This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a close-up of a trough, along with channels draining into the depression. Some HiRISE images show strange-looking formations. Sometimes it helps to look at Context Camera images to understand the circumstances of a scene -- like this cutout from CTX 033783_1509 -- which here shows an impact crater with a central peak, and a collapse depression with concentric troughs just north of that peak. On the floor of the trough is some grooved material that we typically see in middle latitude regions where there has been glacial flow. These depressions with concentric troughs exist elsewhere on Mars, and their origins remain a matter of debate. NB: The Context Camera is another instrument onboard MRO, and it has a larger viewing angle than HiRISE, but less resolution capability than our camera. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22348

A swing test of the Orion crew access arm, top right, is in progress on the mobile launcher at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Aug. 21, 2018. The crew access arm is located at about the 274-foot level on the mobile launcher tower. It will rotate from its retracted position and interface with the Orion crew hatch location to provide entry to the Orion crew module. Exploration Ground Systems extended all of the launch umbilicals on the ML tower to test their functionality before the mobile launcher, atop crawler-transporter 2, is moved to Launch Pad 39B and the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Olympica Fossae is a complex channel located on the volcanic plains between Alba Mons and Olympus Mons. The sinuosity of the large channel in the middle of the image indicates that this is a channel created by liquid flow. In this case the location and other surface features point to lava rather than water as the liquid. The more linear depressions at the bottom third of the image are possibly tectonic features called graben and formed by movement along fault lines. The Alba Mons region contains extensive faulting which formed due to collapse of the volcano. Orbit Number: 71183 Latitude: 25.8417 Longitude: 247.895 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2017-12-31 08:32 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22367

Bi-static radar images of the binary asteroid 2017 YE5 from the Arecibo Observatory and the Green Bank Observatory on June 25. The observations show that the asteroid consists of two separate objects in orbit around each other. A movie is available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22559

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.

NASA's African American astronauts

iss056e152980 (Aug. 23, 2018) --- Astronaut Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency) is in the Cupola, also known as the International Space Station's "window to the world, as the African country of Sudan passes 251 miles below.

Students listen as NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli speak about their time onboard the International Space Station during expeditions 52/53, Friday, May 11, 2018 at the Washington School for Girls in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

SpaceX rehearses helicopter landing and patient loading on its recovery ship, GO Searcher, practicing how the aircraft will pick up astronauts and fly them to a nearby hospital in the unlikely event of a medical emergency. The company outfitted the ship with a medical treatment facility and a helipad in the center of the vessel. When astronauts splash down into the ocean after their journey to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, NASA and SpaceX doctors will work together to evaluate the crew onboard the vessel. Should astronauts need to be airlifted to a hospital, the helicopter also will pick up paramedics and doctors from the ship who will care for the astronauts in-flight.

Under the watchful eyes of technicians and engineers, the Centaur upper stage that will help launch NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S, or GOES-S, arrives inside the Delta Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for further processing. 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.

iss054e037079 (Feb. 8, 2018) --- Plant Gravity Perception experiment in a centrifuge on a European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) Experiment Container (EC) to test the gravity-sensing ability of plants in microgravity.

In the Training Auditorium at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, employees watch as Vice President Mike Pence, left, swears in Jim Bridenstine as the 13th NASA Administrator as Bridenstine's family watches on April 23, 2018, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Bridenstine was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 19.

This image was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on July 17, 2018 from an altitude of about 25 miles (41 kilometers). The center of this picture is located at about 31.0 degrees south latitude and 248.9 degrees east longitude. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22641

Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot testifies during a House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Subcommittee on Space, hearing overview of the NASA Budget for Fiscal Year 2019, Wednesday, March 7, 2018, at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

On Friday, Aug. 10, 2018, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Mobile Service Tower gantry begins to roll back at Space Launch Complex 37, where the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket now stands ready to boost NASA's Parker Solar Probe on a mission to study the Sun. Parker Solar Probe will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection.

jsc2018e094733 (November 05, 2018) --- 2017 NASA astronaut candidate Loral O’Hara wears a spacesuit prior to underwater spacewalk training at NASA Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston. Photo Credit: (NASA/Josh Valcarcel)

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.

iss054e009777 (Jan. 1, 2018) --- The northeastern United States and the well-lit coasts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut as photographed by Expedition 54 crew members aboard the International Space Station in the wee hours of New Year’s Day.

