Space Exploration Technologies

Images of NASA's Morpheus lander and other space technologies being tested, including competitions for student-designed rovers and spacecraft assemblies.

Father Josset's telescope with his restorer in observatory

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Technicians set up NASA's Morpheus lander, a vertical test bed vehicle, at its launch position along the runway 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.

High school and university students competed in the 2018 Human Exploration Rover Challenge event at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Students came from across the U.S. as well as several foreign countries such as Brazil, Germany, India, and Mexico. This event, which is normally a 2 day event, was shortened to 1 day in 2018 due to adverse weather conditions.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. --In bay 3 of the Orbiter Processing Facility, United Space Alliance technicians reassemble space shuttle Discovery's right main-gear strut back together. The components were removed in order to replace a hydraulic seal inside. Engineers determined an observed leak of hydraulic fluid in the main landing gear strut exceeded specification and could not be reduced to an acceptable rate. Thus, the leaky seal and three other seals were replaced. Prior to discovery of the leak, the vehicle had been scheduled to roll over Sept. 19 from the OPF to the Vehicle Assembly Building. A new rollover date will be set for Discovery, which is targeted for launch on Oct. 23.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A technician prepares the Project Morpheus prototype lander for a tether test near a new launch site at the north end of the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 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 Mi

Astronomers prepare their telescopes in advance of the 2006 total solar eclipse near Al Salloum in Egypt.

A780370 AREA 17 ELEANA SHALE CARL O DUIMSTRA APR 4 78 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 4/4/1978 AREA 17; DUIMSTRA, CARL; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; ELEANA SHALE; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; TEST SITES; TESTS; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; WEAPON EFFECTS; WEAPONS RELATED; WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY; WIRE & CABLES; WIRING; AREA 17 - ELEANA SHALE historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

A780357 AREA 17 ELEANA SHALE CARL O DUIMSTRA MAR 22 78 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 3/22/1978 AREA 17; DUIMSTRA, CARL; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; ELEANA SHALE; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; TEST SITES; TESTS; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; WEAPON EFFECTS; WEAPONS RELATED; WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY; WIRE & CABLES; WIRING; AREA 17 - ELEANA SHALE historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

Loading the 'Gila Monster'

Father Josset's telescope with his restorer in observatory

Mars on Earth

A780368 AREA 17 ELEANA SHALE CARL O DUIMSTRA APR 4 78 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 4/4/1978 AREA 17; DUIMSTRA, CARL; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; ELEANA SHALE; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; TEST SITES; TESTS; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; WEAPON EFFECTS; WEAPONS RELATED; WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY; WIRE & CABLES; WIRING; AREA 17 - ELEANA SHALE historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

An unmanned aerial vehicle, a UAV, is an experimental platform for testing aerial video and photography in remote areas. Research being conducted by the University of Florida.

Boeing and NASA teams participate in a mission dress rehearsal to prepare for the landing of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft in White Sands, New Mexico, Monday, May 23, 2022. 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.

A780484 U4F TRANSOM DOWNHOLE OPERATION T MCKOWN APR 27 78 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 4/27/1978 EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; MCKOWN, T; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; SHAFT TEST; TEST SITES; TRANSOM TEST; U4F; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; WEAPON EFFECTS; WEAPONS RELATED; WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY; WIRE & CABLES; WIRING; U4F TRANSOM DOWNHOLE OPERATION historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the weather station on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, meteorological data specialists prepare two 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.

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 Thursday, Sept. 12, 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.

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 prepares some of the project's equipment for placement in 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.

MOJAVE DESERT, Calif. - In the Mojave Desert in California, students and engineers assist as the Garvey Spacecraft Corporation's Prospector P-18D rocket is lifted into position for its scheduled launch on June 15 with the RUBICS-1 payload on a high-altitude, suborbital flight. 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 organizations, including a university, a

Mars on Earth

A CREW INSTALLS A NEW EARTH SCIENCE RECEIVING SATELLITE ANTENNA OUTSIDE MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER'S ACTIVITIES BUILDING 4316

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.

