Steve Fentress

Articles by: Steve Fentress

The space shuttle Enterprise arrives at Marshall Space Flight Center for the first test of all shuttle components together.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center: A hub for historic and modern-day rocket power

By Steve Fentress published 6 July 21

Wernher von Braun's crew built Saturn rockets here. Skylab, Hubble and Chandra all had roots here. Now, Marshall Space Flight Center tests rocket bodies for Artemis and engines for Blue Origin.

Arabic-based star names in the constellation Ursa Major, as shown in Urania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in 1824.

How are stars named?

By Steve Fentress published 12 May 20

Who gets to name the stars?

A star chart from "A Handbook and Atlas of Astronomy" by W. Peck (published 1890).

What are star charts?

By Steve Fentress published 14 April 20

Star charts show the arrangement of stars in the sky, in a style that can be scientific, artistic or both, depending on the intended use.

After a research flight by the HL-10 lifting body, technician John Reeves works on the craft, and pilot Bill Dana watches the B-52 that launched it.

NASA's Armstrong Center: Flying what others only imagine

By Steve Fentress published 28 February 20

Reference article: Facts about NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center.

A rocket engine fueled by liquid methane and liquid oxygen fires in a test at Glenn Research Center's Altitude Combustion Stand.

NASA's Glenn Research Center: Incubator of technologies for flight

By Steve Fentress published 12 February 20

With supersonic wind tunnels, giant vacuum chambers, engine test stands and a deep shaft for dropping test packages, NASA's Glenn Research Center puts air and space hardware to the test.

The main mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope is tested in the giant clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center: Exploring Earth and space by remote control

By Steve Fentress published 10 February 20

The James Webb Space Telescope, WFIRST, Hubble, and hundreds of other missions sprang from or have close connections to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Yerkes Observatory: Home of Largest Refracting Telescope

By Steve Fentress published 28 October 19

The Yerkes Observatory is more than 120 years old and is most known for contributing to discoveries about stellar motion and cartography.

Kepler Space Telescope: The Original Exoplanet Hunter

By Steve Fentress published 7 December 18

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope was a revolutionary space telescope dedicated to finding planets outside our solar system.

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