Preparations are underway to offload the United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster and Centaur stage for NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) from the Mariner transport ship at the Army Wharf at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. They will be transported to the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center near Space Launch Complex 41 at CCAFS. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. The satellite is slated to launch aboard the Atlas V rocket March 1.

A crane and rigging lines are used to install the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage Umbilical (ICPSU) high up on the mobile launcher (ML) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The last of the large umbilicals to be installed, the ICPSU will provide super-cooled hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket's interim cryogenic propulsion stage, or upper stage, at T-0 for Exploration Mission-1. The umbilical is located at about the 240-foot-level of the mobile launcher and will supply fuel, oxidizer, gaseous helium, hazardous gas leak detection, electrical commodities and environment control systems to the upper stage of the SLS rocket during launch. Exploration Ground Systems is overseeing installation of the umbilicals on the ML.

The third and final aeroshell for Orion's Launch Abort System (LAS) arrives by truck on July 12, 2018, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The aeroshell was shipped from EMF Inc. on nearby Merritt Island. It will be offloaded and secured in High Bay 4 of the Vehicle Assembly Building. The aeroshells will be stacked and prepared for a full-stress test of the LAS, called Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) flight test, scheduled for April 2019. During the test, a booster will launch from Space Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying a fully functional LAS and a 22,000-pound Orion test vehicle to an altitude of 31,000 feet and traveling at more than 1,000 miles an hour. The test will verify the LAS can steer the crew module and astronauts aboard to safety in the event of an issue with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket when the spacecraft is under the highest aerodynamic loads it will experience during a rapid climb into space. Orion is being prepared for its first integrated uncrewed flight atop the SLS on Exploration Mission-1.

jsc2018e097309 - Outside the Cosmonaut Hotel crew quarters in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, the Expedition 58 prime and backup crewmembers raise the flags of Russia, the United States, Canada and Kazakhstan Nov. 21 in a traditional ceremony. Anne McClain of NASA, Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency will launch Dec. 3 on the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a six-and-a-half month mission on the International Space Station...NASA/Victor Zelentsov.

NASA has completes the final test to qualify Orion’s parachute system for flights with astronauts, checking off an important milestone on the path to send humans on missions to the Moon and beyond on Sept. 12, 2018...Over the course of eight tests at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, engineers have evaluated the performance of Orion’s parachute system during normal landing sequences as well as several failure scenarios and a variety of potential aerodynamic conditions to ensure astronauts can return safely from deep space missions.

The Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) recovery team, along with the U.S. Navy, practice keeping an Orion test article under control in the well deck of a U.S. Navy ship as part of Underway Recovery Test-7 (URT-7) on Oct. 30, 2018, in the Pacific Ocean. EGS and the U.S. Navy will use a test version of the Orion crew module, several rigid hull inflatable boats and support equipment to verify and validate processes, procedures, hardware and personnel during recovery of Orion in open waters. The testing is one in a series of tests to verify and validate procedures and hardware that will be used to recover the Orion spacecraft after it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean following deep space exploration missions. Orion will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.

Part of the mission criteria that led to the decision to fly off the coast of Galveston for QSF18 was the convenience of having NASA Johnson Space Center's facilities at Ellington Field.