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.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the foot of Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, STS-131 Mission Specialist Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger hops out of a slidewire basket during training on the emergency exit system at the pad. Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. holds the basket steady for her as Mission Specialist Naoko Yamazaki of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency looks on. 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 131

RBSP - Radiation Belt Storm Probe Arrival and Offload

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A forklift operator NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probe A, enclosed in a protective shipping container, toward a flatbed truck at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The twin RBSP spacecraft will be transported to the Astrotech payload processing facility near Kennedy Space Center where Applied Physics Laboratory technicians will begin spacecraft testing and prelaunch preparations.The RBSP mission will help us understand the suns influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the Earths radiation belts on various scales of space and time. The RBSP instruments will provide the measurements needed to characterize and quantify the plasma processes that produce very energetic ions and relativistic electrons. The mission is part of NASAs broader Living With a Star Program that was conceived to explore fundamental processes that operate throughout the solar system, and in particular those that generate hazardous space wea

Iraq, Kirkuk province, Bashir village on 2022-10-19. Report on explosive remnants of war in Iraq, one of the most contaminated countries in the world after forty years of conflict, instability and especially the recent occupation of the country by the Islamic State group, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention prohibiting the acquisition, production, stockpiling and use of mines. This is Handicap International's (Humanity and Inclusion) mine clearance training camp in the village of Bashir where mine clearers practice in real conditions. Photograph by Martin Bertrand. Irak, province de Kirkouk, Bashir village le 2022-10-19. Reportage sur les restes explosifs de guerre en Irak, lun des pays les plus contamines au monde suite a quarante ans de conflits, dinstabilité et surtout par loccupation recente du pays par le groupe Etat islamique, a l'occasion des 25 ans du Traite d'Ottawa, la Convention sur linterdiction des mines

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

Team Survey's robot is seen as it conducts a demonstration of the level two challenge during the 2014 NASA Centennial Challenges Sample Return Robot Challenge, Thursday, June 12, 2014, at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass. Eighteen teams are competing for a $1.5 million NASA prize purse. Teams will be required to demonstrate autonomous robots that can locate and collect samples from a wide and varied terrain, operating without human control. The objective of this NASA-WPI Centennial Challenge is to encourage innovations in autonomous navigation and robotics technologies. Innovations stemming from the challenge may improve NASA's capability to explore a variety of destinations in space, as well as enhance the nation's robotic technology for use in industries and applications on Earth.

Recovery teams move a work stand around the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft immediately after it landed with Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman onboard in a remote area southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday, May 24, 2011. NASA Astronaut Coleman, Russian Cosmonaut Kondratyev and Italian Astronaut Nespoli are returning from more than five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 26 and 27 crews.

NASA, Department of Defense personnel from Detachment 3 out of Patrick Air Force Base, and the Mobile Diving Salvage Unit based in San Diego conduct a testing session at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston on Dec. 5, 2012 to evaluate procedures, mockups, and prototype hardware used to train personnel in recovery of the Orion crew module and the forward bay cover for Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1). Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

Robert Bigelow gets demonstration of the Ames rover at the Ames Mars Yard. L-R Terry Fong, Robert Schingler (both of Ames), Jay Ingham of NNT, Roger Bigelow

Safe water buoy from before the introduction of IALA (ca. 1972) during a lantern inspection on buoy.

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

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Rocket University participants prepare to launch a high-altitude balloon flight and instrument package. 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.

ENGINEERS PREPARE 3-D PRINTED TURBOPUMP FOR A TEST AT NASAS MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER IN HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA. THE TURBOPUMP WAS TESTED AT FULL POWER, PUMPING 600 GALLONS OF LIQUID METHANE PER MINUTE, ENOUGH TO POWER AN ENGINE CAPABLE OF GENERATING 35,000 POUNDS OF THRUST…NICK CASE, (GREEN SHIRT), ANDREW HANKS, (PLAID SHIRT), MARTY CALVERT (KNEELING)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At the Cape Canaveral weather station in Florida, workers carry an upper-level weather balloon outside for release. The release was part of a media tour prior to the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-121 July 1. The radar-tracked balloon detects wind shears that can affect a shuttle launch. At the facility, which is operated by the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron, media saw the tools used by the weather team to create the forecast for launch day. They received a briefing on how the launch weather forecast is developed by Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters and met the forecasters for the space shuttle and the expendable launch vehicles. Also participating were members of the Applied Meteorology Unit who provide special expertise to the forecasters by analyzing and interpreting unusual or inconsistent weather data. The media were able to see the release of the Rawinsonde weather balloon carrying instruments aloft to be used as part

