Paul-Henri Spaak was Belgium’s foremost statesman in the decades following World War II and a leading advocate of European cooperation. He played a major role in forming the European Economic Community (EEC; later succeeded by the European Union), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and

Carl Spaatz was the leading U.S. combat air commander in World War II and the first chief of staff of the independent U.S. Air Force. A graduate (1914) of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, Spaatz served as a combat pilot during World War I and then acquired extensive staff

Carl Spaatz was the leading U.S. combat air commander in World War II and the first chief of staff of the independent U.S. Air Force. A graduate (1914) of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, Spaatz served as a combat pilot during World War I and then acquired extensive staff

William Morris: Iceland and socialism: …1877 he also founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in an attempt to combat the drastic methods of restoration then being carried out on the cathedrals and parish churches of Great Britain.

Naples: Via Toledo: …Biagio dei Librai—delineates the so-called Spaccanápoli (“Split of Naples”), a designation more loosely applied to all of this ancient centre.

Giordano Bruno: Works: The Spaccio de la bestia trionfante (1584; The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast), the first dialogue of his moral trilogy, is a satire on contemporary superstitions and vices, embodying a strong criticism of Christian ethics—particularly the Calvinistic principle of salvation by faith alone, to which Bruno…

mathematics: The foundations of geometry: …of points, called a “space,” and a group of transformations by means of which figures could be moved around in the space without altering their essential properties. For example, in Euclidean plane geometry the space is the familiar plane, and the transformations are rotations, reflections, translations, and their composites,…

outer space, the region beyond Earth’s atmosphere—thus, the entire universe (including planets, stars, and galaxies) except Earth and its immediate surroundings. Investigating the limits of aerospace design in the 1950s, Hungarian-born American engineer Theodore von Kármán assessed the distance

space, a boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Space is treated in a number of articles. For a philosophical consideration of the subject, see metaphysics. For a discussion of the relativity of space and time, see relativity.

James Michener: Another massive opus was Space (1982), in which he tried, with mixed results, to fictionally chronicle the U.S. space program. Mexico (1992) fictionally deals with the problems of contemporary Mexico, partly as seen through the lens of bullfighting. There is also a strong dramatization of Indian slavery in the…

space tourism: Orbital space tourism: …MirCorp and the American company Space Adventures Ltd. MirCorp was a private venture in charge of the space station Mir. To generate income for maintenance of the aging space station, MirCorp decided to sell a trip to Mir, and Tito became its first paying passenger. However, before Tito could make…

space exploration, investigation, by means of crewed and uncrewed spacecraft, of the reaches of the universe beyond Earth’s atmosphere and the use of the information so gained to increase knowledge of the cosmos and benefit humanity. A complete list of all crewed spaceflights, with details on each

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency: …of Tokyo had created the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) in 1964. This small group undertook the development of scientific spacecraft and the vehicles needed to launch them, and it launched Japan’s first satellite, Osumi, in 1970. In 1981 oversight of ISAS was transferred to the Japanese Ministry…

Kelsey Grammer: Later film and TV credits: His films from 2021 included The Space Between, about an aging rock star.

Biosphere 2: Design: …who was the director of Space Biospheres Ventures, a joint venture that in 1984 purchased the property where the facility is located. Its construction was completed in 1989, revealing a structure consisting of three main sections: an aboveground airtight glass-enclosed area, a belowground technology area (the Technosphere), and an area…

space charge, electrical charge distributed through a three-dimensional region. In an electron tube, for example, a negative charge results because electrons that are emitted from the cathode do not travel instantaneously to the plate (anode) but require a finite time for the trip. These electrons

Jack Arnold: The Space Children (1958) was a solemn story of mysteriously brainwashed children sabotaging a nuclear test site, while, completing a very busy 1958, Monster on the Campus had a less weighty message: one should not ingest the blood of a prehistoric fish unless one wants…