Expedition 55 flight engineer Drew Feustel of NASA prepares to have his Russian Sokol suit pressure checked in preparation for launch aboard the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft, Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Feustel, Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, and flight engineer Ricky Arnold of NASA launched aboard the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft at 1:44 p.m. Eastern time (11:44 p.m. Baikonur time) on March 21 to begin their journey to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Brian May, lead guitarist of the rock band Queen and astrophysicist discusses the upcoming New Horizons flyby of the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule, Monday, Dec. 31, 2018 at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

iss056e162202 (Sept. 12, 2018) --- Cameras outside the International Space Station captured a stark and sobering view of Hurricane Florence the morning of Sept. 12 as it churned across the Atlantic in a west-northwesterly direction with winds of 130 miles an hour. The National Hurricane Center forecasts additional strengthening for Florence before it reaches the coastline of North Carolina and South Carolina early Friday, Sept. 14.

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.

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows barchan sand dunes, common on Mars and often forming vast dune fields within very large (tens to hundreds of kilometers) impact basins. The regions upwind of barchans are usually devoid of sandy bedforms, so if you were walking in a downwind direction, then the barchans would seem to appear out of nowhere. As you walk downwind, you would notice the barchans link up ("joining arms") and eventually slope into featureless sand sheets. We call this progression of dunes a "Herschel-type dune field" named after the first place this sequence was described: Herschel Crater. But here is something interesting: a barchan dune filling the upwind portion of a small impact crater in a Pac-Man-like shape. This "dune-in-a-crater" is nearly at the highest extent of the field. It is also probably a rare configuration, and over the next few tens of thousands of years the sand will be blown out of the crater. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22456

Under the watchful eye of technicians and engineers, a crane is prepared to lift the Orion crew access arm (CAA) so it can be attached to the mobile launcher (ML) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The arm will be installed at about the 274-foot level on the ML tower. NASA's Exploration Ground Systems organization has been overseeing installation of umbilicals and other launch accessories on the 380-foot-tall ML in preparation for stacking the first launch of the Space launch System, or SLS, rocket with an Orion spacecraft. The CAA is designed to rotate from its retracted position and line up with Orion's crew hatch providing entry for astronauts and technicians.

The Orion Stage Adapter (OSA), secured on flatbed transporter, is moved along State Road 3 to the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The OSA is the second flight-hardware section of the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to arrive at Kennedy. The OSA will connect the Orion spacecraft to the upper part of the SLS, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS). Both the OSA and ICPS are being stored for processing in the SSPF in preparation for Exploration Mission-1, the first uncrewed, integrated launch of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft.

NASA Kennedy Space Center Engineering Directorate employees listen to a presentation by the agency's Administrator Jim Bridenstine. He made his first official visit to the Florida spaceport on Aug. 6 and 7, 2018.

The second stage of the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is lifted high up at the Vertical Integration Facility, at left, at Space Launch Complex 2 on June 21, 2018, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The second stage will be attached to the top of the booster, or first stage of the rocket, which is being moved out of the Mobile Service Tower, at right. NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) will launch on the final Delta II rocket. ICESat-2 will measure the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. The satellite will carry a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System. ICESat-2 will help scientists investigate why, and how much our planet's frozen and icy areas, called the cryosphere, is changing in a warming climate.

NASA Astronaut Candidates Group 22 visited Goddard September 26, 2018 and toured facilities. Nicknamed “Turtles” group will gain intricate understanding of our core functions within agency

On Dec. 19, 2018, at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B, agency and contractor managers break ground for a new liquid hydrogen tank. Participating, from the left, are Todd Gray, president of Precision Mechanical, prime contractor for the project; Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, launch director; Shawn Quinn, director of Engineering; Bob Cabana, center director; Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington; Mike Bolger, program manager for Exploration Ground Systems (EGS); Jennifer Kunz, deputy program manager for EGS, Andy Allen, general manager for Jacobs, NASA's Test and Operations Support Contractor; and Regina Spellman, launch pad senior project manager in EGS. The storage facility will hold 1.25 million gallons of the propellant for NASA's Space Launch System rocket designed to boost the agency's Orion spacecraft, sending humans to distant destinations such as the Moon and Mars.