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) container is pressure washed at the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Tess will be moved to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility to be processed and prepared for flight. TESS is scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. TESS is the next step in NASA's search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and managed by NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Dr. George Ricker of MITs Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research serves as principal investigator for the mission. Additional partners include Orbital ATK, NASAs Ames Research Center, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Space Telescope Science Institute. More than a dozen universities, research

The third stage of the Lockheed Martin Athena launch vehicle arrives at Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Station before it is mated to the second stage. The protective covering for safe transportation is removed before the third stage is lifted on the launch pad. Athena is scheduled to carry the Lunar Prospector spacecraft for an 18-month mission that will orbit the Earths moon to collect data from the lunar surface. Scientific experiments to be conducted by the Prospector include locating water ice that may exist near the lunar poles, gathering data to understand the evolution of the lunar highland crust and the lunar magnetic field, finding radon outgassing events, and describing the lunar gravity field by means of Doppler tracking. The launch is now scheduled for early-January 1998.

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

Scientists and engineers regularly tweaked and tested specialized equipment attached to the C130. Here two of the NAAMES team are inspecting a cloud probe that typically hangs on the wingtip of the plane. --- 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.

A810133 AREA 14 MX TEST SEISMIC STATIONS JIMMY G. LEE (Project Engineer) FEB 13 81 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 2/13/1981 ANTENNAS; AREA 14; AREA 14 MX TEST; DAMAGE ASSESSMENTS; DAMAGE AT SEISMIC STATION; DAMAGED; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; LEE, JIMMY G.; MX; MX TEST; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR TESTING; SEISMIC STATIONS; SEISMOLOGICAL STATIONS; TEST SITES; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; AREA 14-SEISMIC STATIONS historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

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.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Workers begin construction of the launch platform for the Project Morpheus lander at the midfield of the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Testing of the prototype lander has been ongoing at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston in preparation for its first free flight. The SLF will provide the lander with the kind of field necessary for realistic testing, complete with rocks, craters and hazards to avoid. Morpheus utilizes an autonomous landing and hazard avoidance technology, or ALHAT, payload that will allow it to navigate to clear landing sites amidst rocks, craters and other hazards during its descent. 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 fo

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Inside the 'Lunarena' at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Astronaut Hall of Fame, university students are ready to maneuver their remote controlled or autonomous excavators, called lunabots, in about 60 tons of ultra-fine simulated lunar soil, called BP-1. Twenty-two teams from around the country are competing in NASA's first Lunabotics Mining Competition. The competition is an Exploration Systems Mission Directorate project managed by Kennedy's Education Division. The purpose is to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, fields. It also provides a competitive environment that could result in innovative ideas and solutions for NASA's future excavation of the moon.

An image of astronomical observation

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

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.

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.

The first BARREL balloon is inflated just before its launch on Aug. 13, 2016, from Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, Sweden. 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 th

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.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A new antenna is secured into place by Felix Gamez, left, Robert Novak and Jacob Walls of Qinetiq North America. The new antenna is part of NASA Kennedy Space Centers Doppler radar wind profiler.Located near the spaceports Shuttle Landing Facility runway, the profiler is being upgraded to a new, state-of-the-art version that will help forecasters and launch teams characterize upper-level winds in the area. This profiler will help in the detection of wind-shear conditions during launch.

Iceland archeology

. Justin Hall, left, prepares to pilot the DROID 2 (Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone 2) aircraft, as John Melton watches and Justin Link makes a final adjustment. The flight was part of 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.

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.

ED13-0079-13 (26 March 2013) ---- SpaceX Dragon's second operational mission ended on March 26 after three weeks attached to the International Space Station. The unmanned spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 214 miles off the coast of Baja California to successfully return about 2,670 pounds of science materials from the orbital outpost.

