NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, left, and his wife Julie walk through the amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, Friday, June 15, 2018 in Arlington, Va. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, left, Julie Vande Hei, center, and Joe Acaba pose for a photo at the amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, Friday, June 15, 2018 in Arlington, Va. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

C-130 aircraft Shoreline Amphitheater: Thermal IR Imagery

C-130 aircraft Shoreline Amphitheater: Thermal IR Imagery

C-130 aircraft Shoreline Amphitheater: Thermal IR Imagery

C-130 aircraft Shoreline Amphitheater: Thermal IR Imagery

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center celebrated the 65th anniversary of its founding on July 19, 2025, with a free, public celebration at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama. Thousands of team members, families, and “Rocket City” residents took part, enjoying live music, games, food, and exhibits commemorating Marshall’s legacy of ingenuity and service to the U.S. space program. During a program for the celebration, guests heard remarks from Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA Marshall, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, and Kamerra Liles, assistant general manager of The Orion Amphitheater, followed by Pelfrey sharing a new video overview about Marshall. The program continued with a video presentation from NASA astronauts from the Expedition 72 crew – which contributed more than 1,000 total hours of scientific studies on plant growth, stem cell growth for treating diseases, the resilience of microorganisms to the harsh space environment, and more on the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Don Pettit, who served as space station commander and flight engineer, respectively, shared their experiences in space with the community and told the audience how vital Marshall’s on the ground support was to their mission success. Marshall has shaped and expanded human space exploration every decade since the NASA center opened its doors on July 1, 1960. The center’s civil service and contract workers built the nation’s flagship rockets, from the Saturn V to the SLS (Space Launch System), managed the space shuttle propulsion program, delivered the Chandra X-ray Observatory and critical elements of the International Space Station to orbit, and continue to spearhead numerous advances in science and engineering.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center celebrated the 65th anniversary of its founding on July 19, 2025, with a free, public celebration at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama. Thousands of team members, families, and “Rocket City” residents took part, enjoying live music, games, food, and exhibits commemorating Marshall’s legacy of ingenuity and service to the U.S. space program. During a program for the celebration, guests heard remarks from Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA Marshall, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, and Kamerra Liles, assistant general manager of The Orion Amphitheater, followed by Pelfrey sharing a new video overview about Marshall. The program continued with a video presentation from NASA astronauts from the Expedition 72 crew – which contributed more than 1,000 total hours of scientific studies on plant growth, stem cell growth for treating diseases, the resilience of microorganisms to the harsh space environment, and more on the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Don Pettit, who served as space station commander and flight engineer, respectively, shared their experiences in space with the community and told the audience how vital Marshall’s on the ground support was to their mission success. Marshall has shaped and expanded human space exploration every decade since the NASA center opened its doors on July 1, 1960. The center’s civil service and contract workers built the nation’s flagship rockets, from the Saturn V to the SLS (Space Launch System), managed the space shuttle propulsion program, delivered the Chandra X-ray Observatory and critical elements of the International Space Station to orbit, and continue to spearhead numerous advances in science and engineering.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center celebrated the 65th anniversary of its founding on July 19, 2025, with a free, public celebration at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama. Thousands of team members, families, and “Rocket City” residents took part, enjoying live music, games, food, and exhibits commemorating Marshall’s legacy of ingenuity and service to the U.S. space program. During a program for the celebration, guests heard remarks from Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA Marshall, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, and Kamerra Liles, assistant general manager of The Orion Amphitheater, followed by Pelfrey sharing a new video overview about Marshall. The program continued with a video presentation from NASA astronauts from the Expedition 72 crew – which contributed more than 1,000 total hours of scientific studies on plant growth, stem cell growth for treating diseases, the resilience of microorganisms to the harsh space environment, and more on the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Don Pettit, who served as space station commander and flight engineer, respectively, shared their experiences in space with the community and told the audience how vital Marshall’s on the ground support was to their mission success. Marshall has shaped and expanded human space exploration every decade since the NASA center opened its doors on July 1, 1960. The center’s civil service and contract workers built the nation’s flagship rockets, from the Saturn V to the SLS (Space Launch System), managed the space shuttle propulsion program, delivered the Chandra X-ray Observatory and critical elements of the International Space Station to orbit, and continue to spearhead numerous advances in science and engineering.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center celebrated the 65th anniversary of its founding on July 19, 2025, with a free, public celebration at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama. Thousands of team members, families, and “Rocket City” residents took part, enjoying live music, games, food, and exhibits commemorating Marshall’s legacy of ingenuity and service to the U.S. space program. During a program for the celebration, guests heard remarks from Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA Marshall, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, and Kamerra Liles, assistant general manager of The Orion Amphitheater, followed by Pelfrey sharing a new video overview about Marshall. The program continued with a video presentation from NASA astronauts from the Expedition 72 crew – which contributed more than 1,000 total hours of scientific studies on plant growth, stem cell growth for treating diseases, the resilience of microorganisms to the harsh space environment, and more on the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Don Pettit, who served as space station commander and flight engineer, respectively, shared their experiences in space with the community and told the audience how vital Marshall’s on the ground support was to their mission success. Marshall has shaped and expanded human space exploration every decade since the NASA center opened its doors on July 1, 1960. The center’s civil service and contract workers built the nation’s flagship rockets, from the Saturn V to the SLS (Space Launch System), managed the space shuttle propulsion program, delivered the Chandra X-ray Observatory and critical elements of the International Space Station to orbit, and continue to spearhead numerous advances in science and engineering.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center celebrated the 65th anniversary of its founding on July 19, 2025, with a free, public celebration at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama. Thousands of team members, families, and “Rocket City” residents took part, enjoying live music, games, food, and exhibits commemorating Marshall’s legacy of ingenuity and service to the U.S. space program. During a program for the celebration, guests heard remarks from Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA Marshall, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, and Kamerra Liles, assistant general manager of The Orion Amphitheater, followed by Pelfrey sharing a new video overview about Marshall. The program continued with a video presentation from NASA astronauts from the Expedition 72 crew – which contributed more than 1,000 total hours of scientific studies on plant growth, stem cell growth for treating diseases, the resilience of microorganisms to the harsh space environment, and more on the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Don Pettit, who served as space station commander and flight engineer, respectively, shared their experiences in space with the community and told the audience how vital Marshall’s on the ground support was to their mission success. Marshall has shaped and expanded human space exploration every decade since the NASA center opened its doors on July 1, 1960. The center’s civil service and contract workers built the nation’s flagship rockets, from the Saturn V to the SLS (Space Launch System), managed the space shuttle propulsion program, delivered the Chandra X-ray Observatory and critical elements of the International Space Station to orbit, and continue to spearhead numerous advances in science and engineering.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center celebrated the 65th anniversary of its founding on July 19, 2025, with a free, public celebration at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama. Thousands of team members, families, and “Rocket City” residents took part, enjoying live music, games, food, and exhibits commemorating Marshall’s legacy of ingenuity and service to the U.S. space program. During a program for the celebration, guests heard remarks from Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA Marshall, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, and Kamerra Liles, assistant general manager of The Orion Amphitheater, followed by Pelfrey sharing a new video overview about Marshall. The program continued with a video presentation from NASA astronauts from the Expedition 72 crew – which contributed more than 1,000 total hours of scientific studies on plant growth, stem cell growth for treating diseases, the resilience of microorganisms to the harsh space environment, and more on the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Don Pettit, who served as space station commander and flight engineer, respectively, shared their experiences in space with the community and told the audience how vital Marshall’s on the ground support was to their mission success. Marshall has shaped and expanded human space exploration every decade since the NASA center opened its doors on July 1, 1960. The center’s civil service and contract workers built the nation’s flagship rockets, from the Saturn V to the SLS (Space Launch System), managed the space shuttle propulsion program, delivered the Chandra X-ray Observatory and critical elements of the International Space Station to orbit, and continue to spearhead numerous advances in science and engineering.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center celebrated the 65th anniversary of its founding on July 19, 2025, with a free, public celebration at The Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama. Thousands of team members, families, and “Rocket City” residents took part, enjoying live music, games, food, and exhibits commemorating Marshall’s legacy of ingenuity and service to the U.S. space program. During a program for the celebration, guests heard remarks from Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA Marshall, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, and Kamerra Liles, assistant general manager of The Orion Amphitheater, followed by Pelfrey sharing a new video overview about Marshall. The program continued with a video presentation from NASA astronauts from the Expedition 72 crew – which contributed more than 1,000 total hours of scientific studies on plant growth, stem cell growth for treating diseases, the resilience of microorganisms to the harsh space environment, and more on the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Don Pettit, who served as space station commander and flight engineer, respectively, shared their experiences in space with the community and told the audience how vital Marshall’s on the ground support was to their mission success. Marshall has shaped and expanded human space exploration every decade since the NASA center opened its doors on July 1, 1960. The center’s civil service and contract workers built the nation’s flagship rockets, from the Saturn V to the SLS (Space Launch System), managed the space shuttle propulsion program, delivered the Chandra X-ray Observatory and critical elements of the International Space Station to orbit, and continue to spearhead numerous advances in science and engineering.

