Satellite Deployments

Images capturing satellite deployments from the International Space Station, including CubeSats. Clear blue sky backgrounds enhance the focus on the satellites.

. iss069e053906 (Aug. 4, 2023) --- Northrop Grumman's Cygnus cargo craft is pictured from the International Space Station as it approaches while orbiting 261 miles above the coast of the Garabogazköl Basin in Turkmenistan.

The X-38, a research vehicle built to help develop technology for an emergency Crew Return Vehicle (CRV), maneuvers toward landing at the end of a March 1999 test flight at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California.

iss053e234625 (11/21/2017) --- A view of OSIRIS-3U Satellite Deployer Number 8 after deployment from the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer Number 13. OSIRIS-3U is an integrated CubeSat that conducts measurements of the Earths ionosphere, in coordination with a ground-based astronomy observatory.

iss057e006099 (10/6/2018) --- Documentation of two deployed Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) CubeSats, STARS-Me and RSP-00, during the JEM Japanese Experiment Module-Small Satellite Orbital Deployer 10 (J-SSOD 10) mission. Earth is in the background.

NASA test pilots perform the quiet supersonic dive maneuver off the coast of Galveston, Texas to create a quieter version of the sonic boom, in order to obtain recruited community survey feedback data. The test pilot climbs to around 50,000 feet, followed by a supersonic, inverted dive. This creates sonic boom shockwaves in a way that they are quieter in a specific area. Meanwhile, NASA researchers match community feedback to the sound levels of the flights, using an electronic survey and microphone monitor stations on the ground. This is preparing NASA for community response models for the future X-59 QueSST.

The Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 59 crew members Anne McClain of NASA, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, and Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, Tuesday, June 25, 2019 Kazakh time (June 24 Eastern time). McClain, Saint-Jacques, and Kononenko are returning after 204 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 58 and 59 crews onboard the International Space Station.

The Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 55 crew members Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, Scott Tingle of NASA, and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Sunday, June 3, 2018. Shkaplerov, Tingle, and Kanai are returning after 168 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 54 and 55 crews onboard the International Space Station.

A781176 PLANET RANCH, AZ MISER'S BLUFF TOM TAKAHASHI (Project Engineer) AUG 28 78 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 8/28/1978 EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; MALE; MEN (ADD MALE MODIFIER); MISER'S BLUFF; MISER'S BLUFF #1; MOUNTAINS; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR SIMULATION TESTING; PLANET RANCH; PLANET RANCH TEST VALLEY; PLANET RANCH, AZ; SATELLITE DISH; SATELLITE DISHES; SCENERY (LANDSCAPE); TESTS; TRAILERS; VEHICLES; WEATHER BALLOONS; PLANET RANCH-MISER'S BLUFF historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

. iss069e053906 (Aug. 4, 2023) --- Northrop Grumman's Cygnus cargo craft is pictured from the International Space Station as it approaches while orbiting 261 miles above the coast of the Garabogazköl Basin in Turkmenistan.

After NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander enters the Martian atmosphere, and is traveling at about 1.7 times the speed of sound, it will deploy its parachute.

A781175 PLANET RANCH, AZ MISER'S BLUFF TOM TAKAHASHI (Project Engineer) AUG 29 78 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 8/29/1978 EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; MALE; MEN (ADD MALE MODIFIER); MISER'S BLUFF; MISER'S BLUFF #1; MOUNTAINS; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR SIMULATION TESTING; PLANET RANCH; PLANET RANCH TEST VALLEY; PLANET RANCH, AZ; SATELLITE DISHES; SCENERY (LANDSCAPE); TAKAHASHI, TOM; TESTS; TRAILERS; WEATHER BALLOONS; PLANET RANCH-MISER'S BLUFF historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

The first test of Apollo boilerplate equipped with landing rockets took place at Ellington AFB, 05/16. Spacecraft was dropped at 30-ft. p/s with 23-ft. p/s horizontal velocity. A force of 6 g's was measured inside the spacecraft during the landing. ELLINGTON AFB, HOUSTON, TX B&W

The Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 61 crew members Christina Koch of NASA, Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. Koch returned to Earth after logging 328 days in space --- the longest spaceflight in history by a woman --- as a member of Expeditions 59-60-61 on the International Space Station. Skvortsov and Parmitano returned after 201 days in space where they served as Expedition 60-61 crew members onboard the station.