While humans have long imagined gods in the sky, the idea of space travel or humans living in space dates to at least 1610 after the invention of the telescope, when German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote to Italian astronomer Galileo: In popular culture, space travel dates back to at least the

Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction, in relativity physics, the shortening of an object along the direction of its motion relative to an observer. Dimensions in other directions are not contracted. The concept of the contraction was proposed by the Irish physicist George FitzGerald in 1889, and it was

Clint Eastwood: 2000 and beyond: Space Cowboys (2000) had Eastwood as the head of a team of elderly test pilots (Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner, and Donald Sutherland) who have been summoned out of retirement to rescue the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) when an obsolete Russian satellite requires…

space debris, artificial material that orbits Earth but is no longer functional. This material can be as large as a discarded rocket stage or as small as a microscopic chip of paint. Much of the debris is in low Earth orbit, within 2,000 km (1,200 miles) of Earth’s surface, though some debris can

geomagnetic field: Magnetic storms—growth of the ring current: …the federal government operates a Space Disturbance Forecast Center in Boulder, Colorado, which monitors the state of the Sun and solar wind and attempts to predict the occurrence of such “space weather.”

space elevator, a concept for lifting mass out of Earth’s gravity well without using rockets in which an extremely strong cable extends from Earth’s surface to the height of geostationary orbit (35,786 km [22,236 miles]) or beyond. The competing forces of gravity at the lower end and outward

space exploration, investigation, by means of crewed and uncrewed spacecraft, of the reaches of the universe beyond Earth’s atmosphere and the use of the information so gained to increase knowledge of the cosmos and benefit humanity. A complete list of all crewed spaceflights, with details on each

SpaceX is an American aerospace company founded in 2002 that helped usher in the era of commercial spaceflight. It was the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from Earth orbit and the first to launch a crewed spacecraft and dock it with the International Space

Steve Carell: The Morning Show and Broadway debut: …then cocreated and starred in Space Force (2020–22), a Netflix sitcom about the creation of an interstellar branch of the military. In 2020 he appeared in Irresistible, a political satire written and directed by Jon Stewart; Carell played a consultant working on a mayoral race in a small Midwestern town.…

space frame, Three-dimensional truss based on the rigidity of the triangle and composed of linear elements subject only to compression or tension. Its simplest spatial unit is a tetrahedron having four joints and six members. A space frame forms a very strong, thick, flexible structural fabric that

space group, in crystallography, any of the ways in which the orientation of a crystal can be changed without seeming to change the position of its atoms. These changes may involve displacement of the whole structure along a crystallographic axis (translation), as well as the point group operations

Space Invaders, arcade game created by Japanese engineer and game designer Nishikado Tomohiro in 1978 and produced by Japanese electronic game manufacturer Taito Corp. The objective of Space Invaders, which was one of the earliest video games released, is to pan across a screen and shoot descending

Bugs Bunny: …Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), Space Jam (1996), and Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021). His likeness is marketed extensively on commercial products.

Bugs Bunny: … (1988), Space Jam (1996), and Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021). His likeness is marketed extensively on commercial products.

space debris, artificial material that orbits Earth but is no longer functional. This material can be as large as a discarded rocket stage or as small as a microscopic chip of paint. Much of the debris is in low Earth orbit, within 2,000 km (1,200 miles) of Earth’s surface, though some debris can

space station, an artificial structure placed in orbit and having the pressurized enclosure, power, supplies, and environmental systems necessary to support human habitation for extended periods. Depending on its configuration, a space station can serve as a base for a variety of activities. These

crystal: Structures of metals: The most common lattice structures for metals are those obtained by stacking the atomic spheres into the most compact arrangement. There are two such possible periodic arrangements. In each, the first layer has the atoms packed into a plane-triangular lattice in which every atom has six immediate neighbours.…