Ius Chasma is unique from the other chasmata of Valles Marineris in possessing mega gullies on both sides of the chasma. The largest mega gullies are located in Sinai Planum, dissecting those plains and emptying into the canyon. These mega gullies are called Louros Valles. Mega gullies are thought to be sapping channels caused by groundwater flow and erosion. The Earth analog is springs - water that flows underground and then breaches the surface creating channels. The morphology of the Mars gullies mirrors terrestrial springs. The channel is fairly uniform in width and the "head" of the channel is rounded like an amphitheater. The channel lengthens by erosion at the "head" backwards as the surface where the spring emerges is undercut. For Mars it is theorized that subsurface water would stay liquid due to underground heating. The channels in this image are parts of the two largest mega gullies. Note how every channel head is the amphitheater bowl shape. Ius Chasma is at the western end of Valles Marineris, south of Tithonium Chasma. Valles Marineris is over 4000 kilometers long, wider than the United States. Ius Chasma is almost 850 kilometers long (528 miles), 120 kilometers wide and over 8 kilometers deep. In comparison, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is about 175 kilometers long, 30 kilometers wide, and only 2 kilometers deep. The canyons of Valles Marineris were formed by extensive fracturing and pulling apart of the crust during the uplift of the vast Tharsis plateau. Landslides have enlarged the canyon walls and created deposits on the canyon floor. Weathering of the surface and influx of dust and sand have modified the canyon floor, both creating and modifying layered materials. There are many features that indicate flowing and standing water played a part in the chasma formation. The Odyssey spacecraft has spent over 15 years in orbit around Mars, circling the planet more than 71,000 times. It holds the record for longest working spacecraft at Mars. THEMIS, the IR/VIS camera system, has collected data for the entire mission and provides images covering all seasons and lighting conditions. Over the years many features of interest have received repeated imaging, building up a suite of images covering the entire feature. From the deepest chasma to the tallest volcano, individual dunes inside craters and dune fields that encircle the north pole, channels carved by water and lava, and a variety of other feature, THEMIS has imaged them all. For the next several months the image of the day will focus on the Tharsis volcanoes, the various chasmata of Valles Marineris, and the major dunes fields. We hope you enjoy these images! Orbit Number: 40700 Latitude: -8.16691 Longitude: 275.35 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2011-02-16 12:12 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22287

