The film adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s Elvis and Me promises to subtly reveal the horror behind the majesty of Graceland. Minor spoilers for the book Elvis and Me. When I first read Elvis and Me, written by Priscilla Presley with Sandra Harmon, I was 14. I reveled in its descriptions…

Two women pilots — both talented, but only one can reign in space. Or so this story has been told. Jacqueline Cochran may have been the most decorated record-breaking pilot (not just as a woman pilot, but as a pilot, period), but one story about her life and career tends…

The death of an iconoclast and the Barbie movie underscore gendered impossibilities. Trigger warning: there are mentions of suicide in this article. One of the greatest voices of our time — scratch that, any time — is gone at the age of 56. Sinéad O’Connor’s first two albums, The Lion…

The Titan submersible tragedy reminds us that exploration will always be fraught with unknown — and known — risks. Trigger warning: this article discusses several engineering tragedies. On Monday, news broke that the Titan submersible — billed as a Cyclops-class human submersible capable of exploring sea depths to approximately 4,000…

NASA dreamed of building a spaceship that lifted off like a rocket and landed like a plane. However, not everyone was on board. The article by David Zinman of Newsday that was reprinted in the August 22, 1971 edition of the Orlando Sentinel began with almost breathless, sci-fi prose: It…

A new photo book shines a light upon the Mercury Project, 60+ years young. In 2019 when Apollo 11 50th anniversary mania was underway, space photo historian J.L. Pickering received a phone call that would kickstart his latest project alongside co-author John Bisney: the son-in-law of legendary NASA photographer William…

Meet five unsung heroes of the Skylab program, launched fifty years ago on this day. The 50th anniversary of Skylab’s launch is upon us and will be marked by several anniversary events, including this one at Kansas’ Cosmosphere Thursday, May 18th. Many of us are familiar with the stories of…

Trigger warning for suicide, alcoholism, and depression. Heather B. Armstrong, the creator and writer of the website Dooce.com and an Internet pioneer credited with the advent of the “mommy blogger,” has died of depression at age 47. She first rose to Internet notoriety in 2002 when her blog posts about…

How FORTRAN helped design one of the world’s iconic space-themed roller coaster rides. In 1976, NASA released its first “NASA Spinoff” magazine to show the world outside astronautics and aeronautics how the agency’s innovations enriched everyday life. The first issue — resplendent in loopy mid-1970s fonts and maize-avocado color schemes…