Artemis: The Space Launch System (SLS) is one of the largest and most powerful rockets ever built. Its central stage is powered by four liquid-hydrogen–liquid-oxygen engines. Flanking the central stage are two solid rocket boosters that would fall away two minutes after launch. The central stage would…

launch vehicle, in spaceflight, a rocket-powered vehicle used to transport a spacecraft beyond Earth’s atmosphere, either into orbit around Earth or to some other destination in outer space. Practical launch vehicles have been used to send crewed spacecraft, uncrewed space probes, and satellites

space law, the body of regulations in international law that governs conduct in and related to areas of space above Earth’s lower atmosphere. The evolution of space law began with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s introduction of the concept into the United Nations in 1957, in connection with

aerospace medicine, specialized branch of medical science concerned with those medical problems encountered in human flight in the atmosphere (aviation medicine) and beyond the atmosphere (space medicine). The ultimate aim of this specialty is to promote the safety and effectiveness of humans while

Frederik Pohl: His most famous work, The Space Merchants (1953), was written in collaboration with Kornbluth. It tells the story of Mitchell Courtenay, a “copysmith star class” for a powerful advertising agency who is made head of a project to colonize Venus in order to create consumers in space. This chilling…

Milky Way Galaxy: Stellar motions: …complete knowledge of a star’s motion in space is possible only when both its proper motion and radial velocity can be measured. Proper motion is the motion of a star across an observer’s line of sight and constitutes the rate at which the direction of the star changes in the…

Seattle: City layout: …contains the 605-foot- (184-meter-) high Space Needle, Seattle’s best-known landmark, as well as McCaw Hall (home of the Seattle Opera), Climate Pledge Arena, the Children’s Museum, the Museum of Pop Culture, and other public buildings. There the high-rise downtown cityscape gives way to the pleasant urban neighborhoods of Magnolia, which…

David Bowie: Early career: “Space Oddity,” the science-fiction single that marks the real beginning of his career, reached the top 10 in Britain in 1969; though Bowie had cannily pegged its original release to the Apollo 11 Moon mission, the song did not become an American radio staple until…

science fiction: Space travel: …has been invested in “space opera,” science fiction at its most romantic. The space opera is an action adventure, commonly of galactic scale, of which the film cycle Star Wars (1977, 1980, 1983, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2015–17) is the best-known exemplar. It presents a unique type of “widescreen baroque,”…

space perception, process through which humans and other organisms become aware of the relative positions of their own bodies and objects around them. Space perception provides cues, such as depth and distance, that are important for movement and orientation to the environment. Human beings have

space exploration: Solar and space physics: The first scientific discovery made with instruments orbiting in space was the existence of the Van Allen radiation belts, discovered by Explorer 1 in 1958. Subsequent space missions investigated Earth’s magnetosphere, the surrounding region of space in which the planet’s magnetic field exerts…

extraterrestrial intelligence: Argument for extraterrestrial intelligence: In addition, space probes are trying to find evidence that the conditions for life might have emerged on Mars or other worlds in the solar system, thus addressing assumption 2. Proof of assumption 3, that thinking beings will evolve on some of the worlds with life, requires…

aerospace industry: The space age: …the Soviet and the American space industries had much the same origins and impetus. The development of intermediate-range and intercontinental missiles provided not only the critical electronic technologies but also the rockets necessary to boost small payloads into orbit. Thus, the launch of Sputnik in 1957 signaled not only Soviet…

spectroscopy: Angular momentum quantum numbers: This phenomenon is known as space quantization and was first demonstrated by two German physicists, Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach.

Who Won the Space Race?: …considered to have won the Space Race. The Space Race was a fierce rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, defined by major milestones in space exploration. The Soviet Union initially took the lead by launching Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957. This was…

Donald Kent Slayton: He then founded and directed Space Services, Inc., a pioneering company that launched small satellites.

space shuttle, partially reusable rocket-launched vehicle designed to go into orbit around Earth, to transport people and cargo to and from orbiting spacecraft, and to glide to a runway landing on its return to Earth’s surface that was developed by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space

motion sickness, sickness induced by motion and characterized by nausea. The term motion sickness was proposed by J.A. Irwin in 1881 to provide a general designation for such similar syndromes as seasickness, train sickness, car sickness, and airsickness. The term, though imprecise for scientific

aerospace industry: Spacecraft, launch vehicle, and missile development: …two types of simulators: the space simulator, which duplicates all the environmental conditions in which the spacecraft will operate, and the mission simulator, which permits carrying out the entire range of maneuvers and system operations that might be performed on an actual flight.

