbye. A Spacecraft is Born Cassini was launched on October 15, 1997. Named for […]
Eclipse Mania Strikes the U.S.!
In case you haven’t heard, the United States will experience a total solar eclipse on Monday, August 21. How much of it you will see depends on where you live. Already, millions of Americans are making plans to travel to parts of the country where they will get a better view of this incredibly rare […]
Bidding Farewell to John Glenn
John Glenn, the American astronaut and former senator, died December 8 at age 95. Last weekend, roughly 2,500 mourners–among them, Vice President Joe Biden–gathered at Ohio State University to pay tribute to the hero. A funeral procession through the center of Columbus carried Glenn’s casket past thousands more mourners, including Ohio Governor John Kasich, who […]
The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Space Coast
In 2011, NASA retired its 30-year-old shuttle program when Atlantis returned from its mission, touching down at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This week, btw takes a look at what has happened to the area after the loss and the revival that is emerging in its place. The Space Age In a […]
Home From Space!
Last year, btw brought you news of the launch of the longest-ever consecutive space mission. The two-man mission was made up of Russian Cosmonaut, Mikhail Komiyenko and American Scott Kelly. They were gone for nearly a year (340 days), traveled a total of 143,846,525 miles (circling the earth 5,440 times), and return-landed via parachute in […]
Year in Review: World News
We continue our look back at 2014 with a focus on events that happened around the world. In Ukraine, it was a time of excitement followed by a time of turmoil. Russia entered the news in 2014 by way of the Sochi Winter Olympic Gamess in February. By March, however, the attention on the country had shifted. What began […]
Stuff You Should Know
Kickstarting Space Exploration? Crowdfunding is becoming a very popular alternative to finding traditional investors. Individuals and companies with projects or products ask the public at large people for money, usually through crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter. Project creators set up an account, then choose a deadline and a minimum fund-raising goal. Projects must meet their goals […]