The Orion Stage Adapter flight hardware is prepared for the move to Redstone Airfield where the NASA Guppy aircraft will pick up the hardware and take the unit to Kennedy Space Center (KSC)

The second of two Tail Service Mast Umbilicals is lifted by crane for installation on the 0-level deck of the mobile launcher on July 27, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 35-foot-tall umbilical will connect to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket core stage aft section and provide liquid hydrogen and electrical cable connections to the core stage engine section to support propellant handling during prelaunch operations. The installation brings Exploration Ground Systems one step closer to supporting prelaunch operations for the agency's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft on Exploration Mission-1 and deep space destinations.

Expedition 57 backup crewmember David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency gets his hair cut, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018 at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Expedition 57 Flight Engineer Nick Hague of NASA and Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch onboard a Soyuz rocket October 11 and will spend the next six months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Inside the high bay of the Astrotech Space Operations facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a technician checks the flight door for the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) on NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) on June 21, 2018. The satellite is being prepared for its scheduled launch from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg on the final United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. ICESat-2 will measure the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. The satellite will carry ATLAS. ICESat-2 will help scientists investigate why, and how much our planet's frozen and icy areas, called the cryosphere, is changing in a warming climate.

During the annual Earth Day celebration at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, guests have an opportunity to get an up-close look at experimental electric vehicles and see and Apollo era Lunar Roving Vehicle used in astronaut training. The battery-operated car was used on Apollos 15, 16 and 17 in 1971 and 1972. The two-day event featured approximately 50 exhibitors offering information on a variety of topics, including electric vehicles, sustainable lighting, renewable energy, Florida-friendly landscaping tips, Florida’s biking trails and more.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks during the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Spirit of Apollo event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018 at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Apollo 8 was humanity's first journey to another world, taking astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders to the Moon and back in December of 1968. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The Virtual Reality Lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston provides real-time graphics and motion simulators to replicate the space environment. Commercial Crew Astronaut Suni Williams practices spacewalking in preparation for a mission to the International Space Station in 2019. Williams is assigned to Boeing’s first operational mission after the company’s test flight with crew.

Nathan Gelino, a NASA research engineer at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is working on a Zero Launch Mass 3-D printer in the center's Swamp Works that can be used for construction projects on the Moon and Mars, and even for troops in remote locations here on Earth. Zero launch mass refers to the fact that the printer uses pellets made from simulated lunar regolith, or dirt, and polymers to prove that space explorers can use resources at their destination instead of taking everything with them, saving them launch mass and money. Gelino and his team are working with Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to develop a system that can 3-D print barracks in remote locations on Earth, using the resources they have where they are.

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.

Apollo 8 astronaut Jim Lovell shakes hands with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine after being introduced during the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Spirit of Apollo event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018 at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Apollo 8 was humanity's first journey to another world, taking astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders to the Moon and back in December of 1968. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

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.

An operator dons a Self-Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble (SCAPE) suit inside a room in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 31, 2018. SCAPE operators, wearing the suits, will participate in a hypergolic systems hot flow test at the MPPF. The test will serve as operational validation of the hypergol subsystem and demonstrate that the hypergols subsystem can service the Orion spacecraft, flow fuel at the required rates, drain and de-service the system, and meet the intended timeline. SCAPE suite are used in operations involving toxic propellants and are supplied with air either through a hardline or through a self-contained environmental control unit.

The spacecraft destined to fly astronauts to the International Space Station in Boeing's Crew Flight Test (CFT) is inspected following removal from its shipping container inside the company's testing facilities in El Segundo, California, on Nov. 21, 2018. The company's CST-100 Starliner will be undergoing a series of environmental tests designed to simulate what it will experience during different stages of flight as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). The agency's CCP will return human spaceflight launches to U.S. soil, providing safe, reliable and cost-effective access to low-Earth orbit on systems that meet our safety and mission requirements.

