Spacecraft Returns

Photos of spacecraft landing with deployed parachutes, set against blue skies and clouds, depicting moments of space exploration return.

June 2006 - NASA's Constellation Program is getting to work on the new spacecraft that will return humans to the moon and blaze a trail to Mars and beyond. This artist's rendering represents a concept of the second stage recovery parachutes opening as a crew exploration vehicle (CEV) descends to Earth.

The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft is seen with the Moon in the background as it lands with Expedition 28 Commander Andrey Borisenko, and Flight Engineers Ron Garan, and Alexander Samokutyaev in a remote area outside of the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Friday, Sept. 16, 2011. NASA Astronaut Garan, Russian Cosmonauts Borisenko and Samokutyaev are returning from more than five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 27 and 28 crews.

Orion's parachutes deploy as it returns to Earth after Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) on Dec. 5, 2014. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

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 ship.

The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 64 crew members Kate Rubins of NASA, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, Saturday, April 17, 2021. Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov returned after 185 days in space having served as Expedition 63-64 crew members onboard the International Space Station.

The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, March 12, 2015. NASA Astronaut Wilmore, Russian Cosmonauts Samokutyaev and Serova are returning after almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 41 and 42 crews.

The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, March 12, 2015. NASA Astronaut Wilmore, Russian Cosmonauts Samokutyaev and Serova are returning after almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 41 and 42 crews.

The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, March 12, 2015. NASA Astronaut Wilmore, Russian Cosmonauts Samokutyaev and Serova are returning after almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 41 and 42 crews.

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 ship.

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 ship.

June 2006 - NASA's Constellation Program is getting to work on the new spacecraft that will return humans to the moon and blaze a trail to Mars and beyond. This artist's rendering represents a concept of the second stage recovery parachutes opening as a crew exploration vehicle (CEV) descends to Earth.

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.

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-15 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 62 crew members Jessica Meir and Drew Morgan of NASA, and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos, Friday, April 17, 2020. Meir and Skripochka returned after 205 days in space, and Morgan after 272 days in space. All three served as Expedition 60-61-62 crew members onboard the International Space Station.

The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik of NASA and Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. Bresnik, Nespoli and Ryazanskiy are returning after 139 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 52 and 53 crews onboard the International Space Station.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Two weather balloons take flight from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station weather station. Each 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 wav

The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, March 12, 2015. NASA Astronaut Wilmore, Russian Cosmonauts Samokutyaev and Serova are returning after almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 41 and 42 crews.

The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, March 12, 2015. NASA Astronaut Wilmore, Russian Cosmonauts Samokutyaev and Serova are returning after almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 41 and 42 crews.

The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 47 crew members Tim Kopra of NASA, Tim Peake of the European Space Agency, and Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Kopra, Peake, and Malenchenko are returning after six months in space where they served as members of the Expedition 46 and 47 crews onboard the International Space Station.

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.

S71-18753 (9 Feb. 1971) --- The Apollo 14 Command Module (CM), with astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., commander; Stuart A. Roosa, command module pilot; and Edgar D. Mitchell, lunar module pilot, aboard, approaches touchdown in the South Pacific Ocean to successfully end a 10-day lunar landing mission. The splashdown occurred at 3 04 39 p.m. (CST), Feb. 9, 1971, approximately 765 nautical miles south of American Samoa. The three crew men were flown by helicopter to the USS New Orleans prime recovery ship.

Orion teams perform an Orion Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) drop test using the Parachute Test Vehicle (PTV) at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona on Dec. 20, 2012. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

SpaceX performed its fourteenth overall parachute test supporting Crew Dragon development. This most recent exercise was the first of several planned parachute system qualification tests ahead of the spacecrafts first crewed flight and resulted in the successful touchdown of Crew Dragons parachute system. During this test, a C-130 aircraft transported the parachute test vehicle, designed to achieve the maximum speeds that Crew Dragon could experience on re-entry, over the Mojave Desert in Southern California and dropped the vehicle from an altitude of 25,000 feet. The test demonstrated an off-nominal situation, deploying only one of the two drogue chutes and intentionally skipping a reefing stage on one of the four main parachutes, proving a safe landing in such a contingency scenario.

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.

The X-38 technology demonstrator descends under its steerable parafoil toward a lakebed landing in a March 2000 test flight.

ISS032-E-011478 (1 Aug. 2012) --- One of the Expedition 32 crew members aboard the Earth-orbiting International Space Station capturedthis image of the full moon on Aug. 1, 2012.Because of the home planet's atmosphere, it is not easy at first sighting to recognize the slice as the full moon. Another picture in this series depicts a totally different image of Earth's natural satellite because of the lack of distortion caused by the atmosphere.

The Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 63 crew members Chris Cassidy of NASA, and Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos, Thursday, October 22, 2020, Kazakh time (Oct. 21 Eastern time). Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner returned after 196 days in space having served as Expedition 62-63 crew members onboard the International Space Station.

SpaceX performed its fourteenth overall parachute test supporting Crew Dragon development. This most recent exercise was the first of several planned parachute system qualification tests ahead of the spacecrafts first crewed flight and resulted in the successful touchdown of Crew Dragons parachute system. During this test, a C-130 aircraft transported the parachute test vehicle, designed to achieve the maximum speeds that Crew Dragon could experience on re-entry, over the Mojave Desert in Southern California and dropped the vehicle from an altitude of 25,000 feet. The test demonstrated an off-nominal situation, deploying only one of the two drogue chutes and intentionally skipping a reefing stage on one of the four main parachutes, proving a safe landing in such a contingency scenario.

S69-36594 (26 May 1969) --- The Apollo 10 spacecraft, with astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young and Eugene A. Cernan onboard, approaches touchdown in the South Pacific recovery area to conclude a successful eight-day lunar orbit mission. Splashdown occurred at 11 53 a.m. (CDT), May 26, 1969, about 400 miles east of American Samoa, and about four miles from the prime recovery ship, USS Princeton.

The Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 54 crew members Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei of NASA and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 (February 27 Eastern time.) Acaba, Vande Hei, and Misurkin are returning after 168 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 53 and 54 crews onboard the International Space Station.

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.

HEROES PAYLOAD AWAITS LAUNCH AS HELIUM BALLOON INFLATES IN BACKGROUND, FORT SUMNER, NEW MEXICO, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

HEROES PAYLOAD AWAITS LAUNCH AS HELIUM BALLOON INFLATES IN BACKGROUND, FORT SUMNER, NEW MEXICO, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

nhq201704100012 (April 10, 2017) --- The Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Monday, April 10, 2017 (Kazakh time). Kimbrough, Ryzhikov, and Borisenko are returning after 173 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 49 and 50 crews onboard the International Space Station.

Apollo 10 spacecraft, with astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young and Eugene A. Cernan onboard, approaching splashdown in South Pacific Ocean recovery area to conclude a successful eight-day lunar orbit mission, NASA, May 26, 1969

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The Project Morpheus prototype lander soars high on its seventh free flight test at the north end of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 83-second test began at 3:41 p.m. EDT with the Morpheus lander launching from the ground over a flame trench and ascending to 580 feet, its highest to date. Morpheus then flew its fastest downrange trek at 30 mph, travelling farther than before, 837 feet. The lander performed a 42-foot divert to emulate a hazard avoidance maneuver before descending and touching down on Landing Site 2, at the northern landing pad inside the automated landing and hazard avoidance technology ALHAT hazard field. Morpheus landed within one foot of its intended target. 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 th

KAZAKHASTAN - The Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka, Flight Engineer Michael Barratt, and spaceflight participant Guy Laliberte 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 Laliberte who arrived at the station on Oct. 2 with Expedition 21 Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Maxim Suraev aboard the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft.

SpaceX performed its fourteenth overall parachute test supporting Crew Dragon development. This most recent exercise was the first of several planned parachute system qualification tests ahead of the spacecrafts first crewed flight and resulted in the successful touchdown of Crew Dragons parachute system. During this test, a C-130 aircraft transported the parachute test vehicle, designed to achieve the maximum speeds that Crew Dragon could experience on re-entry, over the Mojave Desert in Southern California and dropped the vehicle from an altitude of 25,000 feet. The test demonstrated an off-nominal situation, deploying only one of the two drogue chutes and intentionally skipping a reefing stage on one of the four main parachutes, proving a safe landing in such a contingency scenario.

The Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, May 14, 2014. Wakata, Tyurin and Mastracchio returned to Earth after more than six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 38 and 39 crews.

The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik of NASA and Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. Bresnik, Nespoli and Ryazanskiy are returning after 139 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 52 and 53 crews onboard the International Space Station.

Expedition 69 Soyuz Landing. The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 69 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. The trio are returning to Earth after logging 371 days in space as members of Expeditions 68-69 aboard the International Space Station. For Rubio, his mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in history. Photo Credit (NASA/GCTC/Pavel Shvets)

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.

A drop test at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona qualifying Orion's parachute system for human spaceflight takes place on June 14, 2017. Part of Batch images transfer from Flickr.

A successful Orion parachute test takes place at U.S. Army Yuma Proving ground in Arizona on March 8, 2017. This is the second test in a series of eight that will certify Orion's parachutes for human space flight.

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.

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.

The X-38 prototype of the Crew Return Vehicle for the International Space Station is suspended under its giant 7,500-square-foot parafoil during its eighth free flight on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2001. A portion of the descent was flown by remote control by a NASA astronaut from a ground vehicle configured like the CRV's interior before the X-38 made an autonomous landing on Rogers Dry Lake.

The Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 48 crew members NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016(Kazakh time). Williams, Ovchinin, and Skripochka are returning after 172 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 47 and 48 crews onboard the International Space Station.

Rocket University - Balloon Launch at KARS 1

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Viewed from KARS Park 1 on Merritt Island in Florida, the United Launch Alliance Delta II Heavy rocket soars skyward after lifting off at 9:08 a.m. EDT Sept. 10 from Space Launch Complex 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Delta II is carrying NASAs Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission to the moon. A group of Tweetup participants viewed the launch from the park and will share their experiences with followers through the social networking site Twitter.GRAIL will fly twin spacecraft in tandem around the moon to precisely measure and map variations in the moon's gravitational field. The mission will provide the most accurate global gravity field to date for any planet, including Earth. This detailed information will reveal differences in the density of the moon's crust and mantle and will help answer fundamental questions about the moon's internal structure, thermal evolution, and history of collisions with asteroids. The aim is to ma

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.

Ground support vehicles can be seen chasing the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft as it lands with Expedition 28 Commander Andrey Borisenko, and Flight Engineers Ron Garan, and Alexander Samokutyaev in a remote area outside of the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Friday, Sept. 16, 2011. NASA Astronaut Garan, Russian Cosmonauts Borisenko and Samokutyaev are returning from more than five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 27 and 28 crews.

Orion's parachutes deploy as it returns to Earth after Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) on Dec. 5, 2014. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

ISS039-E-000169 (11 March 2014) --- As photographed by one of the Expedition 39 crew members aboard the International Space Station, the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft heads toward Earth with the Expedition 38 crew aboard. Onboard the Soyuz were NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy. The trio had served 166 days in Earth orbit as members of the Expedition 37 and 38 crews.

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.

An Orion parachute test to qualify for mission with crew takes place at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona on Sept. 30, 2016. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

NASA successfully tested the Orion spacecrafts parachute system on March 16, 2018 at the U.S. Army Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. It was the first time engineers intentionally failed one of the systems three Forward Bay Cover parachutes. The Forward Bay Cover protects the upper part of Orion throughout its mission, but must be jettisoned during landing so the rest of Orions parachutes can deploy. Engineers are nearing completion of the series of tests to qualify the parachute system for flights with crew.

The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, June 2, 2010. NASA Astronaut Creamer, Russian Cosmonaut Kotov and Japanese Astronaut Noguchi are returning from six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 22 and 23 crews.

Parachuting Upper Stage of Saturn V Model Rocket

Space Station Expedition 18 Lands

The Perseus A, a remotely-piloted, high-altitude research aircraft, is seen here framed against the moon and sky during a research mission at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California in August 1994.

OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Training. A training model of the sample return capsule is seen during a drop test in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 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.

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.

The Apollo 15 capsule lands safely despite a parachute failure, Mid-Pacific Ocean, 1971.Artist: NASA

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.

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.

The Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft with Expedition 25 Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineers Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin touches down near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on Friday, Nov. 26, 2010. Russian Cosmonaut Yurchikhin and NASA Astronauts Wheelock and Walker, are returning from nearly six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 24 and 25 crews.

NASA has completes the final test to qualify Orions parachute system for flights with astronauts, checking off an important milestone on the path to send humans on missions to the Moon and beyond on Sept. 12, 2018...Over the course of eight tests at the U.S. Armys Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, engineers have evaluated the performance of Orions parachute system during normal landing sequences as well as several failure scenarios and a variety of potential aerodynamic conditions to ensure astronauts can return safely from deep space missions.

Boeings CST-100 Starliner spacecraft transitions to main chutes from drogue parachutes as it lands at White Sands Missile Ranges Space Harbor, Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in New Mexico. Boeings Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is Starliners second uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2 serves as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities.

The BARREL team inflates the balloon to launch their fifth scientific payload from Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, Sweden, on Aug. 24, 2016. The BARREL team is at Esrange Space Center launching a series of six scientific payloads on miniature scientific balloons. The NASA-funded BARREL - which stands for Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses - primarily measures X-rays in Earths atmosphere near the North and South Poles. These X-rays are produced by electrons raining down into the atmosphere from two giant swaths of radiation that surround Earth, called the Van Allen belts. Learning about the radiation near Earth helps us to better protect our satellites. Several of the BARREL balloons also carry instruments built by undergraduate students to measure the total electron content of Earths ionosphere, as well as the low-frequency electromagnetic waves that help to scatter electrons into Earths atmosphere. Though about 90 feet in diameter, the BARREL balloons a

The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, March 12, 2015. NASA Astronaut Wilmore, Russian Cosmonauts Samokutyaev and Serova are returning after almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 41 and 42 crews.

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.