space station, an artificial structure placed in orbit and having the pressurized enclosure, power, supplies, and environmental systems necessary to support human habitation for extended periods. Depending on its configuration, a space station can serve as a base for a variety of activities. These

International Space Station (ISS), space station assembled in low Earth orbit largely by the United States and Russia, with assistance and components from a multinational consortium. It has been continously occupied by astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2, 2000. The project, which began as an

human-factors engineering: Space suit: The designing of a much more complicated device, such as a space suit, presents more intricate problems. A space suit is a complete miniature world, a self-contained environment that must supply everything needed for an astronaut’s life, as well as comfort. The suit…

space tourism, recreational space travel, either on established government-owned vehicles such as the Russian Soyuz and the International Space Station (ISS) or on vehicles fielded by private companies. Since the flight of the world’s first space tourist, American businessman Dennis Tito, on April

space shuttle, partially reusable rocket-launched vehicle designed to go into orbit around Earth, to transport people and cargo to and from orbiting spacecraft, and to glide to a runway landing on its return to Earth’s surface that was developed by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space

space exploration, investigation, by means of crewed and uncrewed spacecraft, of the reaches of the universe beyond Earth’s atmosphere and the use of the information so gained to increase knowledge of the cosmos and benefit humanity. A complete list of all crewed spaceflights, with details on each

Ronald McNair: …first person to perform a space walk without being tethered to a spacecraft. McNair operated the shuttle’s robotic arm to move a platform on which an astronaut could stand. This method of placing an astronaut in a specified position using the robotic arm was used on subsequent shuttle missions to…

Mira Sorvino: …movies included Union Square (2011), Space Warriors (2013), Quitters (2015), and The Red Maple Leaf (2016). In 2019 she appeared in the action comedy Stuber.

space weather, conditions in space caused by the Sun that can affect satellites and technology on Earth as well as human life and health. As modern civilization has become more dependent on continent-sized electric power distribution grids, global satellite communication and navigation systems, and

space weather: Forecasting: government has developed a Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The SWPC is based in Boulder, Colo., and observes the Sun in real time from both ground-based observatories and satellites in order to predict geomagnetic storms. Satellites stationed at geosynchronous orbit…

meteorite: Association of meteorites with asteroids: …set of processes collectively called space weathering that were responsible for both the low sulfur measurement of Eros and the mismatch between the spectra of chondrites and S-class asteroids.

Samuel Alexander: …a comprehensive system published as Space, Time and Deity (1920), his only major work. It explains the world as a single cosmic process with space-time as the basic cosmic matrix. “Emergents” (Gestalt-like properties) periodically arise as higher syntheses. Space-time thus produced matter, and matter in turn gave rise to mind…

space-based solar power, the collection in space of solar energy, which is then transmitted as a microwave or laser beam to the ground and converted into electrical energy. The idea of space-based solar power predates the space age. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposed in 1923 that space-based mirrors

telephone: Digital switching: …this point are classified as space-division switches. Space-division switches are characterized by the fact that the speech path through a telephone switch is continuous throughout the exchange. That speech path is a metallic circuit, in the sense that it is provided entirely through the metallic contacts of the switch. Other…

number game: Pathological curves: …is “one-dimensional” and thus cannot fill a given space, it can be shown that the curve produced by continuing the stages in Figure 8, when completed, will pass through every point in the square. In fact, by similar reasoning, the curve can be made to fill completely an entire cube.