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, left, and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, right, speak about their time onboard the International Space Station during expeditions 52/53, Thursday, May 10, 2018 at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

Expedition 58 backup crew member, Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency), speaks from behind glass, while in quarantine, during the State Commission meeting to approve the Soyuz launch of Expedition 58 to the International Space Station, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018 at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for Dec. 3 and will carry Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Anne McClain of NASA, and Flight Engineer David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) into orbit to begin their six and a half month mission on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani).

The Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, with Cygnus resupply spacecraft onboard, is seen on Pad-0A at sunrise, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Northrop Grumman's 10th contracted cargo resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station will deliver about 7,400 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. Launch is currently scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 17 at 4:01 a.m. EST. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

jsc2018e043408 (May 10, 2018) --- At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 56 backup crew member David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency listens to a reporter’s question May 10 following his final Soyuz qualification May 10. Saint-Jacques, Anne McClain of NASA and Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos are the backups to the prime crew of Serena Aunon-Chancellor of NASA, Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, who will launch June 6 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft for a six-month mission on the International Space Station...NASA/Elizabeth Weissinger.

Vice President Mike Pence delivers opening remarks during the National Space Council meeting titled, Moon, Mars, and Worlds Beyond, Winning the Next Frontier, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018 at the National War College at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington. Chaired by the Vice President, the council's role is to advise the President regarding national space policy and strategy, and review the nation's long-range goals for space activities.Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

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.

NASA and industry leaders speak to NASA Social participants about the agency's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in the Press Site auditorium at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Speaking to the group from center, are Martin Still, TESS Program Scientist, NASA Headquarters, and Jessie Christiansen, Staff scientist, NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, California Institute of Technology. At far left is Jason Townsend, NASA Communications. TESS is the next step in the search for planets outside of our solar system. The mission will find exoplanets that periodically block part of the light from their host stars, events called transits. The satellite will survey the nearest and brightest stars for two years to search for transiting exoplanets. TESS will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station no earlier than 6:32 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 16.

iss056e142862_alt (8/13/2018) --- Astronaut Ricky Arnold prepares samples for the Barrios Protein Crystal Growth (Barrios PCG) experiment in the Maintenance Work Area (MWA) of the International Space Station (ISS). The Barrios PCG experiment defined an approach for optimizing protein crystallization conditions on orbit, eliminating the need to return samples to the ground during the optimization phase, which has the potential for saving substantial time and money on future PCG investigations in microgravity.

This image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft showing the northern part of Hanami Planum on Ceres honors the Japanese cherry blossom festival, or "Hanami," which is a long-standing Japanese tradition of welcoming spring. Hanami Planum is the third largest geological feature on Ceres, after Vendimia Planitia and the Samhain Catenae. It extends over 345 miles (555 kilometers). This image shows familiar features, such as Occator Crater, characterized both by bright material inside the crater and dark ejecta material outside. Several parallel linear features, called Junina Catenae, can be seen departing from Occator and extending toward the top of the image. These catenae are chains of small craters formed by the impact and scouring of material ejected when large craters are formed. Scientists were able to relate these crater chains to Urvara and Yalode. Even though these are located in the southern hemisphere, some of their ejecta could reach the northern hemisphere, thanks to Ceres' fast rotation and small size. This image was obtained by Dawn on June 15, 2015. The spacecraft was then in its survey orbit (2,700 miles, or 4,400 kilometers high), when the footprint of Dawns framing camera on Ceres surface was about 260 miles (420 kilometers). The resolution is 1,400 feet (410 meters) per pixel. The central coordinates of the picture are 14 degrees north latitude, 213 degrees east in longitude. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21921

This image, obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 9, 2018, shows subtle features on Ceres from an altitude of about 33 miles (53 kilometers). https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22523

From left, Kennedy Space Center Director and STS-88 commander Bob Cabana, along with STS-88 mission specialists Nancy Currie-Gregg, Jerry Ross and Jim Newman, are recognized Dec. 10, 2018, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a 20th anniversary celebration of the first International Space Station assembly mission. The STS-88 mission paved the way for humans to live and work on the space station.

