Space Exploration Activities

Images of NASA and Boeing teams working on spacecraft recovery and testing. The focus is on aerospace engineering and mission operations in various environments.

Hanksville, Utah, Researchers simulate living on Mars at the Mars Desert Research Station. 'Expedition Boomerang' brought Australian researchers to the station. Crew commander Andrew Wheeler (left) and Dr. Shane Usher took samples of rocks and soil

Boeing and NASA teams work around Boeings CST-100 Starliner spacecraft after it landed 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.

OSIRIS-REx Sample Return. From left to right, Lockheed Martin Mission Operations Assurance Lead Graham Miller, Lockheed Martin Recovery Specialist Michael Kaye, and Lockheed Martin Recovery Specialist Levi Hanish, prepare the sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission for transport, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, shortly after the capsule landed 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.

USFWS wildlife biologists manage California Condor populations. Subjects: Wildlife management; Endangered species; Biologists (USFWS); Scientific personnel (USFWS).

Crew Module Water Landing Model Assessment (CMWLMA)Test site photos at Aberdeen Test Center Aberdeen Maryland

At the 195-foot level of the Fixed Service Structure, the STS-98 crew watches a slidewire basket drop to the landing zone. The basket was released by Mission Specialist Robert Curbeam (center); Pilot Mark Polansky is at left. The basket is part of emergency egress equipment from the launch pad. Others (not shown) taking part in the emergency egress training are Commander Ken Cockrell and Mission Specialists Thomas Jones and Marsha Ivins. The crew is at KSC to take part in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities, which include the emergency egress training and a simulated launch countdown at the pad. STS-98 is the seventh construction flight to the International Space Station, carrying as payload the U.S. Lab Destiny, a key element in the construction of the ISS. Launch of STS-98 is scheduled for Jan. 19 at 2 11 a.m

Hanksville, Utah, Researchers simulate living on Mars at the Mars Desert Research Station. 'Expedition Boomerang' brought Australian researchers to the station. Crew commander Andrew Wheeler (left) and Dr. Shane Usher took samples of rocks and soil

Boeing and NASA teams work around Boeings CST-100 Starliner spacecraft after it landed 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.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - On Launch Complex 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, another solid rocket booster (SRB) is being raised from its transporter to lift it to vertical. It is one of nine 46-inch-diameter, stretched SRBs that are being attached to the Delta II Heavy rocket that will launch the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF). Consisting of three cryogenically cooled science instruments and an 0.85-meter telescope, SIRTF is one of NASA's largest infrared telescopes to be launched. SIRTF will obtain images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space. Most of this infrared radiation is blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground.

A team member from South African research station, SANAE IV, helps unwrap the balloon from its protective yellow plastic cover just prior to inflation.

Mars on Earth

The departure imminent, a port side team member prepares to attach the Atlantis gangway to a crane so it can be removed. --- 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.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Technicians and engineers check the Project Morpheus prototype lander after it lands on a dedicated pad inside the autonomous landing and hazard avoidance technology, or ALHAT, hazard field at the north end of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Morpheus launched from the ground over a flame trench on its fifth free flight test at around 1 p.m. EST. It ascended 467 feet, more than 160 feet higher than its last test. Morpheus flew forward, covering 637 feet in 30 seconds before descending on 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 the kind of field necessary for realistic testing, complete with rocks, craters and hazards to avoid. Morpheus ALHAT payload will allow it to navigate to clear landing sites amidst rocks, craters

NASA avionics technicians Randy Wagner and Terry Bishop make final adjustments on the scramjet-powered X-43A before its record Mach 9.6 flight.

Russian support personnel work to help get crew members out of the Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft shortly after the capsule landed with Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 16, 2011. NASA Astronaut Kelly, Russian Cosmonauts Skripochka and Kaleri are returning from almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 25 and 26 crews.

