"The stars aligned – I was working at Johnson Space Center in Houston about six months later. That’s how I got here, in a roundabout way.” — Isidro Reyna, Strategic Communications Manager, Strategic Integration and Management Division, Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Artemis II Astronauts Complete Day of Launch Dry Run for Moon Mission
The Artemis II crew and teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program successfully completed on Sept. 20, the first in a series of integrated ground system tests at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for the upcoming mission around the Moon. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli captured this image of New Zealand, dotted by white clouds, on Sept. 12, 2023, as the International Space Station orbited 230 miles above the island nation. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule Lands in the Utah Desert
The sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of a massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08 contains the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the universe’s first billion years: the Sunrise Arc, and within that galaxy, the most distant star ever detected. In this image, the Sunrise Arc appears as a red streak just below the diffraction spike at the 5 o’clock position. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
AS11-40-5875 (20 July 1969) -- Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during an Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. The Lunar Module (LM) is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the soil of the moon. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera.
Aerostar’s high-altitude balloon is shown here moments after launch carrying payloads from 20 student teams as part of NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
This Week in NASA History: First Crewed Skylab Mission – May 25, 1973
This week in 1973, the first crewed Skylab mission launched aboard a Saturn IB from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Astronauts Charles Conrad, Paul Weitz and Joseph Kerwin docked with Skylab on the fifth orbit. The crew conducted solar astronomy, Earth resources experiments, medical studies and five experiments, and performed three spacewalks. They doubled the previous length of time in space over the course of their 28-day mission. Here, the Skylab Orbital Workshop is seen as the crew departs and performs the final fly-around inspection. Today, the Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center serves as "science central" for the International Space Station, working 24/7, 365 days a year in support of the orbiting laboratory's science experiments. After 20 years of continuous human presence, the space station remains the sole space-based proving ground and stepping stone toward achieving the goals of the Artemis program. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA's remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA's activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA's history, visit the Marshall History Program's webpage. (NASA) (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created on October 1, 1958, to perform civilian research related to space flight and aeronautics. President Eisenhower commissioned Dr. T. Keith Glennan, right, as the first administrator for NASA and Dr. Hugh L. Dryden as deputy administrator. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Expedition 69 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is carried to a medical tent shortly after he, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev landed in their Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on 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/Bill Ingalls (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
iss066e083715 (Nov. 26, 2021) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Raja Chari is ready for taco night as he shows off a taco made with fresh chile peppers harvested from inside the International Space Station's Advanced Plant Habitat. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
This feature looks a bit like a bear's face. What is it really? There's a hill with a V-shaped collapse structure (the nose), two craters (the eyes), and a circular fracture pattern (the head). The circular fracture pattern might be due to the settling of a deposit over a buried impact crater. Maybe the nose is a volcanic or mud vent and the deposit could be lava or mud flows? Maybe just grin and bear it. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
“I think the experience of putting yourself in an uncomfortable environment and coming at the other end with lessons learned is always positive. Trying to expand the windows of where you feel comfortable gives you a chance to know yourself better." — Alfonso Davila, Research Scientist, Exobiology Branch, NASA's Ames Research Center (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
It’s easy to get swept up in the swirling starry arms of this intermediate spiral galaxy, NGC 4654, in the constellation Virgo. The galaxy has a bright center and is labeled “intermediate” because it has characteristics of both unbarred and barred spirals. NGC 4654 is just north of the celestial equator, making it visible from the northern hemisphere and most of the southern hemisphere. The galaxy is around 55 million light-years from Earth. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is seen as it is rolled out of the horizontal integration facility at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Psyche mission, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will travel to a metal-rich asteroid by the same name orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter to study its composition. The spacecraft also carries the agency's Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which will test laser communications beyond the Moon. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard is launched from Launch Complex 39A, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will travel to a metal-rich asteroid by the same name orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter to study its composition. The spacecraft also carries the agency's Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which will test laser communications beyond the Moon. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
The north coast of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur on the Pacific Ocean is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 258 miles above. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