NASA's Flight Opportunities funds flight of space technology on UP Aerospace's rocket poised to launch at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen speaks during a reception hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to celebrate NASA's 60th anniversary, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Dr. Nicole Wagner president and CEO for LambdaVision Inc. in Farmington, Connecticut, speaks to members of the media in the Kennedy Space Center’s Press Site auditorium. The briefing focused on research planned for launch to the International Space Station. The scientific materials and supplies will be aboard a Dragon spacecraft scheduled for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the company's 16th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the space station.

The lone active region visible on the sun put on a fine display with its tangled magnetic field lines swaying and twisting above it (Apr. 24-26, 2018) when viewed in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. The charged particles spinning along these field lines illuminate them. The region did not erupt with any significant solar storms, although it still might. Videos are available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22449

NASA commercial crew astronaut Eric Boe trains in a Boeing CST-100 Starliner mockup at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Boe is assigned to launch to the International Space Station on the first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner.

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.

jsc2018e097287 - In the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 58 crewmember David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency runs through procedures in the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft during a vehicle fit check Nov. 20. Saint-Jacques, Anne McClain of NASA and Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos will launch Dec. 3 on the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for a six-and-a-half month mission on the International Space Station...NASA/Victor Zelentsov.

A technician dressed in a clean room suit closely monitors the progress as a crane lowers NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) onto a test stand inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Inside the PHSF, the satellite will be processed and prepared for its 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 NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Dr. George Ricker of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research serves as principal investigator for the mission. Additional partners include Orbital ATK, NASA’s Ames Research Center, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Space Telescope Science Institute. More than a dozen universities, research institutes and observatories worldwide are participants in the mission. NASA’s Launch Services Program is responsible for launch management.

On Thursday, April 5, over 800 middle school, high school and college and university students representing 23 states listened as NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli told shared their experiences of exploring space and chasing their dreams. The students were in Huntsville for a week of activities as part of NASA Student Launch.

A Soyuz booster rocket launches the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, Baikonur time, carrying Expedition 58 Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Anne McClain of NASA, and Flight Engineer David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) into orbit to begin their six and a half month mission on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine talks to multiple media outlets about Mars InSight, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to study the "inner space" of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core. InSight is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet at approximately noon PST (3 p.m. EST) on Nov. 26. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Commercial Crew Astronaut Suni Williams practices spacewalking in the Virtual Reality Lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The training provides real-time graphics and motion simulators to replicate the space environment. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is working with Boeing and SpaceX to return human spaceflight launches to the United States in 2019. Williams is assigned to Boeing’s first operational mission after the company’s test flight with crew.

jsc2018e094713 (November 05, 2018) --- 2017 NASA astronaut candidate Warren Hoburg wears a Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment and dons a spacesuit prior to underwater spacewalk training at NASA Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston. The cooling garment distributes water throughout to help keep him cool while training underwater in the spacesuit. Photo Credit: (NASA/Josh Valcarcel)

iss057e074544 (Nov. 9, 2018) --- European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst configures the Light Microscopy Module (LMM) for the Advanced Colloids Experiment-Temperature-7 (ACE-T-7) experiment. ACE-T-7 involves the design and assembly of complex three-dimensional structures from small particles suspended within a fluid medium. These so-called “self-assembled colloidal structures”, are vital to the design of advanced optical materials and active devices. In the microgravity environment, insight is provided into the relation between particle shape and interparticle interactions on assembly structure and dynamics: fundamental issues in condensed matter science.