Clark University's Luke Trusel works amid sea ice in the Chukchi Sea on July 9, 2010, and logs the depths at which measurements are collected below the ice. The research is part of NASA's ICESCAPE mission to sample the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the ocean and sea ice. Impacts of Climate change on the Eco-Systems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment (ICESCAPE) is a multi-year NASA shipborne project. The bulk of the research will take place in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas in summer of 2010 and fall of 2011.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Daniel Lefebvre, an engineer with the Canadian Space Agency, points out some of the features of the prototype rover Artemis Jr. for NASAs Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction, or RESOLVE, project to media representatives on hand for a demonstration of the rover in a field beside the Operations and Checkout Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rover and its drill are provided by the Canadian Space Agency and work in concert with NASA science instruments to prospect for water, ice and other lunar resources. RESOLVE also will demonstrate how future explorers can take advantage of resources at potential landing sites by manufacturing oxygen from soil. NASA will conduct field tests in July outside of Hilo, Hawaii, with equipment and concept vehicles that demonstrate how explorers might prospect for resources and make their own oxygen for survival while on other planetary bodies.

A810216 VANDENBERG AFB AIR SHOCK INSTRUMENTATION BEN BENJAMIN (Project Engineer) MAR 25 81EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 3/25/1981 AIR SHOCK; AIR SHOCK INSTRUMENTATION; BENJAMIN, BENJAMIN CODY; COWBOY HATS; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; EQUIPMENT (SNL); GRASS; GRASS FAMILIES; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; MALE; MAN (ADD MALE MODIFIER); NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR TESTING; TEST SITES; TRUCKS; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; VANDENBERG AFB; VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE; VANDENBERG INSTRUMENTATION; WIRE & CABLES; VANDENBERG AFB-AIR SHOCK historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

Masten Space Systems technicians prepare their Xodiac rocket to flight test Honeybee Robotics pneumatic sampler collection system, PlanetVac, in Mojave Desert.

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 Tuesday, Sept. 10, 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.

Image of the part of a mechanism

Wireless crop water monitoring project Dr. Chris Lund and Forrest Melton, California State University Monterey Bay research scientists who work at NASA Ames Research Center, check data being returned from a wireless soil moisture monitoring network, installed in an agricultural field. Data from the soil moisture sensor network will be used to assist in interpretation of the satellite estimates of crop water demand. Image of courtesy of Forrest S. Melton

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Technicians and engineers prepare NASA's Project Morpheus prototype lander for the first free-flight test at night from a launch pad at the north end of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 98-second test began at 10:02 p.m. EDT with the Morpheus lander launching from the ground over a flame trench and ascending more than 800 feet. The vehicle, with its autonomous landing and hazard avoidance technology, or ALHAT sensors, surveyed the hazard field to determine safe landing sites. Morpheus then flew forward and downward covering approximately 1,300 feet while performing a 78-foot divert to simulate a hazard avoidance maneuver. The lander then descended and landed on a dedicated pad inside the test field. Project Morpheus tests NASAs ALHAT and an engine that runs on liquid oxygen and methane, which are green propellants. These new capabilities could be used in future efforts to deliver cargo to planetary surfaces.The landi

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.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's Project Morpheus prototype lander is positioned near a new launch site at the north end of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a tether test. The launch pad was moved to a different location at the landing facility to support the next phase of flight testing. Project Morpheus tests NASAs automated landing and hazard avoidance technology, or 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 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, Division in NASAs Human Exploration and Operations Mission

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A team onboard the Liberty Star, the NASA Space Shuttle support ship operated by United Space Alliance, get ready to lower underwater research equipment into the water. An undersea expedition is underway to characterize the condition of the deep-sea coral reefs and reef fish populations in the Oculina Banks, a marine protected area, 20 miles offshore of the east coast of Florida. The equipment includes an underwater robot, a seafloor sampler, and the Passive Acoustic Monitoring System (PAMS), originally developed by NASA to monitor the impact of rocket launches on wildlife refuge lagoons at KSC. The research is sponsored by NOAA Fisheries. The ship departed from Port Canaveral April 29 and will return May 9.

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.

OSIRIS-REx Sample Return. The sample return capsule from NASAs 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 NASAs OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Technicians prepare the Project Morpheus prototype lander for 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 lande

Crew members load a Spacewedge subscale research model into a Cessna aircraft for flight testing in 1996. The Spacewedge was drop-launched from the Cessna and then glided back to a soft landing under a steerable parafoil.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Karl Stolleis, left and Nick Pack prepare an instrument package for testing as part of a high-altitude balloon flight for the Rocket University program. The test flight was used to evaluate the stability of an instrumented capsule as it fell to Earth before its parachute opened. Rocket University is a program of courses, workshops, labs and projects offered to engineering and research pros of all stripes to keep their skills fresh and broaden their experiences.