Opportunity's Heat Shield in Color, Sol 335

ISS01-E-5389 (16 February 2001) --- This nadir image of the Space Shuttle Atlantis backdropped over the western Sahara Desert was photographed by the three-man Expedition One crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) shortly after the shuttle and the outpost unlinked following several days of joint operations of the two crews. The scene was recorded with a digital still camera.

NASA test pilots perform the quiet supersonic dive maneuver off the coast of Galveston, Texas to create a quieter version of the sonic boom, in order to obtain recruited community survey feedback data. The test pilot climbs to around 50,000 feet, followed by a supersonic, inverted dive. This creates sonic boom shockwaves in a way that they are quieter in a specific area. Meanwhile, NASA researchers match community feedback to the sound levels of the flights, using an electronic survey and microphone monitor stations on the ground. This is preparing NASA for community response models for the future X-59 QueSST.

ISS027-E-032255 (18 May 2011) --- This view of the nose and the forward underside of the space shuttle Endeavour was provided by an Expedition 27 crew member during a survey of the approaching STS-134 vehicle prior to docking with the International Space Station. As part of the survey and part of every mission's activities, Endeavour performed a back-flip for the rendezvous pitch maneuver (RPM). The image was photographed with a digital still camera, using a 400mm lens at a distance of about 600 feet (180 meters).

The Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), NASA Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn and Russian Flight Engineer Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko returned from five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 34 and 35 crews.

The Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 59 crew members Anne McClain of NASA, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, and Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, Tuesday, June 25, 2019 Kazakh time (June 24 Eastern time). McClain, Saint-Jacques, and Kononenko are returning after 204 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 58 and 59 crews onboard the International Space Station.

Teams from NASA, Boeing and the White Sands Missile Range, rehearse landing and crew extraction from Boeings CST-100 Starliner, which will be used to carry humans to the International Space Station, on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019 at the White Sands Missile Range outside Las Cruces, New Mexico. Using a convoy of vehicles Boeing uses to recover their spacecraft after landing and a boiler plate test article of the Starliner capsule, the teams worked through the steps necessary to safe the vehicle and get future crew members out of the Starliner to return home. NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann and Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson will fly to the space station aboard the Starliner for the Boeing Crew Flight Test mission.

NASA test pilots perform the quiet supersonic dive maneuver off the coast of Galveston, Texas to create a quieter version of the sonic boom, in order to obtain recruited community survey feedback data. The test pilot climbs to around 50,000 feet, followed by a supersonic, inverted dive. This creates sonic boom shockwaves in a way that they are quieter in a specific area. Meanwhile, NASA researchers match community feedback to the sound levels of the flights, using an electronic survey and microphone monitor stations on the ground. This is preparing NASA for community response models for the future X-59 QueSST.

ISS028-E-015398 (10 July 2011) --- This is one of a series of images showing various parts of the space shuttle Atlantis in Earth orbit as photographed by one of three crewmembers - half the International Space Station crew - who were equipped with still cameras for this purpose on the station as the shuttle posed” for photos and visual surveys and performed a back-flip for the rendezvous pitch maneuver (RPM). An 800 millimeter lens was used to capture this particular series of images.

OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Training. Recovery teams participate in helicopter training in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, Wednesday, July 19, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and will return to Earth on September 24th, landing under parachute at the Utah Test and Training Range.

JSC2007-E-20479 (21 April 2007) --- The Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft floats to a landing southwest of Karaganda, Kazakhstan at approximately 6:30 p.m. local time on April 21, 2007. Onboard were astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria, Expedition 14 commander and NASA space station science officer; cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, Soyuz commander and flight engineer representing Russia's Federal Space Agency; and U.S. spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi.

The Soyuz TMA-09M is seen moments before it lands southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakstan with the crew of Expedition 37, Monday, Nov. 11, 2013. Expedition 37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA and Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency are returning to Earth after five and a half months on the International Space Station.

