With the conclusion of NASA’s shuttle program and the upcoming launch of the latest Mars rover, the future of space exploration is once again a hot topic—and humans’ first steps on the Moon are all the more important to revisit.

On October 25, join Apollo historian Andrew Chaikin and the Museum’s Director of Astrovisualization Carter Emmart for October’s Astronomy Live program, Fly Me to the Moon. The evening begins at 6:30 pm and includes a flight simulation to Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor using the latest data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, along with mapping photographs taken from lunar orbit by the Apollo astronauts 40 years ago.

Chaikin recently answered a few questions about his passion for space exploration.

The Museum’s upcoming exhibition Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration features some spectacular technologies and missions—from a space elevator to the terraforming of Mars—that have been the staple of science fiction for the last 50 years, inspiring generations of students. Today, what was once limited to the realm of science fiction is being discussed by leading researchers and engineers as not-too-distant possibilities.

And so, for the first time ever, the Museum is headed to New York Comic Con (October 13 through October 16), this weekend’s highly anticipated convention. Our booth will feature a preview of Beyond Planet Earth and a mini-planetarium where visitors can enjoy a flight through the universe narrated by Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson, with visualizations based on the Digital Universe Atlas, an authentic map of the observable cosmos maintained at the Museum.

“I think being allowed to go to space at 30 is wonderful,” says Bertalan Farkas, Hungary’s first cosmonaut, in Marian Kiss’sSpace Sailors, which makes its U.S. premiere at the Margaret Mead Film Festival on Sunday, November 13. “But one mustn’t forget—if you reach your zenith so young, what will you do then?”

Can you imagine an elevator to the Moon, a lunar habitat, or colonies on Mars? In anticipation of the upcoming exhibition Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration, opening on November 19, the Museum wants to see what you think will be humanity’s next steps in space—in three minutes or less. 

Hundreds of visitors gathered in the Museum’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Hall of the Universe on Tuesday morning to meet the four astronauts from NASA’s final shuttle mission, Atlantis’s STS-135. Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim made their first New York appearance at the Museum since their return from space on July 21.