A biologist checking weather data from a weather Station in northern Arizona

Isiah Toran releases a weather balloon to help measure atmospheric conditions ahead of the launch of the NASA Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The ICESat-2 mission will measure the changing height of Earth's ice.

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.

Larry Foster sets up one of his rockets on a launch gantry on Jean Dry Lake during Springfest.

The Orion mockup used for the Post-landing Orion Recovery Test (PORT) is shown on display at event at Space Center Houston on June 1, 2012. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

SPLASH BTA Phase 2 Vertical Tests 9: Documentation of preparation, set up and results of full scale BTA (Boilerplate Test Article) vertical drop test series performed in 2012 at the LaRC Hydro Impact Basin (HIB)

Russian Search and Rescue teams arrive at the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft shortly after it landed 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.

A780400 AREA 17 HEATER RECOVERY CARL DUIMSTRA APR 18 78 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 4/18/1978 AREA 17; CABLES (NON ELECTRIC COMPANY); DUIMSTRA, CARL; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; HEATER RECOVERY; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; LIFTING; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; RECOVERING; TEST SITES; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; WEAPON EFFECTS; WEAPONS RELATED; WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY; AREA 17 - HEATER RECOVERY historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Inside the hangar at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., workers wait for the Pegasus launch vehicle to be moved inside. The Pegasus will carry the SciSat-1 spacecraft in a 400-mile-high polar orbit to investigate processes that control the distribution of ozone in the upper atmosphere. The scientific mission of SciSat-1 is to measure and understand the chemical processes that control the distribution of ozone in the Earths atmosphere, particularly at high altitudes. The data from the satellite will provide Canadian and international scientists with improved measurements relating to global ozone processes and help policymakers assess existing environmental policy and develop protective measures for improving the health of our atmosphere, preventing further ozone depletion. The mission is designed to last two years.

A780683 U3JK JACKPOTS DOWNHOLE OPERATION T MCKOWN MAY 18 78 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 5/18/1978 DOWNHOLE OPERATION; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; INSTALLING; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; JACKPOTS TEST; MCKOWN, T; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; SHAFT TEST; TEST SITES; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; WEAPON EFFECTS; WEAPONS RELATED; WEAPONS TECHNOLOGY; WIRE & CABLES; JACKPOTS - DOWNHOLE OPERATION historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

Boeing team members don hazmat suits as they prepare for the landing of Boeings CST-100 Starliner spacecraft 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.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Stages 1, 2 and 3 of Orbital Sciences Taurus XL launch vehicle for NASAs Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO, are parked under a tent at Space Launch Complex 576-E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The OCO is an Earth-orbiting mission sponsored by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program. The observatory will collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. Scientists will analyze the data returned to better understand the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important greenhouse gas. Launch is targeted for 1:51:30 a.m. PST Feb. 24.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A college team prepares its robot for a trial run at NASAs Robotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the mining competition.The competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, fields by expanding opportunities for student research and design. Teams use their remote-controlled robotics to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with a crushed material that has characteristics similar to Martian soil. The objective of the challenge is to see which teams robot can collect and move the most regolith within a specified amount of time.

A841237 U12G BACK BURNER FINAL SET-UP ROD SHEAR (Project Engineer) OCT 24 84 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 10/24/1984 BACK BURNER; BACK BURNER TEST; DISHES; DISHES (LABORATORY); DISKS; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; EQUIPMENT (SNL); FINAL SET-UP; INSTRUMENTS & EQUIPMENT; MALE; MEN; MEN (ADD MALE MODIFIER); NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; ROUND; SETUP; TEST SITES; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; BACK BURNER-FINAL SET-UP historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

A biologist checking weather data from a weather Station in northern Arizona

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Dr. Richard Arkin records data as the hazardous gas detection system AVEMS is used to analyze the toxic gases produced by active vents, called fumaroles, in the Turrialba volcano in Costa Rica. He is using the Aircraft-based Volcanic Emission Mass Spectrometer (AVEMS) that determines the presence and concentration of various chemicals. The AVEMS system has been developed for use in the Space Shuttle program, to detect toxic gas leaks and emissions in the Shuttles aft compartment and the crew compartment.

An unmanned aerial vehicle, a UAV, is an experimental platform for testing aerial video and photography in remote areas. Research being conducted by the University of Florida.

