Space History Photos

Today, Wernher von Braun is remembered as a rocket engineer who spent his career singlemindedly focused on enabling human spaceflight, first for Nazi Germany and then for the U.S.

Fifty-six years after a cat named Félicette became the first feline to launch into space, plans to build the cosmic cat's first proper memorial are beginning to take shape.

The Soviet Union launched the Cosmos 482 Venus probe on March 31, 1972. But the failed Venus craft is crashing back to Earth soon.

The Freedom was intended to be a permanently inhabited orbiting base.

Engineers inspect a boilerplate Mercury capsule.

Astronaut Kathy Sullivan poses for a picture with her space suit.

A Mercury spacecraft lands in the ocean after launched from Little Joe in a High-Q-Abort test.

After a successful mission, Cooper is assisted from his mercury capsule.

The first all-female crew of scientific experimenters prepare experiments that were used during the Space Shuttle/Spacelab missions.