Happy 40th anniversary, Apollo 11! July 20 marks the 40th year since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin captured the world's imagination when they stepped foot on the lunar surface. How exciting must it have been to see those first steps on television in 1969!

To commemorate the landmark event, I decided to do a News Illustrated focusing on the entire mission. My goal was to map out every step (no pun intended) from launch to splashdown. I was even fortunate to find timestamps to help tell the chronology, and used as many historical photos as possible to further tell the story. This is just one of those subjects that demand it tell its own story.

What I wish I could have included was a timeline of the whole Apollo program, but I quickly ran out of space. So to give it the justice it deserves, here's a copy of the 30th anniversary page we did in 1999 by my former colleague Dan Niblock.

And for more information, visit NASA's Apollo 11 anniversary page.

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Have you ever gazed into the sky and wondered if there were actually other planets like ours in this huge galaxy? It is a fun question to ponder, a mystery beyond our imagination.

Well that mystery might become reality a couple of years from now. NASA's Kepler satellite is out in space right this moment staring down 100,000 stars for the next 3.5 years in search of Earth-like planets.

Kepler will look for tiny changes in a stars brightness when a planet crosses in front of the star. The changes will be measured by scientist to see if the planet is Earth-like.

If everything goes well, scientist expect to find at least 50 Earth-like planets within the search area and the mystery question of whether there are other planets like ours in space may have an answer!

Make sure you read this Sunday's News Illustrated page to learn more about Kepler.

Here is a video about the Kepler mission:

Here is a animation of how it works:

Photos of Kepler can be found at http://www.ballaerospace.com/gallery/kepler/gallery14.htm

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Only 700 calories compared to the 3,000 caloried-meals most of us will be consuming this Thanksgiving. Check out what astronauts are eating to celebrate the holiday in space:

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After five months of digging, scooping, baking, sniffing and tasting. Phoenix has gone silent and is almost certainly dead, NASA says. Phoenix's main goals were to search for environments suitable for microbial life and research history of water on the planet.

Phoenix had a remarkable mission

It discovered two types of ice deposits, observed snow descending from Martian clouds, provided a record of weather during the length of the mission along with all types of data like temperatures, pressure, humidity and wind.

These images taken on the 21st and 25th day of the mission show ice formation and evaporation. On the left you can see ice clumps in the lower lefthand corner of the image, by the 25th day they had disappeared. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

Read more about the mission.

See animations and videos on the Phoenix.

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High rises are using their roof space as gardens, green space and landscape.

Here is a graphic that shows how the roofs are layered to enable greenary:

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After spending 10 months traveling to Mars, the Phoenix lander will touch down on Mars this Sunday. NASA scientists will be biting their nails between the seven minutes it will take to land once it enters Mars' atmosphere.

So what is NASA doing this time? This wire graphic explains the mission and how the spacecraft will make its landing. The Phoenix's goal is to find evidence that life existed on the planet by studying soil and ice samples.

Need more? NASA has some great images and a blog, while the University of Arizona (the brains behind the ship) has a more in-depth site on the spacecraft and its mission.

But please, try to keep the theme music to "2001: A space odyssey" on low as you do the research.

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If you didn't see Sunday's New Illustrated page on the Air Force's "Airborne Laser," you can download it here. The page explains how the plane shoots down ballistic missiles and gives an in-depth view on how its nose turret and chemical laser works.

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Ok so you may have been wondering when was the guy with the “flat head” ever going to do a post? Well here it is...

This video shows how the "nose turret" on an Air Force's Airborne Laser works, The ABL fires its powerful chemical laser through this turret to shoot down ballistic missiles in their boost phase.

Looks Sci-fi huh? Well guess what, it may become reality in a couple of years.

The ABL will be part of a missile defense system intended to protect U.S. territory from missile attacks. Contractors are currently working on this weapon which has so far totaled $4.3 billion. You can learn more about it in this Sundays News Illustrated page.

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Light pollution is most prevalent in urban areas across the U.S. Many parts of Florida are not good for people looking to catch a nice view of stars. Here's some information about where you'll find the most and least polluted areas in case you want to do some star gazing.

Here is another map that has details about where to check out the night sky, including detailed light pollution maps for areas all over Florida.

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