Visitors to an archaeological site look at recently discovered footprints 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.

A820642 AREA 25 ACOUSTICAL SENSOR STUDY BROUILLARD, JOHN A APR 27 82 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 4/27/1982 25; ACOUSTICAL SENSOR STUDY; AREA 25; BROUILLARD, A JOHN; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; EQUIPMENT & INSTRUMENTS; GRAVEL; GRAVELLY SOILS; 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.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as Morgan Simpson of Flight Hardware Processing, Susan Danley of Flight Structures and Kim Simpson of Fluids, Mechanical and Structural Systems look on, Gary Dahlke of Engineering and Technology, left, and Leandro James of Systems Hardware Engineering attach a small rocket prior to its launch stand 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 federa

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.

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.

On Friday, April 3, 2020, NASA and SpaceX completed an end-to-end demonstration of the teams ability to safely evacuate crew members from the Fixed Service Structure during an emergency situation at Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The first stage of Boeing's Delta 7326 rocket, which will be used to launch the Deep Space 1 spacecraft, arrives at Pad 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Station. Targeted for launch on Oct. 15, 1998, this first flight in NASA's New Millennium Program is designed to validate 12 new technologies for scientific space missions of the next century. Onboard experiments include an ion propulsion engine and software that tracks celestial bodies so the spacecraft can make its own navigation decisions without the intervention of ground controllers. Deep Space 1 will complete most of its mission objectives within the first two months but will also do a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid, 1992 KD, in July 1999

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Media (right) are gathered at the slidewire basket area of Launch Pad 39A to record the STS-92 crew, at left, during a question and answer session. The crew members are (left to right) Commander Brian Duffy, Pilot Pamela Ann Melroy and Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao, William S. McArthur Jr. (with microphone), Peter J.K. Jeff” Wisoff, Michael E. Lopez-Alegria and Koichi Wakata of Japan. The crew is at KSC for Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities that provide emergency egress training, opportunities to inspect the mission payload, and a simulated countdown. The slidewire basket area is a landing site for the crew if they have to use the slidewire baskets to exit the orbiter in an emergency. STS-92 is scheduled to launch Oct. 5 at 9:38 p.m. EDT on the fifth flight to the International Space Station. It will carry two elements of the Space Station, the Integrated Truss Structure Z1 and the third Pressurized Mating Adapter. The mission is also the

The City of Huntsville hosted a celebration of the Apollo 11 Moon landing with a street party on the downtown square with exhibits from the Marshall Space Flight Center and contributing contractors. The event was kicked off with remarks from Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, Marshall Space Flight Center's Director Jody Singer, and U.S. Space and Rocket Center's Director Deborah Barnhart with the Polaris replica of the Lunar Moon Buggy in the foreground.Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle with the Polaris representative and representatives from the U.S. Space and Rocket Center

ED13-0079-02 (26 March 2013) ---- SpaceX Dragon's second operational mission ended on March 26 after three weeks attached to the International Space Station. The unmanned spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 214 miles off the coast of Baja California to successfully return about 2,670 pounds of science materials from the orbital outpost.

Jessa Sandoval, center, teacher of the Intro to Meteorology course at Yuma Catholic High School, launches a weather balloon at the Aux II training range, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, May 13, 2022. The purpose of the field trip was to educate students on the capabilities of the U.S. Marine Corps weather technology.

Spectators watch as the team Survey robot conducts a demonstration of the level two challenge during the 2014 NASA Centennial Challenges Sample Return Robot Challenge, Thursday, June 12, 2014, at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass. Eighteen teams are competing for a $1.5 million NASA prize purse. Teams will be required to demonstrate autonomous robots that can locate and collect samples from a wide and varied terrain, operating without human control. The objective of this NASA-WPI Centennial Challenge is to encourage innovations in autonomous navigation and robotics technologies. Innovations stemming from the challenge may improve NASA's capability to explore a variety of destinations in space, as well as enhance the nation's robotic technology for use in industries and applications on Earth.