Biometric records and stomachs of fish at Lake White

Iceland, Scientist with GPS Equipment Measuring Earth Movements

NASA Physical Oceanography Program Scientist Eric Lindstrom boards the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's research vessel Knorr on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012, in Woods Hole, Mass. Lindstrom will depart on Knorr Sept. 6 to take part in the Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS). The NASA-sponsored expedition will sail to the North Atlantic's saltiest spot to get a detailed, 3-D picture of how salt content fluctuates in the ocean's upper layers and how these variations are related to shifts in rainfall patterns around the planet.

A large rocket at BALLS, an experimental rocketry event in the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- At the slidewire basket landing area at Launch Pad 39B, STS-116 crew members get instructions for exiting the baskets used for emergency egress from the orbiter. Standing at right are (from left) Mission Specialists Joan Higginbotham, Nicholas Patrick, Sunita Williams, Robert Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang; Pilot William Oefelein; and Commander Mark Polansky. The STS-116 mission is No. 20 to the International Space Station and construction flight 12A.1. The mission payload is the SPACEHAB module, the P5 integrated truss structure and other key components. Launch is scheduled for no earlier than Dec. 7.

Visitors to an archaeological site on the Utah Test and Training Range look at recently discovered footprints July 18, 2022. In compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, the Air Force works closely with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office to explore, discover, and preserve historical and cultural artifacts on the UTTR.

Installing Seismic StationConcordia Antarctic

The Soyuz TMA-5 vehicle rolled to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Tuesday, October 12, 2004, in preparation for its launch October 14 to send Expedition 10 Commander and NASA Science Officer Leroy Chiao, Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Salizhan Sharipov and Russian Space Forces cosmonaut Yuri Shargin to the International Space Station. Chiao and Sharipov will replace the Expedition 9 crew of Gennady Padalka and Mike Fincke, while Shargin will conduct eight days of scientific experiments. He will return to earth with the Expedition 9 crew October 24.

JSC2008-E-035360 (17 April 2008) --- Astronaut Gregory C. Johnson, STS-125 pilot, prepares for a flight in a NASA T-38 trainer jet at Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center.

A88467 U12G GAUGE INCLUSION TEST SHOT DAY CARL SMITH (PROJECT ENGINEER) APR 18 88 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 4/18/1988 EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; GAUGE INCLUSION TEST; INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; MALE; MALES; MEN; MEN (ADD MALE MODIFIER); NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; PROTECTIVE CLOTHING; SAND BAGS; SHOT DAY; TEST SITES; TRUCKS; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; WIRE & CABLES; U12G GAUGE INCLUSION TEST historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

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.

Astronomer observing planet Mars through a telescope.

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

Travelers take a photo with the Orion crew module flown on NASAs Pad Abort-1 (PA-1) flight test on the road on June 15, 2011. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

Measuring ice depth using radar, the Antarctic.

Crew Module Water Landing Model Assent Test site photos at Aberdeen Test Center (Aberdeen, MD)

Man dressed as an astronaut examining the grass

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

Crew Module Water Landing Model Assent Test site photos at Aberdeen Test Center (Aberdeen, MD)

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

Pumping helium into the first BARREL balloon to launch from Halley Research Satation.

Diver, preparing for subglacial diving, ice diving, in the frozen Black Sea, a rare phenomenon, last time it occured in 1977, Odessa, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Europe

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- On Pad 17-A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the solid rocket booster is raised off its transporter. The SRB will be lifted into the mobile service tower for mating with the Delta II first stage. The Delta is the launch vehicle for the Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft. Phoenix will land in icy soils near the north polar permanent ice cap of Mars and explore the history of the water in these soils and any associated rocks, while monitoring polar climate. Landing on Mars is planned in May 2008 on arctic ground where a mission currently in orbit, Mars Odyssey, has detected high concentrations of ice just beneath the top layer of soil. Phoenix is scheduled to launch Aug. 3.

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Public Affairs Officer George Diller shovels the first scoop of soil behind the current countdown clock during the groundbreaking ceremony for the new countdown clock. The old timepiece was designed by Kennedy engineers and built by Kennedy technicians in 1969. Not including the triangular concrete and aluminum base, the famous landmark is nearly 6 feet 70 inches high, 26 feet 315 inches wide and 3 feet deep. The new display will be similar in size, with the screen being nearly 26 feet wide by 7 feet high.