warning system: Space surveillance: …allied to warning systems are space-object detection and tracking systems. It is likely that only the United States and the Soviets have developed and operate these systems. A variety of very large radars are used, although the newer installations are phased-array radars that have stationary antennas with electronically steerable multiple…

space-time, in physical science, single concept that recognizes the union of space and time, first proposed by the mathematician Hermann Minkowski in 1908 as a way to reformulate Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity (1905). (Read Einstein’s 1926 Britannica essay on space-time.) Common

Mel Brooks: Films of the 1980s and 1990s: Similarly disappointing were Spaceballs (1987), a takeoff on the Star Wars series, and Life Stinks (1991). Brooks then directed Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), a send-up of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), in which Kevin Costner had starred (and was generally maligned) as the legendary outlaw…

spacecraft, vehicle designed to operate, with or without a crew, in a controlled flight pattern above Earth’s lower atmosphere. Although early conceptions of spaceflight usually depicted streamlined spacecraft, streamlining has no particular advantage in the vacuum of space. Actual vehicles are

oceanic pole of inaccessibility: Debris and pollution: …to it becoming a “spacecraft cemetery” for space stations, satellites, and other retired spacecraft. Since 1971 the United States, Russia (then the USSR), Japan, and several European states have deorbited nearly 300 spacecraft, including the Soviet-era Mir space station, and programmed them to crash into the ocean in this…

Simon Pegg: Career: …characters in the British sitcom Spaced (1999–2001), which he developed with Hynes. Pegg and Hynes costarred in the series, which was directed by Wright and has become a cult classic in Britain in the years since its release. The show focused on the escapades of aspiring artist Tim Bisley (Pegg)…

spaceflight, flight beyond Earth’s atmosphere. This article deals with the basic concepts associated with the launch and return of unmanned and manned spacecraft and their travel, navigation, and rendezvous and docking in space. For the development of space travel and discussions of spacecraft and

Sissy Spacek is an American actress who is known for her ability to convey genuineness in a range of critically admired roles. Spacek grew up in rural Texas, and, following high school, she moved to New York City in 1967 to pursue a career as a singer. While there she stayed with a cousin, actor

Sissy Spacek is an American actress who is known for her ability to convey genuineness in a range of critically admired roles. Spacek grew up in rural Texas, and, following high school, she moved to New York City in 1967 to pursue a career as a singer. While there she stayed with a cousin, actor

Spacelab, European-built system of pressurized modules that was used on 16 space shuttle missions from 1983 to 1998. These modules were carried in the space shuttle’s payload bay. In 1973 the European Space Research Organisation (which became the European Space Agency [ESA] in 1975) suggested it

Adam Sandler: Later movie roles: Funny People, Uncut Gems, and Happy Gilmore 2: …role, in the sci-fi drama Spaceman (2024), playing an astronaut on the verge of a psychological breakdown during a long-term mission while his wife (Carey Mulligan) is back on Earth. He returned to slapstick comedy the following year in the sequel Happy Gilmore 2, which also featured appearances by his…

William Kingdon Clifford: ” He showed that spaces of constant curvature could have several different topological structures.

SpaceShipOne (SS1), the first private crewed space vehicle, which flew past the boundary of space (100,000 metres, or 328,000 feet) over the United States in 2004 in competition for the Ansari X Prize. Inspired by the Orteig Prize won by Charles Lindbergh for his solo flight across the Atlantic in

Burt Rutan: In 2009 Virgin Galactic unveiled SpaceShipTwo, a craft designed to make suborbital tourist flights beginning in 2012; however, that date was subsequently pushed back.

Ronald McNair: …first person to perform a space walk without being tethered to a spacecraft. McNair operated the shuttle’s robotic arm to move a platform on which an astronaut could stand. This method of placing an astronaut in a specified position using the robotic arm was used on subsequent shuttle missions to…

electronic game: From chess to Spacewar! to Pong: Martin Graetz, and others created Spacewar! (1962) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This game began as a demonstration program to show off the PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) minicomputer donated by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) to MIT and the new Precision CRT Display Type 30 attached to it. This…

SpaceX is an American aerospace company founded in 2002 that helped usher in the era of commercial spaceflight. It was the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from Earth orbit and the first to launch a crewed spacecraft and dock it with the International Space

For years, we’ve watched SpaceX evolve from an ambitious private rocket company into what some might call a global obsession, with its reusable rockets, Starlink satellites, multi-billion-dollar defense contracts, and talk of someday colonizing Mars. And alongside founder Elon Musk’s famously

Victor Glover, Jr.: Astronaut and Artemis II: …as the pilot on the SpaceX Crew-1 mission, which was the first fully operational flight of the Dragon spacecraft. He and three other astronauts launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2020. He spent 168 days in space and performed four spacewalks.

