drew@drewexmachina.com
Recent years has seen a marked increase in the planetary community’s interest in Venus after decades of near-neglect. Part of this renewed interest is to understand […]
In recent years, we have grown used to seeing a stream of new pictures taken from the surface of Mars and the Moon from advanced landers […]
During the summer of 1990, I got a chance to check out a large exhibit of Soviet space hardware at the Boston Museum of Science (see […]
While remote sensing techniques are useful in determining the composition of other worlds, the Rosetta Stone for planetary scientists is actual samples which can be subjected […]
As the historic Apollo 11 mission was heading to the Moon, a bit of space drama was unfolding before the eyes of the world. Just three […]
On October 18, 1967 the sole 1V spacecraft to survive launch for the Soviet “V-67” mission to Venus, called Venera 4, finally reached its target. The […]
The Venera program was undoubtedly the most successful and best known series of Soviet planetary missions. During the 1970s and early 1980s, a succession of spacecraft […]
In recent years it seems that Mars has dominated NASA’s planetary exploration program while proposals to study our twin-planet-gone-bad, Venus, are being repeatedly rejected. Something similar […]
Without a doubt, 1966 proved to be a banner year for lunar exploration. At the end of the first month of the year, the Soviet Union […]
After the Soviet Luna 10 spacecraft became the first to enter orbit around the Moon on April 3, 1966 (see “Luna 10: The First Lunar Satellite”), […]
Every now and then, we have the opportunity to touch a piece of history. One of the more memorable of such moments for me came in […]
During the opening years of the Space Age, the Soviet Union managed to score a long string of space firsts taking an early lead in the […]