An engineer checks readings from microphone arrays that were strategically positioned along the ground at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to collect sound signatures from sonic booms created by agency F-18 jets flying faster than the speed of sound. Several flights a day have been taking place the week of Aug. 21, 2017 as part of NASA's Sonic Booms in Atmospheric Turbulence, or SonicBAT II Program. NASA at Kennedy is partnering with the agency's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, Langley Research Center in Virginia, and Space Florida for a program in which F-18 jets will take off from the Shuttle Landing Facility and fly at supersonic speeds while agency researchers measure the effects of low-altitude turbulence caused by sonic booms.

. PHOTO DATE: 10-09-22LOCATION: Flagstaff, ArizonaSUBJECT: Photographic coverage of JETTS3 engineering night run 4. Joint EVA Test Team (JETT) Field Testing - JETT 3 fully integrated mission scale test to ensure successful surface operations and technology development for Artemis III.PHOTOGRAPHER: BILL STAFFORD

. Justin Link prepares the DROID 2 (Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone 2) aircraft before a flight for the Advanced Exploration of Reliable Operation at Low Altitudes: Meteorology, Simulation, and Technology campaign. The weather study was at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The focus was to study wind to provide data for safe takeoff and landing of future air taxis.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - As if erupting from the bed of cattails at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, space shuttle Atlantis trails a column of smoke while racing to space on the STS-125 mission. Atlantis will rendezvous with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope . Liftoff was on time at 2:01 p.m. EDT. Atlantis' 11-day flight will include five spacewalks to refurbish and upgrade the telescope with state-of-the-art science instruments that will expand Hubble's capabilities and extend its operational lifespan through at least 2014. The payload includes a Wide Field Camera 3, Fine Guidance Sensor and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.

High School and College students from around the U.S. came together at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama for the 2019 Student Launch Initiative. The students launched their rockets to their own predetermined altitude with various payloads including remote rovers and unmanned aerial vehicles.

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

Pipistrel-USA Pilot David Morss, left, CAFE Foundation Weights Chief Wayne Cook, 2nd from left, and Weight crew member Ron Stout look on as Pipistrel-USA Pilot Robin Reid is weighed-in during the 2011 Green Flight Challenge, sponsored by Google, at the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, Calif. on Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. NASA and the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation are having the challenge with the goal to advance technologies in fuel efficiency and reduced emissions with cleaner renewable fuels and electric aircraft.

Astronomer observing Venus in clouds and in the moonlight.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Engineers and technicians prepare the Project Morpheus prototype lander for 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 h

The crew of High Expectations prepares their rocket on its gantry at BALLS, an experimental rocketry event in the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - On Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Mission Specialists Naoko Yamazaki of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, and Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. experience a slidewire basket first hand during training on the emergency exit system at the pad. The system includes seven baskets suspended from seven slidewires that extend from the fixed service structure to a landing zone 1,200 feet west of the pad. The crew members of space shuttle Discovery's STS-131 mission are at Kennedy for training related to their launch dress rehearsal, the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test. The seven-member crew will deliver the multi-purpose logistics module Leonardo, filled with resupply stowage platforms and racks, to the International Space Station aboard Discovery. Targeted for launch on April 5, STS-131 will be the 33rd shuttle mission to the station and the 131st shuttle mission overall.

A technician checks that the weather station is working properly. Little Dome C, Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica

The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.

Students with satellite disk on roof, weather forecasting. (model released)

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, at the podium, speaks to members of the news media at the NASA News Center on May 23, 2019. At left is Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana. News media were at the center for an Apollo 11 Media Day. They toured several facilities, including the Vehicle Assembly and Launch Complex 39B for a look back at the Apollo missions and a look ahead to NASAs new Moon 2024 initiative, the Artemis 1 mission and the Gateway lunar outpost.

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.

A view looking over the payload - the instruments that fly under a balloon - while the BARREL balloon inflates. The orange parachute lies on the ground in front of the payload, while most of the balloon length can be seen stretched along the ground toward the part being inflated.

2016 ROVER CHALLENGE EVENTS AT THE U.S. SPACE AND ROCKET CENTER IN HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA. NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS COME TOGETHER TO TEST THEIR ENGINEERING SKILLS OVER A SIMULATED OUTER PLANET OBSTACLE COURSE.