Anne McClain: …ISS as commander of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission, which carried three other astronauts: Nicole Ayers of the U.S., Onishi Takuya of Japan, and Kirill Peskov of Russia. Crew-10 launched on March 14, 2025, and returned to Earth on August 9 after 147 days in space. Between her two spaceflights, McClain…

Kjell Lindgren: …as commander on the SpaceX Crew-4 mission, which launched from Cape Canaveral on April 27, 2022, to the ISS. Lindgren again worked on many experiments, including a study on how microgravity ages the immune system. After spending 170 days in space, he returned to Earth on October 14. During his…

Dragon, privately developed spacecraft built by the American corporation SpaceX and the first private spacecraft to carry astronauts to orbit. The first of two test flights was launched on December 8, 2010, and the second test flight, which carried cargo to the International Space Station (ISS),

Starship, spacecraft being developed by the American corporation SpaceX. Starship, with the Super Heavy launch vehicle, is the successor to SpaceX’s previous rockets: the Falcon 1, the Falcon 9, and the Falcon Heavy. The Super Heavy first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000

Kevin Spacey is an American actor on stage and screen, especially known for his dynamic roles in dark comedies. When Spacey was a young boy, his family moved frequently, ultimately settling in southern California. In high school he began taking drama classes and subsequently appeared in numerous

animal social behavior: Social interactions involving movement: The benefits of forming dispersal swarms, flocks, and coalitions are considered similar to the advantages of living in aggregations as both exploit the potential benefits of living in groups. Moving about in groups can provide additional advantages, such as the reduction in turbulence and energy savings accrued by geese…

fighter aircraft: VII and the French Spad were attaining speeds of 135 miles (215 km) per hour. Most of these were biplanes made of wooden frames and cloth skins, as were many of the standard interwar fighters.

Chris Farley: Movies: Billy Madison and Tommy Boy: In 1995 Farley starred with David Spade in Tommy Boy, which depicted the real-life rapport between the two best friends. The film received mixed reviews but became a cult classic. The two comedians then appeared in Black Sheep (1996), about a political aide (Spade) who must babysit a candidate’s bumbling…

Sam Spade, fictional character, the quintessential hard-boiled private detective, the protagonist of a novel (The Maltese Falcon, 1930) and several short stories by Dashiell

philodendron: Major species: Larger types include the spade-leaf philodendron (P. domesticum), with triangular leaves up to 60 cm (24 inches) long, and the tree philodendron (P. bipinnatifidum), with deeply cut leaves up to 1 metre (3 feet) long, both of which are striking plants that require considerable indoor space.

spadebill, any of six species of New World flycatchers (family Tyrannidae, order Passeriformes) whose triangular bill is very broad and flat. The white-throated, or stub-tailed, spadebill (Platyrinchus mystaceus), scarcely 10 centimetres (4 inches) long, is the most widespread species; it inhabits

spadefish, (family Ephippidae), any of about 17 species of marine fishes (order Perciformes), predominantly tropical though also found in temperate regions. In appearance the spadefishes are deep-bodied and laterally compressed, with five or six vertical black bands on a silvery body. The vertical

spadefoot toad, relatively smooth-skinned amphibian of either the Old World genus Pelobates or of the genera Scaphiopus and Spea of North America. All spadefoot toads are classified in the family Pelobatidae. Spadefoot toads have a broad, horny “spade” projecting from the inside of each hind foot