This view of the crescent Earth over the Moon’s horizon was taken during the Apollo 15 lunar landing mission. Apollo 15 launched from the Kennedy Space Center on July 26, 1971 via a Saturn V launch vehicle. Aboard was a crew of three astronauts: David R. Scott, mission commander; James B. Irwi […]
T-38 planes are a fixture of astronaut training, assisting pilots and mission specialists to think quickly in changing situations. Here, our T-38s fly in formation above the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Launch Pad 39B. The SLS and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission will launch no earl
This time lapse of the Milky Way Galaxy taken from the International Space Station (ISS) also captured a lightning strike on Earth so bright that it lit up the space station’s solar panels. Astronaut Kjell Lindgren posted this on Twitter and Instagram on Sept. 2, 2015, saying, “Large lightning
The supersonic X-1E research aircraft was the last of NASA’s experimental X-1 series of aircraft. From 1955-1958, it made 26 flights and one captive flight (attached to a carrier aircraft). Research flights took place over what is now NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Califor
The core of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft has taken center stage in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Standing 10 feet (3 meters) high and 5 feet (1.5 meters) wide, the craft’s main body will for the next two years be the focus of a
A paddlewheeler makes its way up the Mississippi River as the Moon rises over New Orleans on Sunday evening, Aug. 22, 2021. The August Sturgeon Moon, which was also a rare Blue Moon, was full at 7:02 a.m. local time Sunday but the nearly full Moon still put on a show when it rose over New Orleans la
Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space. 45 years on, Voyager 1 and 2 continue to provide us with observations of the farthest reaches of space. Our Voyager 1 spacecraft zoomed toward Jupiter in January
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher as it is rolled up the ramp at Launch Pad 39B, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis I mission is the first integrated test of the agency’s deep spa
The Perseid meteors are an annual event many skywatchers look forward to, as they often produce lots of shooting stars to enjoy. The Perseids are debris remnants of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which takes 133 years to orbit the Sun once. The meteors often leave long “wakes” of light and color behind them as
A team of roboticists from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston have applied their expertise in making robots for deep space to designing a fully electric shape-changing submersible robot that will cut costs for maritime industries. Aquanaut, seen here during testing in the giant pool at Johnson’s
