What better way to get in the mood for a space shuttle launch than to talk to an astronaut about one? DCist sat down with Alvin Drew, a D.C. born and bred astronaut who recently flew aboard the final Discovery mission. more ›

Cheers erupted from the staff at the National Air & Space Museum this afternoon as NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, over a live feed from Kennedy Space Center, officially announced that space shuttle Discovery will find a new home at the Udvar-Hazy Center. more ›

Washington, D.C. native Alvin Drew was the sixth and last astronaut strapped in a few minutes ago aboard the space shuttle Discovery at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is Drew's second shuttle mission, his first since STS-118 in 2007. more ›

A slice of nostalgia for your Sunday afternoon: friend of DCist John Ulaszek sent Look Up this great copy of an old Weekly Reader magazine he dug up a couple weeks ago. The cover features the upcoming launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia on Mission STS-2 -- the second launch in the brand new space shuttle program and also the second launch for Columbia, with a crew of just two. As often happens, the launch was delayed twice and eventually went up on November 12, 1981, where the crew tested new capabilities, including the Remote Manipulator System, or as most of us call it, the CanadArm. Still working out the kinks, STS-2 was cut short when a fuel cell failed, and landed a little over two days after lift-off; this brings to mind the many NASA officials and supporters who've been saying over the past year that we're cutting the shuttle program right when we started getting really good at it. more ›

It's a regular week of summer nights coming up. No meteor showers or amazing celestial events mark the calendar, but with the waxing Moon and (hopefully) some clear nights, it should be a great time to put on some bug spray and check out the regulars -- start with the Summer Triangle we pointed out last week. more ›