NASA's Global Hawk flew over Tropical Storm Nadine on Sept. 26, 2012 at 3 p.m. EDT and captured thisphoto from the camera located in the belly if the aircraft as it flew over the northern edge of the storm.

The Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko of Russia and Flight Engineers Don Pettit of NASA and Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Sunday, July 1, 2012. Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers returned from more than six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 30 and 31 crews.

Opportunity Spies Its Backshell

A Flyby Tour of Spirit's Descent-2

Secretary Dirk Kempthorne leading press conference, at Main Interior, on release of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment estimating the existence of 85.4 trilion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable gas from natural gas hydrates on the Alaska North Slope. Secretary Kempthorne, joined by USGS Director Mark Myers, indicated that the USGS assessment was the first-ever resource estimate of technically recoverable natural gas hydrates, which are naturally occurring, ice-like solids in which water molecules trap natural gas molecules in a cage-like structure known as a clathrate.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The first free flight of the Project Morpheus prototype lander begins as the landers engine fires at the north of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Testing of the prototype lander was performed at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston in preparation for tethered and free flight testing at Kennedy. Project Morpheus integrates NASAs automated landing and hazard avoidance technology, or ALHAT, with an engine that runs on liquid oxygen and methane, or green propellants, into a fully-operational lander that could deliver cargo to asteroids and other planetary surfaces.The landing facility will provide the lander with the kind of field necessary for realistic testing, complete with rocks, craters and hazards to avoid. Morpheus ALHAT payload allows it to navigate to clear landing sites amidst rocks, craters and other hazards during its descent. Project Morpheus is being managed under the Advanced Exploration Systems, or AES, D

At the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, NASA astronomers have linked the two 10-meter (33-foot) telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory. The linked telescopes, together are called the Keck Interferometer, the world's most powerful optical telescope system.

Regions - Images Relating to the Discover-AQ Program - images and video clips relating to the Discover-AQ Program. Discover-AQ stands for Deriving Information on Surface conditions from COlumn and VERtically resolved observations relevant to Air Quality , Environmental Protection Agency

A model of the MAVEN spacecraft is pictured during a press conference for the upcoming launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, at NASA Headquarters in Washington on Monday, Oct. 28th, 2013. MAVEN is the agency's next mission to Mars and the first devoted to understanding the upper atmosphere of the Red Planet. (

ISS028-E-015477 (10 July 2011) --- This is one of a series of images showing various parts of the space shuttle Atlantis in Earth orbit as photographed by one of three crew members -- half the station crew -- who were equipped with still cameras for this purpose on the International Space Station as the shuttle posed” for photos and visual surveys and performed a back-flip for the rendezvous pitch maneuver (RPM). Seen at the rear of the cargo bay is the Raffaello multi-purpose logistics module, packed with supplies and spare parts for the orbiting outpost. A 400 millimeter lens was used to capture this particular series of images.

Space Shuttle Discovery landed safely at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in Calif. at 5:11:22 a.m. PDT this morning, following the very successful 14-day STS-114 return to flight mission.During their two weeks in space, Commander Eileen Collins and her six crewmates tested out new safety procedures and delivered supplies and equipment the International Space Station.Discovery spent two weeks in space, where the crew demonstrated new methods to inspect and repair the Shuttle in orbit. The crew also delivered supplies, outfitted and performed maintenance on the International Space Station. A number of these tasks were conducted during three spacewalks.In an unprecedented event, spacewalkers were called upon to remove protruding gap fillers from the heat shield on Discovery's underbelly. In other spacewalk activities, astronauts installed an external platform onto the Station's Quest Airlock and replaced one of the orbital outpost's Control Moment Gyros

On May 30, 2013, NASA's Terra spacecraft acquired this image of the largest solar plant of its kind in the world started producing power in southern California's Mojave Desert near the Nevada border.

Orion Splashdown. At 12:40 p.m. EST, Dec. 11, 2022, NASAs Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after a 25.5 day mission to the Moon. Orion will be recovered by NASAs Landing and Recovery team, U.S. Navy and Department of Defense partners aboard the USS Portland.

