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AdAstra Magazine Official magazine of the National Space Society.

08/05/2026

Multiple synchronized camera views capture several of Artemis Il's most important launch milestones as Orion climbs toward orbit aboard the Space Launch System.
The solid rocket boosters separate after powering the first two minutes of flight, followed by the spacecraft adapter panels that protected Orion's solar arrays during ascent. Finally, the Launch Abort System, Orion's emergency escape rocket, is jettisoned after it is no longer needed, marking another successful step on the journey to the Moon.
Credit: NASA
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08/05/2026

Aside from those few bright stars with blue diffraction spikes, nearly everything visible in this image is an entire galaxy. Located 5 billion light-years away, the galaxy cluster MACS J1149 is so massive that its gravity warps the surrounding fabric of spacetime. This magnifies galaxies far beyond it, allowing the James Webb Space Telescope to see light that began its journey billions of years ago. Some of the distorted streaks in this image are entire galaxies, stretched by gravity across the cosmos.

07/28/2026

We've been tracking near-Earth asteroids for decades, and that work is why we knew about the "city-killer" that passed within 500,000 miles of Earth this past Christmas Day. It's also why we know there's more out there we haven't found yet, especially objects hiding in the sun's glare where ground telescopes struggle to see.

NASA's NEO Surveyor is the next step: a new infrared space telescope designed to close that gap and speed up detection times significantly.

Curious what's actually out there? David Hodes breaks down how it works, and what it adds to the planetary defense effort, in the Spring 2026 issue. Link in bio.

07/28/2026

When we go to Mars, how will we keep a human body functioning in an environment it was never built for? This is a challenge already being studied by scientists and medical professionals working to make long-term spaceflight possible.

The National Space Society brings these conversations to the forefront, connecting the researchers, physicians, and engineers tackling human health in deep space. It's a topic you can expect to see more of at future ISDC events. 


07/28/2026

Every space age needs its poets as much as its physicists. Sagan gave us the words; now a new generation of companies and countries are writing the next stanza.

Who's actually building toward that self-sustaining future on the Moon and Mars and what's different about this wave compared to the last one? John F. Kross breaks down the new players entering interplanetary missions in the Spring 2026 issue.

Subscribe using the link in bio. 🌙

07/22/2026

Uncut footage of the Artemis I Orion capsule reentering Earth's atmosphere after returning from the Moon. Traveling at roughly 25,000 mph — nearly 40x the speed of sound — Orion slams into the atmosphere so violently that it compresses the air ahead of it into a shockwave hotter than 5,000°F, over twice as hot as molten lava. That shockwave rips electrons from air molecules, turning the air itself into glowing plasma that engulfs the capsule and briefly cuts off communication with Mission Control. 

07/21/2026

57 Years Ago Today 🌕

On July 20, 1969, humanity accomplished something that had never been done before. Apollo 11’s Lunar Module Eagle touched down in the Sea of Tranquility, and a few hours later Neil Armstrong took humanity’s first steps on another world. (NASA)

“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Fun fact: If you watched the original broadcast, you probably heard, “That’s one small step for man…” Armstrong always maintained he intended to say “for a man,” but the tiny word “a” was lost or nearly inaudible in the radio transmission. Decades later, digital audio analysis suggested the missing word may actually have been spoken after all. (NASA)

More than half a billion people watched as history unfolded in real time. It wasn’t just an American achievement—it was a milestone for all humanity, proving that impossible dreams can become reality through courage, innovation, and determination. (NASA)

Here’s to the engineers, scientists, astronauts, and the hundreds of thousands of people who made the impossible possible.

🌍➡️🌕

07/20/2026

Zooming in on the Andromeda Galaxy, aka Gigapixels of Andromeda, is one of the most detailed portraits ever captured of our galactic neighbor. Stitched from thousands of Hubble exposures, the image resolves more than 100 million individual stars across a sweeping stretch of Andromeda's disc. At 1.5 gigapixels, it's so massive you'd need over 600 HD screens just to display it at full resolution. Hubble pulled this off from 2.5 million light-years away, sharp enough to pick out single stars the way you'd spot one specific grain of sand on a beach from clear across the shore.

Image Credit: NASA

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