OSIRIS-REx Sample Return. On Scene Commander of Recovery Jasmine Nakayama attaches the sample return capsule from NASAs OSIRIS-REx mission to a helicopter for transport to the cleanroom, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, shortly after the capsule landed 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.

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.

MOJAVE DESERT, Calif. - In the Mojave Desert in California, students and engineers checkout the Garvey Spacecraft Corporation's Prospector P-18D rocket at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry launch site. The rocket is scheduled for launch June 15 with the RUBICS-1 payload on a high-altitude, suborbital mission. The rocket will carry four satellites made from four-inch cube sections.Collectively known as CubeSats, the satellites will record shock, vibrations and heat inside the rocket. They will not be released during the test flight, but the results will be used to prove or strengthen their designs before they are carried into orbit in 2014 on a much larger rocket. A new, lightweight carrier is also being tested for use on future missions to deploy the small spacecraft. The flight also is being watched closely as a model for trying out new or off-the-shelf technologies quickly before putting them in the pipeline for use on NASA's largest launchers. Built by several different organizatio

Filled with anticipation, students from two local universities, the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), and Alabama Agricultural Mechanical University (AM), counted down to launch the rockets they designed and built at the Army test site on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The projected two-mile high launch culminated more than a year's work and demonstrated the student team's ability to meet the challenge set by the Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) Student Launch Initiative (SLI) Program to apply science and math to experience, judgment, and common sense, and proved to NASA officials that they have successfully built reusable launch vehicles (RLVs), another challenge set by NASA's SLI program. MSFC's SLI program is an educational effort that aims to motivate students to pursue careers in science, math, and engineering. It provides the students with hands-on, practical aerospace experience. In this picture, the university students prepare their rocket for flight on

Happy astronaut holding space helmet leaning on railing in front of sky

MOJAVE DESERT, Calif. - In the Mojave Desert in California, Kevin Baxter, a range representative of the Friends of Amateur Rocketry launch site, ensures all is ready for launch of the Garvey Spacecraft Corporation's Prospector P-18D rocket with the RUBICS-1 payload on a high-altitude, suborbital flight. The rocket will carry four satellites made from four-inch cube sections.The rocket reached a peak altitude of about 9,000 feet, however the parachute deployed prematurely and the vehicle continued on its trajectory, coasting and tumbling to a hard landing on its side. In spite of the rough ride, all four CubeSats were recovered. PhoneSat and RUBICS received data in flight, but sustained structural damage. CP-9 and StangSat fared better, and their teams are working to recover as much information as possible. Collectively known as CubeSats, the satellites were designed to record shock, vibrations and heat inside the rocket. The results will be used to prove or strengthen their designs

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's Morpheus lander, a vertical test bed vehicle, is moved into a building at the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Morpheus is designed to demonstrate new green propellant propulsion systems and autonomous landing and an Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT, system.Checkout of the prototype lander has been ongoing at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston in preparation for its first free flight. The SLF site will provide the lander with the kind of field necessary for realistic testing. Project Morpheus is one of 20 small projects comprising the Advanced Exploration Systems, or AES, program in NASAs Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. AES projects pioneer new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit.

Technicians with Orbital ATK remove the first half of the Pegasus payload fairing for NASAs Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) from its shipping container and prepare it for the move to nearby Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. CYGNSS is being prepared at Vandenberg, and then will be transported to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket which will be attached to the Orbital ATK L-1011 carrier aircraft. CYGNSS will launch on the Pegasus XL rocket from the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. CYGNSS will make frequent and accurate measurements of ocean surface winds throughout the life cycle of tropical storms and hurricanes. The data that CYGNSS provides will enable scientists to probe key air-sea interaction processes that take place near the core of storms, which are rapidly changing and play a critical role in the beginning and intensification of hurricanes.

2016 ROVER CHALLENGE EVENTS AT THE U.S. SPACE AND ROCKET CENTER IN HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA. NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS COME TOGETHER TO TEST THEIR ENGINEERING SKILLS OVER A SIMULATED OUTER PLANET OBSTACLE COURSE.