Today's VIS image shows part of Ius Chasma and one of its mega gullies (bottom of image). Ius Chasma is unique from the other chasmata of Valles Marineris in possessing mega gullies on both sides of the chasma. The largest mega gullies are located in Sinai Planum, dissecting those plains and emptying into the canyon. Mega gullies are thought to be sapping channels caused by groundwater flow and erosion. The Earth analog is springs – water that flows underground and then breaches the surface creating channels. The morphology of the Mars gullies mirrors terrestrial springs. The channel is fairly uniform in width and the "head" of the channel is rounded like an amphitheater. The channel lengthens by erosion at the "head" backwards as the surface where the spring emerges is undercut. For Mars it is theorized that subsurface water would stay liquid due to underground heating. Ius Chasma is at the western end of Valles Marineris, south of Tithonium Chasma. Valles Marineris is over 4000 kilometers long, almost as wide as the United States. Ius Chasma is almost 850 kilometers long (528 miles), 120 kilometers wide and over 8 kilometers deep. Orbit Number: 91408 Latitude: -6.95449 Longitude: 274.37 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-07-23 20:09 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25577

ISS027-E-005274 (16 March 2011) --- Central Tien Shan in the People?s Republic of China is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 27 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The Tien Shan (or ?celestial mountains? in Chinese) is one of the largest continuous mountain ranges in the world, extending approximately 2,500 kilometers roughly east-west across Central Asia. This photograph provides a detailed view of part of the central Tien Shan, located approximately 64 kilometers east of a point where the borders of China, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan meet. While the image looks like it might have been taken from an airplane, it was taken from the space station at an altitude of 341 kilometers. The distance between the ISS ground track position (approximately 304 kilometers to the southwest) and the imaged area produces an oblique ? looking outwards an angle, rather than straight down ? view that, together with shadowing of valleys, accentuates the mountainous topography. Like the Himalayas to the south, the uplift of the Tien Shan results from the ongoing collision between the Eurasian and Indian continental tectonic plates. The rugged topography of the range is the result of subsequent erosion by water, wind, and in the highest parts of the range, active glaciers. Two types of glaciers are visible in the image; cirque glaciers occupy amphitheater-like depressions on the upper slopes of the mountains, and feed ice downslope to aggregate into large valley glaciers such as the one visible at center. Low clouds obscure an adjacent valley and glaciers to the north (upper left). Two high peaks of the central Tien Shan are identifiable in the image. Xuelian Feng has a high summit of 6,527 meters above sea level. To the east, the aptly-named Peak 6231 has summit of 6,231 meters above sea level.

This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows gullies near the edge of Hale crater on southern Mars. The view covers an area about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) across and was taken on Aug. 3, 2009. Martian gullies carved into hill slopes and the walls of impact craters were discovered several years ago. Scientists are excited to study these features because, on Earth, they usually form through the action of liquid water -- long thought to be absent on the Martian surface. Whether liquid water carves gullies under today's cold and dry conditions on Mars is a major question that planetary scientists are trying to answer. The gullies pictured here are examples of what a typical Martian gully looks like. You can see wide V-shaped channels running downhill (from top to bottom) where the material that carved the gully flowed. At the bottom of the channel this material empties out onto a fan-shaped mound. The fans from each gully overlap one other in complicated ways. At the tops of the channels, large amphitheater-shaped alcoves are carved in the rock. The material removed from these alcoves likely flowed downhill to the aprons through the gullies. The terrain in this image is at 36.5 degrees south latitude, 322.7 degrees east longitude. Gullies at this site are especially interesting because scientists recently discovered actively changing examples at similar locations. Images separated by several years showed changes in the appearance of some of these gullies. Today, planetary scientists are using the HiRISE camera to examine gullies such as the one in this image for change that might provide a clue about whether liquid water occurs on the surface of Mars. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12194