Space NASA Image of the Day

Intuitive Machines Launches to the Moon

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander lifts off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:05 a.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. As part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative and Artemis campaign, Intuitive Machines’ first lunar mission will carry NASA science and commercial payloads to the Moon to study plume-surface interactions, space weather/lunar surface interactions, radio astronomy, precision landing technologies, and a communication and navigation node for future autonomous navigation technologies. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Signing Our Names

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The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis II mission received its latest makeover. Teams adhered the agency’s iconic “worm” logo and ESA (European Space Agency) insignia on the spacecraft’s crew module adapter on Sunday, Jan. 28, inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Deputy Program Manager Dr. Camille Alleyne

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"You must have grit, resilience, courage, and strength. I'm able to really share all the wisdom and the lessons I've learned throughout my career with [the students I mentor], and that makes a difference." — Dr. Camille Alleyne, Deputy Program Manager, Commercial LEO Development Program, NASA’s Johnson Space Center (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Studying Arctic Ice

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On July 12, 2011, crew from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy retrieved a canister dropped by parachute from a C-130, which brought supplies for some mid-mission fixes. The ICESCAPE, or "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment, mission was a NASA shipborne investigation to study how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean's chemistry and ecosystems. The bulk of the research took place in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in summer 2010 and 2011. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Shanghai from Space

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The city lights of Shanghai, the most populous city in China with a population of about 24.9 million, and the Huangpu River flowing through downtown, are pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 260 miles above the East China Sea. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Hubble Views an Active Star-Forming Galaxy

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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features IC 3476, a dwarf galaxy that lies about 54 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. While this image does not look very dramatic – we might say it looks almost serene – the actual physical events taking place in IC 3476 are highly energetic. In fact, the little galaxy is undergoing a process called ram pressure stripping that is driving unusually high levels of star formation in regions of the galaxy. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
NASA, Partners Test Artemis II Recovery Procedures

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Members of NASA’s Exploration Ground System’s Landing and Recovery team and partners from the Department of Defense aboard the USS San Diego practice recovery procedures during Underway Recovery Test 11 (URT-11) off the coast of San Diego on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. The team works to secure the Crew Module Test Article and align it on its stand inside the ship’s well deck. URT-11 is the eleventh in a series of Artemis recovery tests, and the first time NASA and its partners put their Artemis II recovery procedures to the test with the astronauts. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
A Splash of Pink

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A female (left) and a male roseate spoonbill get together near the tall grasses at the edge of a pond in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, northwest of Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Spoonbills inhabit areas of mangrove such as on the coasts of southern Florida and Texas. These birds feed on shrimps and fish in the shallow water, sweeping their bills from side to side. This and other wildlife abound throughout Kennedy as it shares a boundary with the Wildlife Refuge, home to some of the nation’s rarest and most unusual species of wildlife. The wildlife refuge is a habitat for more than 310 species of birds, 25 mammals, 117 fishes and 65 amphibians and reptiles. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Atmospheric Science Branch Chief Dr. Charles Gatebe

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"Anyone you see on the streets, their color or background doesn't matter; we all come into this world the same way. You're equipped with skills, so find your passion and go for it." – Dr. Charles Gatebe, Chief of Atmospheric Science Branch, NASA's Ames Research Center (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Odysseus Lands on the Moon

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Following a launch on Feb. 15, Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander touched down in the Moon’s south polar region on Feb. 22 and has since transmitted valuable scientific data back to Earth. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Hubble Uncovers a Celestial Fossil

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This densely populated group of stars is the globular cluster NGC 1841, which is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way galaxy that lies about 162,000 light-years away. Satellite galaxies are bound by gravity in orbits around a more massive host galaxy. We typically think of the Andromeda Galaxy as our galaxy’s nearest galactic companion, but it is more accurate to say that Andromeda is the nearest galaxy that is not in orbit around the Milky Way galaxy. In fact, dozens of satellite galaxies orbit our galaxy and they are far closer than Andromeda. The largest and brightest of these is the LMC, which is easily visible to the unaided eye from the southern hemisphere under dark sky conditions away from light pollution. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Women of NASA Langley Research Center

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In honor of Women’s History Month 2024 and those who paved the way for them, hundreds of female staff – from artists to administrative support, educators to engineers, and scientists to safety officers – gathered in front of the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, on Feb. 6, 2024. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Apollo 9 Astronaut David Scott’s Spacewalk

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Excellent view of the docked Apollo 9 command and service modules (CSM) and lunar module (LM), with Earth in the background, during astronaut David R. Scott's stand-up spacewalk, on the fourth day of the Apollo 9 Earth-orbital mission. Scott, command module pilot, is standing in the open hatch of the command module. Astronaut Russell L. Schweickart, lunar module pilot, took this photograph of Scott from the porch of the LM. Inside the LM was astronaut James A. McDivitt, Apollo 9 commander. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Martian Barchan Dunes

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This image shows two types of sand dunes on Mars. The small dots are called barchan dunes, and from their shape we can tell that they are upwind. The downwind dunes are long and linear. These two types of dune each show the wind direction in different ways: the barchans have a steep slope and crescent-shaped "horns" that point downwind, while the linear dunes are stretched out along the primary wind direction. Linear dunes, however, typically indicate a wind regime with at least two different prevailing winds, which stretch out the sand along their average direction. In several places in this image, you can find barchan dunes turning into linear dunes as they are stretched out, but they both seem into indicate the same wind direction. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Moon and Sun Over Wyoming

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The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun at the point of the maximum of the partial solar eclipse near Banner, Wyoming on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. A total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the contiguous United States from Lincoln Beach, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of South America, Africa, and Europe. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky) (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
NASA Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara Read First Woman

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Expedition 70 Flight Engineers (from left) Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara, both NASA astronauts, are pictured inside the International Space Station's cupola holding NASA's first graphic novel, "First Woman." (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
Apollo 9 Crew Comes Home

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Immediately after splashdown, a recovery helicopter from the USS Guadalcanal hovers over the Apollo 9 spacecraft. Still inside the Command Module are astronauts James A. McDivitt, David R. Scott, and Russell L. Schweickart. Splashdown occurred at 12:00:53 p.m. EST March 13, 1969, only 4.5 nautical miles from the USS Guadalcanal, the prime recovery ship, to conclude a successful 10-day Earth-orbital mission in space. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
 
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