Phoenix Lander Self Portrait on Mars, Vertical Projection

ISS014-E-18280 (27 March 2007) --- Backdropped by a blanket of clouds, an unpiloted Progress 23 supply vehicle departs from the Zvezda Service Module aft port of the International Space Station on March 27, 2007, carrying its load of trash and unneeded equipment to be deorbited and burned up in Earth's atmosphere. The undocking clears the way for the relocation of the Soyuz 13 (TMA-9) from the Zarya Module nadir port to the Zvezda Service Module aft port.

The Soyuz TMA-09M is seen moments before it lands southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with the crew of Expedition 37, Monday, Nov. 11, 2013. Expedition 37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA and Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency are returning to Earth after five and a half months on the International Space Station.

The X-38 Crew Return Vehicle descends under its steerable parafoil over the California desert in its first free flight at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. The flight took place March 12, 1998.

The X-38, a research vehicle built to help develop technology for an emergency Crew Return Vehicle (CRV), descends under its steerable parafoil on a March 1999 test flight at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The Project Morpheus prototype lander soars high after launching on its third free flight test at the north end of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 57-second test began at 1:15 p.m. EST with the Morpheus lander launching from the ground over a flame trench and ascending about 187 feet, nearly doubling the target ascent velocity from the last test in December 2013. The lander flew forward, covering about 154 feet in 20 seconds before descending and landing within 11 inches of its target on a dedicated pad inside the autonomous landing and hazard avoidance technology, or ALHAT, hazard field. Project Morpheus tests NASAs ALHAT and an engine that runs on liquid oxygen and methane, or green propellants, into a fully-operational lander that could deliver cargo to other planetary surfaces. The landing facility provides the lander with the kind of field necessary for realistic testing, complete with rocks, craters and hazards t

Regions - Images Relating to the Discover-AQ Program - images and video clips relating to the Discover-AQ Program. Discover-AQ stands for Deriving Information on Surface conditions from COlumn and VERtically resolved observations relevant to Air Quality , Environmental Protection Agency

The Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft is seen after it landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 59 crew members Anne McClain of NASA, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, and Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, Tuesday, June 25, 2019 Kazakh time (June 24 Eastern time). McClain, Saint-Jacques, and Kononenko are returning after 204 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 58 and 59 crews onboard the International Space Station.

S114-E-6396 (3 August 2005) --- Space Shuttle Discoverys underside thermal protection tiles are featured in this image photographed by astronaut Stephen K. Robinson, STS-114 mission specialist, during the missions third session of extravehicular activities (EVA). Lake Nasser along the Nile River, Egypt is visible near Discoverys starboard wing.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A worker prepares to release a weather balloon outside the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station weather station. The balloon is equipped with a radiosonde, an instrument that transmits measurements on atmospheric pressure, humidity, temperature and winds as it ascends. The data will be used to determine if conditions are acceptable for the launch of NASA's THEMIS mission. THEMIS, an acronym for Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms, consists of five identical probes that will track violent, colorful eruptions near the North Pole. This will be the largest number of scientific satellites NASA has ever launched into orbit aboard a single rocket. The THEMIS mission aims to unravel the mystery behind auroral substorms, an avalanche of magnetic energy powered by the solar wind that intensifies the northern and southern lights. The mission will investigate what causes auroras in the Earths atmosphere to dramatically change from slowl

This STS-113 photograph shows an incredible view of the Space Shuttle Endeavour's payload bay. The blackness of space, Earth's moon (upper right frame), and a thin slice of Earth's horizon which runs vertically across the photograph, form the back drop for this photograph. The remote manipulator system (RMS) robotic arm is visible in lower right frame. The 16th American assembly flight and 112th overall American flight to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on November 23, 2002 from Kennedy's launch pad 39A aboard the Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour STS-113. Mission objectives included the installation and activation of the Port 1 Integrated Truss Assembly (P1). The first major component installed on the left side of the Station, the P1 truss provides three additional External Thermal Control System radiators. Weighing in at 27,506 pounds, the P1 truss is 45 feet (13.7 meters) long, 15 feet (4.6 meters) wide, and 13 feet (4 meters) high. Three space walks, aided by the use o