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.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A diver helps lower sonar mapping equipment into the water alongside the Liberty Star, one of NASA's solid rocket booster retrieval ships. The equipment will be attached to the ship's hull for an eight-day expedition surveying deep-water coral reefs on the Oculina Banks off eastern Florida. NASA joins the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other ocean scientists for the sophisticated mapping system that will provide the first high-resolution, three-dimensional map of the Oculina Banks. The survey results are expected to guide another expedition in Spring 2003, using NASA's ship, when the reef fish spawn. Also used will be NASA's underwater robot and an acoustic hydrophone system for listening to fish and vessel noise. Dive sites will be chosen based on the new charts.

Following two years of virtual events, high school and college teams from across the country return to Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama, to compete in NASAs Student Launch rocketry competition April 23.

Man tourist standing on building rooftop looking through binocular telescope

TEST FLIGHT OF THE LANDER PROTOTYPE MIGHTY EAGLE” OVER A SIMULATED LUNAR LANDSCAPE. SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

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 launch. St

Inflatable Wing project personnel prepare a deployable, inflatable wing technology demonstrator experiment flown by the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. The inflatable wing project represented a basic flight research effort by Dryden personnel.Three successful flights of the I2000 inflatable wing aircraft occurred. During the flights, the team air-launched the radio-controlled (R/C) I2000 from an R/C utility airplane at an altitude of 800-1000 feet.As the I2000 separated from the carrier aircraft, its inflatable wings "popped-out," deploying rapidly via an on-board nitrogen bottle. The aircraft remained stable as it transitioned from wingless to winged flight. The unpowered I2000 glided down to a smooth landing under complete control.

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.

Spacelab is wrapped and ready for transport to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Spacelab was designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the Space Shuttle program and first flew on STS-9 in November 1983. Its final flight was the STS-90 Neurolab mission in April 1998. A sister module will travel home and be placed on display in Europe. The Spacelab concept of modular experiment racks in a pressurized shirt-sleeve environment made it highly user-friendly and accessible. Numerous experiments conceived by hundreds of scientists on the ground were conducted by flight crews in orbit. Spacelab modules served as on-orbit homes for everything from squirrel monkeys to plant seeds. They supported astronomical as well as Earth observations, for servicing the Hubble Space Telescope and for research preparatory to the International Space Station. One of the greatest benefits afforded by the Spacelab missions was the opportunity to fly a mission more than once, with the secon

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, July 18, 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 team survey robot is seen on the starting platform before begging it's attempt at the level two challenge during the 2014 NASA Centennial Challenges Sample Return Robot Challenge, Thursday, June 12, 2014, at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass. Eighteen teams are competing for a $1.5 million NASA prize purse. Teams will be required to demonstrate autonomous robots that can locate and collect samples from a wide and varied terrain, operating without human control. The objective of this NASA-WPI Centennial Challenge is to encourage innovations in autonomous navigation and robotics technologies. Innovations stemming from the challenge may improve NASA's capability to explore a variety of destinations in space, as well as enhance the nation's robotic technology for use in industries and applications on Earth.

Spaceward Bound event in the Mojave Deser , CA (an outreach exercise) with Dr Chris McKay and Ames Education department personnel Brian Day, Barbara Bazar and a accompaning (learning for the the classroom) team of teachers will be studying side-by-side with NASA scientists who search for life in extreme environments, closely approximating what they expect to find on other planets. Why the Mojave -- an inhospitable, sun-drenched spot in the California Desert This natural setting presents scientists with opportunities to study environments that are analogous to what explorers will find on the Moon and Mars. Teachers and scientists will perform scientific fieldwork in lunar geology, Mars astrobiology, Mars geology, and issues of temperature and solar inundation and radiation. for additional information and Outreach projects see http //quest.arc.nasa.gov/

K-10 'Red' planetary rover in the Nasa Ames Marscape operations tests at Marscape (Ames Mars Yard) with remote operations from Ames Future Flight Centeral (FFC) Simulator with Susan Y. Lee observing.

A Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-M, glider was air launched Sept. 7 using a magnetic release mechanism mounted on a Carbon-Z Cub. The team, based at NASAs Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, includes, from left, Paul Bean, Justin Hall, Red Jensen, Justin Link, and Nathan Allaire.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The instrument package built by Rocket University participants for a high-altitude balloon flight sits on the ground moments before launch. 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.

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