This illustration of Moon to Mars operations shows an astronaut piloting a robotic arm to manipulate cargo on Mars. NASA’s Moon to Mars Objectives establish an objectives-based approach to the agency's human deep space exploration efforts; NASA’s Moon to Mars Architecture approach distills the objectives into operational capabilities and elements.

Dwight Mosby Opens the Annual Payload Operations and Integration

Dwight Mosby, Payload Operations Mission Division Manager, welcomes scientists and engineers from around the world as they participate in the annual Payload Operations and Integration Working Group meeting held Oct. 20-21. The event offers payload developers, investigators and project managers the opportunity to coordinate processes and schedules and to review the status of scientific payloads currently on or soon launching to the International Space Station. The gathering, hosted by NASA Marshall’s Payload Operations and Integration Center, was held virtually. The POIC is mission control for science on the International Space Station.

The forward bay cover for the Orion crew module is secured on a movable stand in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The space hardware for Orion is undergoing processing to prepare it for launch. Orion is being prepared for its first uncrewed integrated flight atop the Space Launch System rocket on Exploration Mission-1.

Orion Space Hardware In-Production inside the Operations and Che

MSFC Building 4663, NE corner view of Huntsville Operations Support Center, housing the Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC). The POIC supports ongoing flight operations and scientific experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS)

Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC)

PANORAMIC VIEW OF PAYLOAD OPERATIONS INTEGRATION CENTER, PCA1, BLDG. 4663…UPDATED 10/21/15

Panoramic view of the Payload Operations Integration Center

The Orion spacecraft is moved to the Final Assembly and Systems Test cell at Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft returned from Ohio after a successful series of environmental test at Glenn Research Center's Plum Brook Station.

Artemis I Orion at Operations and Checkout Building

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) photographed prior to the dedication of the site on September 21, 2018.

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) Instal

A look inside the International Space Station Payload Operations

A look inside the International Space Station Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. The POIC team supports science operations on the International Space Station 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For more than 20 years the POIC team has worked with scientists from around the world to enable the space station crew to conduct experiments that improve life on Earth and enable future exploration.

Operation IceBridge Turns Five

In May 2014, two new studies concluded that a section of the land-based West Antarctic ice sheet had reached a point of inevitable collapse. Meanwhile, fresh observations from September 2014 showed sea ice around Antarctica had reached its greatest extent since the late 1970s. To better understand such dynamic and dramatic differences in the region's land and sea ice, researchers are travelling south to Antarctica this month for the sixth campaign of NASA’s Operation IceBridge. The airborne campaign, which also flies each year over Greenland, makes annual surveys of the ice with instrumented research aircraft. Instruments range from lasers that map the elevation of the ice surface, radars that "see" below it, and downward looking cameras to provide a natural-color perspective. The Digital Mapping System (DMS) camera acquired the above photo during the mission’s first science flight on October 16, 2009. At the time of the image, the DC-8 aircraft was flying at an altitude of 515 meters (1,700 feet) over heavily compacted first-year sea ice along the edge of the Amundsen Sea. Since that first flight, much has been gleaned from IceBridge data. For example, images from an IceBridge flight in October 2011 revealed a massive crack running about 29 kilometers (18 miles) across the floating tongue of Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier. The crack ultimately led to a 725-square-kilometer (280-square-mile) iceberg. In 2012, IceBridge data was a key part of a new map of Antarctica called Bedmap2. By combining surface elevation, ice thickness, and bedrock topography, Bedmap2 gives a clearer picture of Antarctica from the ice surface down to the land surface. Discoveries have been made in Greenland, too, including the identification of a 740-kilometer-long (460-mile-long) mega canyon below the ice sheet. Repeated measurements of land and sea ice from aircraft extend the record of observations once made by NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite, or ICESat, which stopped functioning in 2009. In addition to extending the ICESat record, IceBridge also sets the stage for ICESat-2, which is scheduled for launch in 2017. Credit: IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery courtesy of the Digital Mapping System (DMS) team/NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center More info: <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=84549" rel="nofollow">earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=84549</a> <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=84549" rel="nofollow">earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=84549</a>

European Service Module Lift and Tilt Operation

Marcia Smith Operating the IBM #740 Computer

LYBREASE WOODARD ON CONSOLE AT PAYLOAD OPERATIONS CONTROL CENTER FOR FORBES MAGAZINE ARTICLE

Lybrease Woodard on console in the Payload Operations Integration Center.

