NASA History Office

“We had to find a way and we did. Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers.” —Margaret Hamilton

Rest in peace, Margaret. Your trailblazing work leading the development of the on-board flight software for the Apollo spacecraft will forever be remembered. 🫡

The first of 33 missions ✅

Space shuttle Atlantis completed its very first mission on Oct 7, 1985. Over its 25+ years of service, Atlantis launched interplanetary probes, flew the final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, helped build the International Space Station, and much, much more.

Dr. Robert Goddard, born OTD in 1882, is remembered as a pioneer of modern rocketry who not only theorized, but built and tested his inventions. His work on multi-stage, liquid-fueled, and steerable rocket concepts laid the groundwork for today's space vehicles.

Our @NASAGoddard center in Maryland is named in his honor.

More than 3000 satellites have been launched into orbit so far just in 2026, but let's go back to the first.

On this day in 1957, a new chapter in the technological and scientific history of our planet began with the launch of Sputnik I.

More about the dawn of the Space Age: nasa.gov/history/dawn-o…

📷 Sputnik I replica at @airandspace

Milt Windler was one of the great pioneers who showed the world what NASA is capable of during both the best and most challenging of days.

As a Maroon Flight Director, he helped guide Apollo 8 around the Moon, played a critical role in bringing Apollo 13 safely home, and carried that same commitment through Skylab and beyond.

Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and all those who had the privilege of working alongside him.

His generation set the bar incredibly high. It is our responsibility to pick up and continue where they left off.

Happy 91st birthday to Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, the 10th man to walk on the Moon! 🎂

Duke was the CAPCOM in Mission Control as Apollo 11 landed on the lunar surface on July 20, 1929. He said that his anxiety in Mission Control during the Apollo 11 landing was worse than that he experienced during the Apollo 16 landing. We wish him many happy landings in the days ahead!

In 1959, Dee O'Hara became the first staff nurse for Project Mercury, NASA's first human spaceflight program. Throughout the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, she worked closely with NASA astronauts, pioneering the field of space nursing.

📷 O'Hara in 1961

Today marks 68 years since NASA launched operations! Since Oct 1, 1958, NASA has worked to explore the frontiers of air and space, making history along the way.

And the journey is still just getting started—new chapters of exploration are unfolding in the years ahead!

80 years ago today, NASA's presence in the Mojave Desert was established!

A handful of engineers from the NACA's Langley Laboratory arrived at Muroc Army Airfield (now Edwards AFB) on Sept 30, 1946, to begin work on the X-1 supersonic research flights.

Discovery lifted off OTD in 1988, becoming NASA's first crewed spaceflight after the Challenger disaster.

After NASA implemented over 200 changes to the Shuttle system and augmented its safety culture, STS-26, returned America to flight after a 32-month hiatus.

30 years ago this weekend, Shannon Lucid—one of NASA's first six female astronauts—completed a record-setting mission! After six months aboard the Mir space station, she was the new US record-holder for the longest time in space: 188 days.

President Bill Clinton called to congratulate her on her achievement and awarded her the Congressional Space Medal of Honor later in 1996.

Stuck the landing!

Three years ago today, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft released a sample capsule at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere to land perfectly upright in the Utah desert.

The capsule held a record amount of pristinely captured rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu. Scientists have studied the extraterrestrial sample, learning it contains all the ingredients key to life.

Whoomp there it is!

After two astronomers, Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams, independently calculated its predicted location, Johann Gottfried Galle found the planet Neptune 180 years ago on Sept 23, 1846.

In 1989 when Voyager 2 became the first—and so far only—spacecraft to visit Neptune, it took thousands of images of Neptune, its rings, and its moons, including this one.

200,000 orbits and counting 🌎

On Sept. 19, Hubble completed its 200,000th orbit around Earth — here’s an observation completed on the big day!

This image shows a cluster of galaxies called MACS J0417: go.nasa.gov/3TMzoHJ

At NASA, we're celebrating the first day of fall, and "sweater weather" in the days ahead.

Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt sported layers during their 1971 trip to Flagstaff, AZ, where they trained for their Moon landing mission using "Grover," the "Geologic Rover."

A new perspective! 🛰️

Voyager 1 had been in space for two weeks and was 7.25 million miles (>11 million km) away OTD in 1977 when it captured this view of the whole Earth and the Moon in the same frame. It was our first image of the kind, but definitely not our last.

1. Voyager 1, 1977
2. DSCOVR, 2015
3. Artemis I, 2022
4. Artemis II, 2026

These are the voyages of the Space Shuttle Enterprise!

50 years ago today, NASA's first space shuttle voyaged out of the Rockwell facility in Palmdale for its public unveiling! Hundreds of invited guests, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and several members of the Star Trek original series cast joined in the first orbiter's rollout celebrations.

NASA had originally planned for the orbiter to be named Constitution and scheduled for the rollout for Constitution Day. But President Gerald Ford, after receiving letters from thousands of Trekkies, directed NASA to name the shuttle Enterprise after the fictional starship.

Happy 5,000 sols, Curiosity!

30 years ago today, Space Shuttle Atlantis launched into orbit as part of the Shuttle-Mir Program.

Aboard the Mir space station, NASA's Shannon Lucid—originally slated to spend 4 months aboard the orbiting laboratory—was getting close to completing 6 months in space with her two Russian crewmates.

Problems with Atlantis's solid rocket boosters and two hurricanes had delayed the launch of STS-79 for two months.

📷 STS-79 pilot Terrence W. Wilcutt takes photos from Atlantis' aft flight deck. Russia's Mir Space Station can be seen in the background.

"It's going, it's really going."

60 years ago today, Commander Pete Conrad raved as the Agena space vehicle raised the Gemini XI spacecraft to a record-high Earth orbit for a crewed spacecraft: 854 miles (1,374 km). This record stood until 2024 when the Polaris Dawn mission reached an apogee of 870 miles. For comparison, the International Space Station orbits at an altitude of around 250 miles.

📷 The east coast of Australia at an altitude of 724 nautical miles (833 statute miles). Note the reflection on the left of the astronaut (either Conrad or Dick Gordon) taking the photo.