Langley Laboratory Apprentice at Work

An apprentice at Langley Laboratory (now NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia) inspects wind tunnel components in this image from May 15, 1943. via NASA https://ift.tt/ZFYMoXd

Intuitive Machines-2 Lifts Off

Creating a golden streak in the night sky, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander (IM-2) soars upward after liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:16 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 26 as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. The IM-2 launch is carrying NASA science, technology demonstrations, and other commercial payloads to Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau to advance our understanding of the Moon and planetary processes, while paving the way for future crewed missions. via NASA https://ift.tt/4GVoXDy

Milky Way on the Horizon

The Milky Way appears beyond Earth's horizon in this celestial photograph captured on Jan. 29, 2025, by NASA astronaut Don Pettit using a camera with low light and long duration settings pointed out a window on the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft. The International Space Station was orbiting 265 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile just before sunrise. via NASA https://ift.tt/tKjkAqO

Diamonds from NASA’s X-59

NASA’s X-59 lights up the night sky with its unique Mach diamonds, also known as shock diamonds, during maximum afterburner testing at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The test demonstrates the engine’s ability to generate the thrust required for supersonic flight, advancing NASA’s Quesst mission. via NASA https://ift.tt/MANkuRH

Venus Blows Off Some Steam

Tall plumes of white vapor rise from the rocky Venusian surface in this April 19, 1977, artist’s concept. via NASA https://ift.tt/ei2GK9z

Hubble Captures a Cosmic Cloudscape

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away. via NASA https://ift.tt/IHw3ovp

Artemis II Rocket Booster Stacking Complete

Engineers with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems complete stacking operations on the twin SLS (Space Launch System) solid rocket boosters for Artemis II by integrating the nose cones atop the forward assemblies inside the Vehicle Assembly Building’s High Bay 3 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. The twin solid boosters will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B. via NASA https://ift.tt/5vkBtN3

Our Pale Blue Dot

This updated version of "the Pale Blue Dot," made for the photo's 30th anniversary in 2020, uses modern image-processing software and techniques to revisit the well-known Voyager view while attempting to respect the original data and intent of those who planned the images. via NASA https://ift.tt/8KHBvwI

A Stellar Bouquet

This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star forming region called 30 Doradus. By combining X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and green) with optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (yellow) and radio data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (orange), this stellar arrangement comes alive. via NASA https://ift.tt/gVWwmdF

Giving NASA's CADRE a Hand

One of three small lunar rovers that are part of a NASA technology demonstration called CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) is prepared for shipping in a clean room at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Jan. 29, 2025. via NASA https://ift.tt/RHI3Xre

A Rainbow-colored “Feather” in the Martian Sky

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this feather-shaped iridescent cloud just after sunset on Jan. 27, 2023, the 3,724th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Studying the colors in iridescent clouds tells scientists something about particle size within the clouds and how they grow over time. These clouds were captured as part of a follow-on imaging campaign to study noctilucent, or "night-shining" clouds, which started in 2021. This scene made up of 28 individual images captured by the rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam. via NASA https://ift.tt/OwBN1Rl

Space Shuttle Endeavour Takes Flight

The brilliant exhaust from the solid rocket boosters (center) and blue mach diamonds from the main engine nozzles mark the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour from Launch Pad 39A on Feb. 11, 2000. via NASA https://ift.tt/pHafkO7

Mount Everest from Space

This view from space shuttle Columbia shows Mount Everest, which reaches 29,028 feet in elevation (8,848 meters), along with many glaciers. Mount Everest is to the left of the V-shaped valley. via NASA https://ift.tt/p4lGLHR

Golden Moon over the Superdome

The full moon rises over the Superdome and the city of New Orleans, Louisiana on Monday evening, January 13, 2025. The Wolf Moon, also known as the Ice or Cold Moon, was full at 5:27 p.m. EST. New Orleans is home to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility where several pieces of hardware for the SLS (Space Launch System) are being built. via NASA https://ift.tt/TA67kcx

Robot Gets a Grip

The blue tentacle-like arms containing gecko-like adhesive pads, attached to an Astrobee robotic free-flyer, reach out and grapple a "capture cube" inside the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module. The experimental grippers, outfitted on the toaster-sized Astrobee, demonstrated autonomous detection and capture techniques that may be used to remove space debris and service satellites in low Earth orbit. via NASA https://ift.tt/OW0IyXv

Apollo 14 Moon Landing

An excellent view of the Apollo 14 lunar module on the Moon, as photographed during the first Apollo 14 moonwalk on the lunar surface. The astronauts have already deployed the U.S. flag. While astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., commander, and Edgar D. Mitchell, lunar module pilot, descended in the lunar module to explore the Moon, astronaut Stuart A. Roosa, command module pilot, remained with the command and service modules in lunar orbit. via NASA https://ift.tt/9WJGCKX

Bullseye!

LEDA 1313424, aptly nicknamed the Bullseye, is two and a half times the size of our Milky Way and has nine rings — six more than any other known galaxy. High-resolution imagery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope confirmed eight rings, and data from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii confirmed a ninth. Hubble and Keck also confirmed which galaxy dove through the Bullseye, creating these rings: the blue dwarf galaxy that sits to its immediate center-left. via NASA https://ift.tt/sMBOcGI

Stacking Artemis II

Engineers and technicians with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program prepare to lift the left center center booster segment shown with the iconic NASA “worm” insignia for the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. via NASA https://ift.tt/4JYan3H