NASA’s Operation IceBridge Completes Twin Polar Campaigns

Heimdal Glacier in southern Greenland, in an image captured on Oct. 13, 2015, from NASA Langley Research Center's Falcon 20 aircraft flying 33,000 feet above mean sea level. NASA’s Operation IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, recently finalized two overlapping campaigns at both of Earth’s poles. Down south, the mission observed a big drop in the height of two glaciers situated in the Antarctic Peninsula, while in the north it collected much needed measurements of the status of land and sea ice at the end of the Arctic summer melt season. This was the first time in its seven years of operations that IceBridge carried out parallel flights in the Arctic and Antarctic. Every year, the mission flies to the Arctic in the spring and to Antarctica in the fall to keep collect an uninterrupted record of yearly changes in the height of polar ice. Read more: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-s-operation-icebridge-completes-twin-polar-campaigns" rel="nofollow">www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-s-operation-icebridge-c...</a> Credits: NASA/Goddard/John Sonntag <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a> <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a> Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a> Find us on <a href="http://instagrid.me/nasagoddard/?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a>

Penny Pettigrew is an International Space Station Payload Communications Manager, or PAYCOM, in the Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Penny Pettigrew in the Payload Operations Integration Center

Hurricane risk mitigation - Emergency Operations Center

Construction work on a new Emergency Operations Center at Stennis Space Center is nearing completion. Construction is expected to be complete by February 2009, with actual occupancy of the building planned for later that year. The new building will house fire, medical and security teams and will provide a top-grade facility to support storm emergency responder teams and emergency management operations for the south Mississippi facility.

Housed at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, this Mobile Operations Facility, seen here deployed on May 1, 2025, to support Advanced Air Mobility research for NASA’s Air Mobility Pathfinders project.

Mobile Operations Facility for Advanced Air Mobility Pathfinders Research

Sentinel-6B MLI Operations

Technicians install multi-layer insulation on the Sentinel-6B spacecraft on a work stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Critical for protecting spacecraft from extreme temperatures and environmental conditions in space, the thin, reflective multi-layer insulation will create a barrier to help reduce heat transfer through radiation while Sentinel-6B is in orbit. A collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sentinel-6B is designed to measure sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of the world’s oceans. NASA is targeting launch no earlier than Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg.

Sentinel-6B MLI Operations

Technicians install multi-layer insulation on the Sentinel-6B spacecraft on a work stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Critical for protecting spacecraft from extreme temperatures and environmental conditions in space, the thin, reflective multi-layer insulation will create a barrier to help reduce heat transfer through radiation while Sentinel-6B is in orbit. A collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sentinel-6B is designed to measure sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of the world’s oceans. NASA is targeting launch no earlier than Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg.

Sentinel-6B MLI Operations

Technicians install multi-layer insulation on the Sentinel-6B spacecraft on a work stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Critical for protecting spacecraft from extreme temperatures and environmental conditions in space, the thin, reflective multi-layer insulation will create a barrier to help reduce heat transfer through radiation while Sentinel-6B is in orbit. A collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sentinel-6B is designed to measure sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of the world’s oceans. NASA is targeting launch no earlier than Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg.

Sentinel-6B MLI Operations

Technicians install multi-layer insulation on the Sentinel-6B spacecraft on a work stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Critical for protecting spacecraft from extreme temperatures and environmental conditions in space, the thin, reflective multi-layer insulation will create a barrier to help reduce heat transfer through radiation while Sentinel-6B is in orbit. A collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sentinel-6B is designed to measure sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of the world’s oceans. NASA is targeting launch no earlier than Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg.

Sentinel-6B MLI Operations

Technicians install multi-layer insulation on the Sentinel-6B spacecraft on a work stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Critical for protecting spacecraft from extreme temperatures and environmental conditions in space, the thin, reflective multi-layer insulation will create a barrier to help reduce heat transfer through radiation while Sentinel-6B is in orbit. A collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sentinel-6B is designed to measure sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of the world’s oceans. NASA is targeting launch no earlier than Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg.

Sentinel-6B MLI Operations

Technicians install multi-layer insulation on the Sentinel-6B spacecraft on a work stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Critical for protecting spacecraft from extreme temperatures and environmental conditions in space, the thin, reflective multi-layer insulation will create a barrier to help reduce heat transfer through radiation while Sentinel-6B is in orbit. A collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sentinel-6B is designed to measure sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of the world’s oceans. NASA is targeting launch no earlier than Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg.

Sentinel-6B MLI Operations

Technicians install multi-layer insulation on the Sentinel-6B spacecraft on a work stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Critical for protecting spacecraft from extreme temperatures and environmental conditions in space, the thin, reflective multi-layer insulation will create a barrier to help reduce heat transfer through radiation while Sentinel-6B is in orbit. A collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sentinel-6B is designed to measure sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of the world’s oceans. NASA is targeting launch no earlier than Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg.

Sentinel-6B MLI Operations

Technicians install multi-layer insulation on the Sentinel-6B spacecraft on a work stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Critical for protecting spacecraft from extreme temperatures and environmental conditions in space, the thin, reflective multi-layer insulation will create a barrier to help reduce heat transfer through radiation while Sentinel-6B is in orbit. A collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sentinel-6B is designed to measure sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of the world’s oceans. NASA is targeting launch no earlier than Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg.

Sentinel-6B MLI Operations

Technicians install multi-layer insulation on the Sentinel-6B spacecraft on a work stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Critical for protecting spacecraft from extreme temperatures and environmental conditions in space, the thin, reflective multi-layer insulation will create a barrier to help reduce heat transfer through radiation while Sentinel-6B is in orbit. A collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sentinel-6B is designed to measure sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of the world’s oceans. NASA is targeting launch no earlier than Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg.

Penny Pettigrew chats in real time with a space station crew member conducting an experiment in microgravity some 250 miles overhead. The Payload Operations Integration Center cadre monitor science communications on station 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days per year.

Penny Pettigrew in the Payload Operations Integration Center

GOES-S Arrival at Astrotech Space Operations

NOAA's Geostationary Operation Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) arrives at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to prepare it for launch. The facility is located near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-R series - consisting of the GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U spacecraft - will significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and the nation's economic health and prosperity. GOES-S is slated to launch March 1, 2018 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

GOES-S Arrival at Astrotech Space Operations

At Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, technicians and engineers prepare to remove NOAA's Geostationary Operation Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) from its shipping container. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-R series - consisting of the GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U spacecraft - will significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and the nation's economic health and prosperity. GOES-S is slated to launch March 1, 2018 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

GOES-S Arrival at Astrotech Space Operations

NOAA's Geostationary Operation Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) arrives at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to prepare it for launch. The facility is located near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-R series - consisting of the GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U spacecraft - will significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and the nation's economic health and prosperity. GOES-S is slated to launch March 1, 2018 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

GOES-S Arrival at Astrotech Space Operations

NOAA's Geostationary Operation Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) arrives at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to prepare it for launch. The facility is located near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-R series - consisting of the GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U spacecraft - will significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and the nation's economic health and prosperity. GOES-S is slated to launch March 1, 2018 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

GOES-S Arrival at Astrotech Space Operations

NOAA's Geostationary Operation Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) arrives inside Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to prepare it for launch. The facility is located near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-R series - consisting of the GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U spacecraft - will significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and the nation's economic health and prosperity. GOES-S is slated to launch March 1, 2018 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

GOES-S Arrival at Astrotech Space Operations

NOAA's Geostationary Operation Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) arrives at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to prepare it for launch. The facility is located near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-R series - consisting of the GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U spacecraft - will significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and the nation's economic health and prosperity. GOES-S is slated to launch March 1, 2018 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

GOES-S Arrival at Astrotech Space Operations

NOAA's Geostationary Operation Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) arrives at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to prepare it for launch. The facility is located near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-R series - consisting of the GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U spacecraft - will significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and the nation's economic health and prosperity. GOES-S is slated to launch March 1, 2018 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

GOES-S Arrival at Astrotech Space Operations

NOAA's Geostationary Operation Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) arrives at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to prepare it for launch. The facility is located near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-R series - consisting of the GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U spacecraft - will significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and the nation's economic health and prosperity. GOES-S is slated to launch March 1, 2018 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

GOES-S Arrival at Astrotech Space Operations

NOAA's Geostationary Operation Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) arrives inside Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, to prepare it for launch. The facility is located near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-R series - consisting of the GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T and GOES-U spacecraft - will significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and the nation's economic health and prosperity. GOES-S is slated to launch March 1, 2018 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.