1971, Return to earth of Edgar Dean "Ed" Mitchell (1930 - 2016); United States Navy officer and NASA astronaut. He then went to serve as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 14, landing with Shepard aboard the Lunar Module "Antares" on February 5, 1971, in the hilly upland Fra Mauro Highlands region of the Moon. They stayed on the Moon for 33 hours, deployed and activated lunar surface scientific equipment and experiments, and collected almost 100 pounds of lunar samples for return to Earth

A drag chute slows the space shuttle Columbia as it rolls to a perfect landing concluding NASA's longest mission at that time, STS-58, at the Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility (later redesignated the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California, with a 8:06 a.m. (PST) touchdown 1 November 1993 on Edward's concrete runway 22. The planned 14 day mission, which began with a launch from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 7:53 a.m. (PDT), October 18, was the second spacelab flight dedicated to life sciences research. Seven Columbia crewmembers performed a series of experiments to gain more knowledge on how the human body adapts to the weightless environment of space. Crewmembers on this flight included: John Blaha, commander; Rick Searfoss, pilot; payload commander Rhea Seddon; mission specialists Bill MacArthur, David Wolf, and Shannon Lucid; and payload specialist Martin Fettman.

An Orion parachute development test takes place at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona, on April 17, 2012. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

The Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 32 Commander Gennady Padalka of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Joe Acaba and Russian Flight Engineer Sergei Revin in a remote area near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, on Monday, September 17, 2012. Padalka, Acaba and Revin returned from five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 31 and 32 crews.

SHADDOW AND LUMINOUS EFFECT, AS SEEN FROM THE BALLOON, ENGRAVING. 1871.

After eight months of designing, building and testing, the middle school, high school and college and university teams launched their rockets as part of NASA Student Launch on Sunday, April 8. The rockets and their payloads are designed to fly to 1-mile in altitude before deploying recovery systems that brings them safely to the ground.

The unusual lines of the X-36 technology demonstrator contrast sharply with the desert floor as the remotely piloted aircraft scoots across the California desert at low altitude during a research flight on October 30, 1997.

Model in Vortex Facility

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and American spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi land in their Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft southwest of Karaganda, Kazakhstan at approximately 6:30 p.m. local time, Friday, April 21, 2007.

STS049-S-301 (16 May 1992) --- A three-quarter aft view of the Space Shuttle Endeavour making its first landing, following a successful nine-day mission in Earth orbit. Fully deployed here is the main chute in NASA's first exercise of its detailed test objective (DTO-521) on the drag chute system. Main gear touchdown occurred at 1 57 38 p.m. (PDT), May 16, 1992.

The Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft arrives at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility aboard an Air Force C-17 cargo plane early this morning following its flight from the Lockheed Martin Astronautics plant in Denver, Colo. When the spacecraft arrives at the red planet, it will primarily support its companion Mars Polar Lander spacecraft, planned for launch on Jan. 3, 1999. After that, the Mars Climate Orbiter's instruments will monitor the Martian atmosphere and image the planet's surface on a daily basis for one Martian year (1.8 Earth years). It will observe the appearance and movement of atmospheric dust and water vapor, as well as characterize seasonal changes on the surface. The detailed images of the surface features will provide important clues to the planet's early climate history and give scientists more information about possible liquid water reserves beneath the surface. The scheduled launch date for the Mars Climate Orbiter is Dec. 10, 1998, on a Delta II 7425 rocket

STS077-150-094 (20 May 1996) --- Following its deployment from the Space Shuttle Endeavour, the Spartan 207/Inflatable Antenna Experiment (IAE) payload is backdropped over the Mississippi River and metropolitan St. Louis. The metropolitan area lies just below the gold-colored Spartan at bottom of photo. The view was photographed with a large format still camera on the first full day of in-space operations by the six-member crew. Managed by Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Spartan is designed to provide short-duration, free-flight opportunities for a variety of scientific studies. The Spartan configuration on this flight is unique in that the IAE is part of an additional separate unit which is ejected once the experiment is completed. The IAE experiment will lay the groundwork for future technology development in inflatable space structures, which will be launched and then inflated like a balloon on-orbit.

The Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank, and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin in a remote area outside of the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, on Friday, April 27, 2012. NASA Astronaut Burbank, Russian Cosmonauts Shkaplerov and Ivanishin are returning from more than five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 29 and 30 crews.

Pilot John Long checks for early morning ground traffic before pulling his C130 out for a day of flying over the North Atlantic. --- The b a href= http //naames.larc.nasa.gov/ rel= nofollow North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study /a /b (NAAMES) is a five year investigation to resolve key processes controlling ocean system function, their influences on atmospheric aerosols and clouds and their implications for climate. Michael Starobin joined the NAAMES field campaign on behalf of Earth Expeditions and NASA Goddard Space Flight Centers Office of Communications. He presented stories about the important, multi-disciplinary research being conducted by the NAAMES team, with an eye towards future missions on the NASA drawing board. This is a NAAMES photo essay put together by Starobin, a collection of 49 photographs and captions.

Russian support personnel work around the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft shortly after it landed n a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 61 crew members Christina Koch of NASA, Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. Koch returned to Earth after logging 328 days in space --- the longest spaceflight in history by a woman --- as a member of Expeditions 59-60-61 on the International Space Station. Skvortsov and Parmitano returned after 201 days in space where they served as Expedition 60-61 crew members onboard the station.

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter does a slow spin test of its blades on April 8, 2021, the 48th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This image was captured by the Mastcam-Z on NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages this technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA's Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity's development. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions

The test area where the second and final qualification motor (QM-2) test for the Space Launch Systems booster is seen through the window of a camera bunker, Sunday, June 26, 2016, at Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems test facilities in Promontory, Utah. The test is scheduled for Tuesday, June 28 at 10:05 a.m. EDT (8:05 a.m. MDT).

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A technician at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida monitors the lifting of a solid rocket motor (SRM) for mating to a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket which will carry NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.MSL's components include a compact car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rovers spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. MSL is scheduled to launch Nov. 25 with a window extending to Dec. 18 and arrival at Mars Aug. 2012.

NASA's InSight lander used its Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the spacecraft's robotic arm to image this sunrise on Mars on April 24, 2019, the 145th Martian day (or sol) of the mission. This was taken around 5 30 a.m. Mars local time.

undefined. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

A worker releases a weather balloon at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station weather station. The balloon is equipped with a radiosonde, an instrument that transmits measurements on atmospheric pressure, humidity, temperature and winds as it ascends. The data will be used to determine if conditions are acceptable for the launch of NASA's THEMIS mission. THEMIS, an acronym for Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms, consists of five identical probes that will track violent, colorful eruptions near the North Pole. This will be the largest number of scientific satellites NASA has ever launched into orbit aboard a single rocket. The THEMIS mission aims to unravel the mystery behind auroral substorms, an avalanche of magnetic energy powered by the solar wind that intensifies the northern and southern lights. The mission will investigate what causes auroras in the Earths atmosphere to dramatically change from slowly shimmering waves of light to wildly shifting st

The Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka, Flight Engineer Michael Barratt, and spaceflight participant Guy Laliberté near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009. Padalka and Barratt are returning from six months onboard the International Space Station, along with Laliberté who arrived at the station on Oct. 2 with Expedition 21 Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Maxim Suraev aboard the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft.

Scientist Ewan Crosbie peeks out of the side aft door of the plane as it slows to a stop in the hangar. Crosbie is an expert on cloud composition. --- The b a href= http //naames.larc.nasa.gov/ rel= nofollow North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study /a /b (NAAMES) is a five year investigation to resolve key processes controlling ocean system function, their influences on atmospheric aerosols and clouds and their implications for climate. Michael Starobin joined the NAAMES field campaign on behalf of Earth Expeditions and NASA Goddard Space Flight Centers Office of Communications. He presented stories about the important, multi-disciplinary research being conducted by the NAAMES team, with an eye towards future missions on the NASA drawing board. This is a NAAMES photo essay put together by Starobin, a collection of 49 photographs and captions.

Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) researcher Dr James Darling shooting biopsy dart into whale, dart bounces off whale unnoticed, carrying a sample of fat and skin in the tip, Southeast Alaska

S69-55667 (10 Oct. 1969) --- Astronauts Charles Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean train for their upcoming Apollo 12 lunar landing mission. Here they are entering a simulated lunar surface area near Flagstaff, Arizona. Both are wearing lunar surface cameras strapped to their bodies. Conrad (left), the Apollo 12 mission commander, is carrying some of the tools from the geological tool container. The geological tool container, being carried here by Bean, the lunar module pilot, is similar to the one which will be used during scheduled extravehicular activity (EVA) periods on Nov. 19 and 20, 1969, on the lunar surface. While astronauts Conrad and Bean conduct their scheduled EVA on the moon's surface, astronaut Richard F. Gordon Jr., command module pilot, will man the Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit.

Boeings CST-100 Starliners parachute system is tested above the U.S. Armys Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona on June 26, 2019. This “high Q” test involved dropping a dart-shaped device - functioning as a Starliner weight simulant - from a C-17 aircraft and intentionally inflating the parachutes at higher pressures than expected during missions. The data gathered from this parachute test will help validate the system is safe to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station as part of NASAs Commercial Crew Program. Boeing is targeting an uncrewed Orbital Flight Test to the space station this summer, followed by its Crew Flight Test. Starliner will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

In order to make sure weather conditions are acceptable at multiple altitudes, NASA meteorologists on the ground conduct constant monitoring operations, and launch weather balloons to get accurate data for aircraft and pilot.

Man dressed as an astronaut holds a poster with a drawing of a rocket

OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Training. Recovery teams participate in field rehearsals in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and will return to Earth on September 24th, landing under parachute at the Utah Test and Training Range.

Scientist measuring ice thickness during ice storm research

STS102-311-013 (8 March 2001) --- The external tank falls toward Earth's atmosphere during the completion of the launch phase of the STS-102 mission. Western Europe is in the background.

The Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 56 Commander Drew Feustel and Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold of NASA, along with Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018. Feustel, Arnold, and Artemyev are returning after 197 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 55 and 56 crews onboard the International Space Station.

Magnified 500X, this 2002 scanning electron microscope (SEM) image revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology exhibited by a number of Hartmannella vermiformis amoeba trophozoites. The trophozoite stage of an amoeba's life cycle is its vegetative phase, devoted to feeding, movement, and reproduction. This free-living protozoan moves in response to chemical cues in its environment by extending pseudopodia, or false feet, a number of which are visible in this image. CDC/Dr Rodney Donlan 2002

OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Training. Recovery teams participate in field rehearsals in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, Tuesday, July 18, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and will return to Earth on September 24th, landing under parachute at the Utah Test and Training Range.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- On the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center, members of the 1998 astronaut candidate class (Group 17) watch as candidate Patricia C. Hilliard (M.D.) practices using firefighting equipment during fire training. The class is at KSC for training activities, including a flight awareness program, plus touring the OPF, VAB, SSPF, SSME Processing Facility, launch pads, SLF, Apollo/Saturn V Center, and the crew quarters. The other U.S. candidates in the '98 class are Clayton C. Anderson, Lee J. Archambault, Tracy E. Caldwell (Ph.D.), Gregory E. Chamitoff (Ph.D.), Timothy J. Creamer, Christopher J. Ferguson, Michael J. Foreman, Michael E. Fossum, Kenneth T. Ham, Gregory C. Johnson, Gregory H. Johnson, Stanley G. Love (Ph.D.), Leland D. Melvin, Barbara R. Morgan, William A. Oefelein, John D. Olivas (Ph.D.), Nicholas J.M. Patrick (Ph.D.), Alan G. Poindexter, Garrett E. Reisman (Ph.D.), Steven R. Swanson, Douglas H. Wheelock, Sunita L. Williams, Neil W. Woodward III, G

Deborah Jackson, Al Bowers and Abbigail Waddell successfully launch the subscale Prandtl 3C glider.

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