Chairman Brian Babin, R-Texas, asks a question of NASA's Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate William Gerstenmaier, left, Mark Geyer, Director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, second from left, Jody Singer, Director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, second from right, and Robert Cabana, Director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, right, during a House Subcommittee on Space hearing titled "60 Years of NASA Leadership in Human Space Exploration: Past, Present, and Future," Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018 at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Attendees talk with representatives from a variety of business and government agencies during NASA's Business Opportunities Expo 2018, on Oct. 23, inside Cruise Terminal 6 at Port Canaveral in Florida. The 28th Business Opportunities Expo featured more than 200 businesses, large and small, and government exhibitors from throughout the Space Coast and the nation. The Business Opportunities Expo is facilitated by Kennedy's Small Business Programs Office and Prime Contractor Board, along with the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing and Canaveral Port Authority. Vendors from a variety of product and service areas, such as computer technology, engineering services, communication equipment and services, and construction and safety products, to name a few, were at the expo. Representatives from the 45th Space Wing, Kennedy prime contractors, NASA and many more agencies and organizations were on hand to provide information and answer questions.

The spacecraft destined to fly astronauts to the International Space Station in Boeing's Crew Flight Test (CFT) is seen Inside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 12, 2018. It is surrounded by protective wrapping in preparation for transport to Boeing's testing facilities in El Segundo, California. The company's CST-100 Starliner will be undergoing a series of environmental tests designed to simulate what the spacecraft will experience during different stages of flight as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). The agency's CCP will return human spaceflight launches to U.S. soil, providing safe, reliable and cost-effective access to low-Earth orbit on systems that meet our safety and mission requirements.

The GRC Center Director, Dr. Marla Perez-Davis, during the NASA 60th Anniversary, Family Day Event

After eight months of designing, building and testing, the middle school, high school and college and university teams launched their rockets as part of NASA Student Launch on Sunday, April 8. The rockets and their payloads are designed to fly to 1-mile in altitude before deploying recovery systems that brings them safely to the ground.

NASA's 9th Annual Robotic Mining Competition concludes with an awards ceremony May 18, 2018, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The University of Alabama Team Astrobotics received the Efficient Use of Communications Power Award. At left is retired NASA astronaut Jerry Ross. At right is Kurt Leucht, a NASA engineer in Swamp Works and event emcee. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. participated in the competition, May 14-18, by using their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

iss055e005656 (March 26, 2018) --- Expedition 55 Flight Engineers (from left) Norishige Kanai, Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel gather inside the Unity module and take part in a spacewalk procedure conference with specialists on the ground at the Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas.

Rick Welch, System Manager, NASA JPL reacts to the first image to be seen from the Mars InSight lander shortly after confirmation of a successful touch down on the surface of Mars, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 inside the Mission Support Area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to study the "inner space" of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Michael Watkins, Director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, left, Susan Finley, who began working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in January 1958 as a "human computer", center, and Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, right, pose for a picture with a replica of the Explorer 1 satellite during an event celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Explorer 1 mission and the discovery of Earth's radiation belts, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018, at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington. The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, was launched from Cape Canaveral on January 31, 1958. The 30-pound satellite would yield a major scientific discovery, the Van Allen radiation belts circling our planet, and begin six decades of groundbreaking space science and human exploration. (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Audience members listen during a STEM in 30 event where NASA astronaut Serena Auñon-Chancellor spoke to students while onboard the International Space Station (ISS), Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Serena is part of the Expedition 56/57 crew that launched to the ISS June 6, 2018. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

iss055e006284 (March 29, 2018) --- NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold takes an out of this world "space-selfie" during a brief opportunity while conducting a spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Drew Feustel (out of frame) on March 29, 2018.