Team kiteThis kite was part of the scientific tool kit. It carried a camera that can be used to make high-resolution mosaics of the study site.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A demonstration of the prototype rover Artemis Jr. for NASAs Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction, or RESOLVE, project is conducted in a field beside the Operations and Checkout Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.The rover and its drill are provided by the Canadian Space Agency and work in concert with NASA science instruments to prospect for water, ice and other lunar resources. RESOLVE also will demonstrate how future explorers can take advantage of resources at potential landing sites by manufacturing oxygen from soil. NASA will conduct field tests in July outside of Hilo, Hawaii, with equipment and concept vehicles that demonstrate how explorers might prospect for resources and make their own oxygen for survival while on other planetary bodies.

Employees watch the last planned space shuttle main engine test firing.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Outside of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, the enclosed radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) is moved into a waiting truck. The RTG is being returned to the RTG facility after completing a fit check with the spacecraft. The RTG is the baseline power supply for the New Horizons, scheduled to launch in January 2006 on a journey to Pluto and its moon, Charon. As it approaches Pluto, the spacecraft will look for ultraviolet emission from Pluto's atmosphere and make the best global maps of Pluto and Charon in green, blue, red and a special wavelength that is sensitive to methane frost on the surface. It will also take spectral maps in the near infrared, telling the science team about Pluto's and Charon's surface compositions and locations and temperatures of these materials. When the spacecraft is closest to Pluto or its moon, it will take close-up pictures in both visible and near-infrared wavelengths. It is expected to reach Pluto in July

2016 ROVER CHALLENGE EVENTS AT THE U.S. SPACE AND ROCKET CENTER IN HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA. NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS COME TOGETHER TO TEST THEIR ENGINEERING SKILLS OVER A SIMULATED OUTER PLANET OBSTACLE COURSE.

A small group of people pull a yellow rocket 'The Minnesota Youbetcha', out to the launch range at BALLS, an experimental rocketry event in the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada.

Scientist holding water sample in whirl pak

Larry Foster (in dark jacket) carries a long green and white rocket out to a launch gantry at a launch event sponsored by the Southern Arizona Rocketry Association (SARA).

View of SLF structure

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.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A research team member aboard one of the watercraft being utilized to conduct underwater acoustic research in the Launch Complex 39 turn basin lifts some of the project's equipment from the water. Several government agencies, including NASA, NOAA, the Navy, the Coast Guard, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission are involved in the testing. The research involves demonstrations of passive and active sensor technologies, with applications in fields ranging from marine biological research to homeland security. The work is also serving as a pilot project to assess the cooperation between the agencies involved. Equipment under development includes a passive acoustic monitor developed by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and mobile robotic sensors from the Navys Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - A view from inside the pilot house of the Liberty Star overlooks the stern where a team secures lines to underwater research equipment being used on an expedition to characterize the condition of the deep-sea coral reefs and reef fish populations in the Oculina Banks. The banks are a marine protected area, 20 miles offshore of the east coast of Florida. The equipment includes an underwater robot, a seafloor sampler, and the Passive Acoustic Monitoring System (PAMS), originally developed by NASA to monitor the impact of rocket launches on wildlife refuge lagoons at KSC. The research is sponsored by NOAA Fisheries. The ship departed from Port Canaveral April 29 and will return May 9.

Daron Duke, Far Western Anthropological Research Group, speaks with visitors to an archaeological site on the Utah Test and Training Range July 18, 2022. In compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, the Air Force works closely with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office to explore, discover, and preserve historical and cultural artifacts on the UTTR.

Students from across the United States and as far away as Puerto Rico came to Huntsville, Alabama for the 10th annual Great Moonbuggy Race at the U.S. Space Rocket Center. Sixty-eight teams, representing high schools and colleges from all over the United States, and Puerto Rico, raced human powered vehicles over a lunar-like terrain. Vehicles powered by two team members, one male and one female, raced one at a time over a half-mile obstacle course of simulated moonscape terrain. The competition is inspired by development, some 30 years ago, of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), a program managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center. The LRV team had to design a compact, lightweight, all-terrain vehicle that could be transported to the Moon in the small Apollo spacecraft. The Great Moonbuggy Race challenges students to design and build a human powered vehicle so they will learn how to deal with real-world engineering problems similar to those faced by the actual NASA LRV team. In this photo

Roy Polmanteer and crew prepares a white and orange rocket at a launch event sponsored by the Southern Arizona Rocketry Association (SARA).

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

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.

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