S63-09630 (16 May 1963) --- The Mercury-Atlas 9 (MA-9) "Faith 7" spacecraft, with astronaut L. Gordon Cooper Jr. aboard, nears splashdown in the Pacific Ocean to conclude a 22-orbit mission lasting 34 hours and 20.5 minutes. The capsule's parachute is fully deployed in this view.

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.

Project 30-65 - Operation Plumbob (Nevada Test Site) Test Activities. Inflated test run balloon. Photographs of Atmospheric Nuclear Testing at Pacific Island and Nevada Test Sites.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a small rocket descends under a parachute after liftoff from Launch Pad 39A as part of Rocket University. The goal was to test its systems and to verify that it performed as designed. As part of Rocket University, the engineers are given an opportunity to work a fast-track project to develop skills in developing spacecraft systems of the future. As NASA plans for future spaceflight programs to low-Earth orbit and beyond, teams of engineers at Kennedy are gaining experience in designing and flying launch vehicle systems on a small scale. Four teams of five to eight members from Kennedy are designing rockets complete with avionics and recovery systems. Launch operations require coordination with federal agencies, just as they would with rockets launched in support of a NASA mission.

Doppler Radar Gets a New Coat of Paint

S134-E-005103 (16 May 2011) --- The STS-134 external fuel tank is seen during its release from space shuttle Endeavour in space following the successful launch on May 16, 2011. A camera in the umbilical well exposed the image.

The BARREL team prepares to launch their third payload from Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, Sweden, on Aug. 21, 2016. The BARREL team is at Esrange Space Center launching a series of six scientific payloads on miniature scientific balloons. The NASA-funded BARREL - which stands for Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses - primarily measures X-rays in Earths atmosphere near the North and South Poles. These X-rays are produced by electrons raining down into the atmosphere from two giant swaths of radiation that surround Earth, called the Van Allen belts. Learning about the radiation near Earth helps us to better protect our satellites. Several of the BARREL balloons also carry instruments built by undergraduate students to measure the total electron content of Earths ionosphere, as well as the low-frequency electromagnetic waves that help to scatter electrons into Earths atmosphere. Though about 90 feet in diameter, the BARREL balloons are much smaller than st

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.

Inuit village, weather balloon launch, Ittoqqortoormiit, Scoresbysund, Northeast Greenland, Polar Regions

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.

VANDENBERG AFB, CALIF. - Viewed from inside, the second stage of the Delta II launch vehicle for the Gravity Probe B experiment is lifted up the mobile service tower on Space Launch Complex 2, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Behind it is the first stage of the Delta II. The Gravity Probe B will launch a payload of four gyroscopes into low-Earth polar orbit to test two extraordinary predictions of Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity: the geodetic effect (how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth) and frame dragging (how Earths rotation drags space and time around with it). Once in orbit, for 18 months each gyroscopes spin axis will be monitored as it travels through local spacetime, observing and measuring these effects. The experiment was developed by Stanford University, Lockheed Martin and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. The targeted launch date is Dec. 6, 2003.

A NASA test of the Boeing Starliner's main parachute system took place at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) on January 9, 2024. The first Starliner-related test at YPG took place in 2018, and YPG has supported NASA-related testing since the earliest days of the space program.

A820677 AREA 27 ACOUSTICAL SENSOR STUDY BROUILLARD, JOHN A APR 14 82 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 4/14/1982 27; ACOUSTICAL SENSOR STUDY; AREA 27; BROUILLARD, A JOHN; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; HELICOPTERS; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; SENSORS; STUDIES; TEST SITES; TESTING; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; WEAPON EFFECTS; WEAPONS RELATED; WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

Using the ball for thermographic measurementsFrance

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.

The Very Large Array radio telescope consists of 27 large dish antennas, the facility is part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, on the Plains of San Agustin in Datil, western New Mexico, USA, North America

The immense glass windshield on the C130 affords a panoramic view of the world. This plane typically flies with a pilot, copilot and flight engineer on the flight deck, as well as an air crewman in the main cabin. --- 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.

Expedition 20 Lands

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the weather station on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, a meteorological data specialist prepares to release a low resolution flight element rawinsonde to support the countdown for the flight test of NASA's Ares I-X rocket.A GPS-tracked weather balloon, a rawinsonde has a tethered instrument package which radios its altitude to the ground along with atmospheric data such as temperature, dewpoint and humidity, and wind speed and direction. Rawinsondes can reach altitudes up to 110,000 feet.

UFO whose 3 occupants talked with Paul Villa, giving him instructions how to make his own flying saucer 2 of 2 Date: 19 June 1966

The Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 63 crew members Chris Cassidy of NASA, and Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos, Thursday, October 22, 2020, Kazakh time (Oct. 21 Eastern time). Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner returned after 196 days in space having served as Expedition 62-63 crew members onboard the International Space Station.

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