This image was acquired on May 30, 2018 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This image shows inverted channels within a fan whose origin could be either fluvial (produced by the action of a stream) or alluvial (created by sedimentary deposits). If the fan is alluvial, then it formed on dry land. If the fan is fluvial, then it could have formed in water, like a delta. Similar fans with inverted channels are found in Eberswalde and Jezero craters, both of which are interpreted as deltas and are considered candidate locations of future rover landing sites. More information is available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22683

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.

jsc2018e035910 (April 11, 2018) --- 2017 NASA astronaut candidate Jasmin Moghbeli wears a spacesuit prior to underwater spacewalk training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. Photo Credit: (NASA/Josh Valcarcel)

A close-up view of NASA's crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2) with the mobile launcher (ML) atop as it slowly moves along the crawlerway on its trek to Launch Pad 39B on Aug. 31, 2018, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. CT-2 will move the ML up to the surface of the pad where it will undergo a fit check, followed by several days of systems testing. The 380-foot-tall mobile launcher is equipped with the crew access arm and several umbilicals that will provide power, environmental control, pneumatics, communication and electrical connections to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. Exploration Ground Systems is preparing the ground systems necessary to launch SLS and Orion on Exploration Mission-1, missions to the Moon and on to Mars.

NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, and Russian Search and Recovery Forces are seen onboard a AN-26 aircraft as they deploy from Karaganda to Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan in advance of the landing of Expedition 57 crew members Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos. Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018. Auñón-Chancellor, Gerst, and Prokopyev are returning after 197 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 56 and 57 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

iss057e131572 (Dec. 11, 2018) --- An Expedition 57 crew member inside the cupola photographed Russian spacewalker Oleg Kononenko (suit with red stripes) attached to the Strela boom outside the International Space Station about 250 miles above Earth to inspect the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. During the spacewalk, he and fellow spacewalker Sergey Prokopyev (out of frame) examined the external hull of the Soyuz crew ship docked to the Rassvet module. The area corresponded with the location of a small hole inside the Soyuz habitation module that was found in August and caused a decrease in the space station’s pressure. The hole was fixed internally with a sealant within hours of its detection. During the spacewalk, Kononenko and Prokopyev collected samples of some of the sealant that extruded through hole to the outer hull before heading back inside the Pirs docking compartment and closing the hatch completing a seven-hour, 45-minute spacewalk.

In order to make sure weather conditions are acceptable at multiple altitudes, NASA meteorologists on the ground conduct constant monitoring operations, and launch weather balloons to get accurate data for aircraft and pilot.

On the third day of NASA's 9th Robotic Mining Competition, May 16, team members prepare their robot miner for its turn in the mining arena at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 40 student teams from colleges and universities around the U.S. will use their mining robots to dig in a supersized sandbox filled with BP-1, or simulated Lunar soil, gravel and rocks, and participate in other competition requirements. The Robotic Mining Competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM fields. The project provides a competitive environment to foster innovative ideas and solutions that could be used on NASA's deep space missions.

iss055e004979 (March 24, 2018) --- The Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft that launched three Expedition 54-55 crew members to the International Space Station on Dec. 17, 2017 is pictured docked to the Rassvet module.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, left, and NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen, answer questions during an event where nine U.S. companies where named as eligible to bid on NASA delivery services to the lunar surface through Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contracts, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The companies will be able to bid on delivering science and technology payloads for NASA, including payload integration and operations, launching from Earth and landing on the surface of the Moon. NASA expects to be one of many customers that will use these commercial landing services. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Strategy in the Aeronautics Mission Directorate Robert Pearce speaks during a reception hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to celebrate NASA's 60th anniversary, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Deanne Bell, engineer, television host, and the founder & CEO of Future Engineers speaks to students during a STEM in 30 event where they announced the winners of the "Two for the Crew" competition, Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37, the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA's Parker Solar Probe, lifts off at 3:31 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018. The spacecraft was built by Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection.

In the Astrotech processing facility in Titusville, Florida, near NASA's Kennedy Space Center, on Monday, July 16, 2018, NASA's Parker Solar Probe is prepared for encapsulation in its payload fairing. The spacecraft is mated to its third stage, built and tested by Northrup Grumman in Chandler, Arizona. The Parker Solar Probe will launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection