The "mole," a heat probe that traveled to Mars aboard NASA's InSight lander, as it looked after hammering on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021, the 754th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Since Feb. 28, 2019, the probe has been attempting to burrow into the Martian surface to take the planet's internal temperature. But the sand's unexpected tendency to clump deprived the spike-like mole of the friction it needs to hammer itself to a sufficient depth. On Jan. 9, with no progress, the team called an end to their efforts. Movie available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24263

Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (Viper)

Expedition 65 Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov is helped into his Russian Sokol suit as he and fellow crewmates Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, prepare for their Soyuz launch to the International Space Station Friday, April 9, 2021 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket sent the trio on a mission to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Irina Spector)

Today's VIS image shows part of the floor of Becquerel Crater, including a large layered deposit. Becquerel Crater is located in Arabia Terra and is 165km (102 miles) in diameter. There is also a Becquerel Crater on the moon – both named for A.H. Becquerel. Becquerel was a French physicist who, with the Curies, received the Noble Prize in physics in 1903, and was the first person to discover evidence of radioactivity. Orbit Number: 85977 Latitude: 21.1238 Longitude: 352.108 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-05-02 15:48 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24217

A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, with the company’s Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021, from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0A, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Northrop Grumman's 16th contracted cargo resupply mission for NASA to the International Space Station is carrying nearly 8,200 pounds of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware to the orbital laboratory and its crew. Credit: NASA Wallops/Allison Stancil

Teams worked on the final processing of their payloads that will fly aboard Artemis I. Housed within the Orion stage adapter, the satellites – called CubeSats – are roughly the size of a large shoe box and weigh no more than 30 pounds. Despite their small size, they enable science and technology experiments that may enhance our understanding of the deep space environment, expand our knowledge of the Moon, and demonstrate new technologies that could be used on future missions.

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.

iss064e047074 (March 26, 2021) --- Astronaut and Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency displays Extra Dwarf Pak Choi plants growing aboard the International Space Station. The plants were grown for the Veggie study which is exploring space agriculture as a way to sustain astronauts on future missions to the Moon or Mars.

At NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, technicians from Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin have welded together three cone-shaped panels on Orion’s crew module for the Artemis III mission that will land the first woman and next man on the Moon. The crew module’s primary structure, the pressure vessel, is comprised of seven machined aluminum alloy pieces that are welded together through a weld process that produces a strong, air-tight habitable space for astronauts during the mission. The pressure vessel is designed to withstand the harsh and demanding environment of deep space, and is the core structure upon which all the other elements of Orion’s crew module are integrated. Infographic showing the seven pieces of Orion's underlying structure With welding complete on the crew module cone panels – one of which contains windows providing astronauts views of the Moon and Earth – work will begin joining the forward bulkhead to the tunnel to create the top of the spacecraft, followed by the barrel and aft bulkhead join to form the bottom of Orion. Last, the forward bulkhead will be welded to the top of the panels and, for the seventh and closeout weld, the bottom of the cone panels will be joined to the barrel to complete the pressure vessel. Once welding of the Artemis III crew module primary structure is complete, it will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida where it will undergo further assembly beginning this fall. Orion, the Space Launch System, and Exploration Ground Systems programs are foundational elements of the Artemis program. Artemis I will be the first integrated flight test of Orion and SLS and is targeted to launch later this year. Artemis II will follow and is the first crewed mission, taking humans farther into space than ever before. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker

iss065e212128 (July 28, 2021) --- Expedition 65 Commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) changes out a sample holder in the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) located inside JAXA's Kibo laboratory module. The ELF can heat samples above 2000 degrees Celsius, using a semiconductor laser from four different directions, and can also measure the thermophysical properties (density, surface tension, and viscosity) of high temperature materials, which are very difficult to measure on the Earth.

Deputy project manager Katie Stack Morgan gives remarks during a NASA Perseverance rover initial surface checkout briefing, Friday Feb. 19, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The Perseverance Mars rover landed on Mars Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

iss066e077795 (Nov. 16, 2021) --- From left, Flight Engineers Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer review spacewalk procedures. NASA astronauts Marshburn and Barron are scheduled to conduct a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to replace an antenna system on the International Space Station's Port-1 truss structure. ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Maurer will operate the Canadarm2 robotic arm assisting the two spacewalkers.

Today's VIS image crosses both Ophir Chasma (top) and Candor Chasma (bottom). Layered and eroded material covers the floors of both chasmata. Both canyons are part of Valles Marineris. Often called the grand canyon of Mars, Valles Marineris extends over 3,000 kilometers (1864 miles) long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and as deep as 8 kilometers. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. Orbit Number: 84551 Latitude: -4.18643 Longitude: 286.548 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-01-05 04:50 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24404

Philippe Baptiste, Chairman and CEO, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), left and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson pose for a photograph prior to a bilateral meeting during the 36th Space Symposium, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

jsc2021e048158 (Oct. 26, 2021) --- SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts (from left) Matthias Maurer from ESA (European Space Agency) with Kayla Barron, Thomas Marshburn and Raja Chari, all from NASA, are at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas. The quartet were preparing to depart from Houston aboard NASA's Gulfstream V research aircraft to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The foursome plan to launch on Oct. 31, 2021, aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance to the International Space Station for a six-month mission.

Expedition 65 backup crew member Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos is seen during the State Commission meeting to approve the Soyuz launch of Expedition 65 to the International Space Station, Thursday, April 8, 2021 at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy, are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on April 9. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with the Landsat 9 satellite onboard is seen, Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, as the mobile launcher platform (MLP) is rolled back at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Landsat 9 satellite is a joint NASA/U.S. Geological Survey mission that will continue the legacy of monitoring Earth’s land and coastal regions. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Members of the Hubble operations team work in the control room on July 15, 2021 to restore Hubble to science operations. Credits: NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth --- More info: Hubble’s payload computer, which controls and coordinates the observatory’s onboard science instruments, halted suddenly on June 13. When the main computer failed to receive a signal from the payload computer, it automatically placed Hubble’s science instruments into safe mode. That meant the telescope would no longer be doing science while mission specialists analyzed the situation. In response to the anomaly, NASA began a switch to backup spacecraft hardware on Hubble in response to an ongoing problem with its payload computer. This was a multi-day event. Science observations restarted the afternoon of Saturday, July 17.

NASA and Boeing workers move solar arrays for the International Space Station to flight support equipment in the high bay of the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 2, 2021. The 63- by- 20-foot solar arrays will launch to the International Space Station later this year. They are the first two of six new solar arrays that in total will produce more than 120 kilowatts of electricity from the Sun’s energy, enough to power more than 40 average U.S. homes. Combined with the eight original, larger arrays, this advanced hardware will provide 215 kilowatts of energy, a 20 to 30 percent increase in power, helping maximize the space station’s capabilities for years to come. The arrays will produce electricity to sustain the station’s systems and equipment, plus augment the electricity available to continue a wide variety of public and private experiments and research in the microgravity environment of low-Earth orbit.

NBC Today Show at Lewis Field

X-59 Low Boom Flight Demonstrator, LBFD Probe Calibration Test

In the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers use a crane to lift up the left-hand booster forward assembly for the agency’s Space Launch System for transfer into High Bay 3 on March 1, 2021. The forward assembly will be attached to the center forward segment on the mobile launcher (ML). Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs teams have been stacking the twin five-segment boosters on the ML over a number of weeks. When the core stage arrives, it will join the boosters on the mobile launcher, followed by the interim cryogenic propulsion stage and Orion spacecraft. Manufactured by Northrop Grumman in Utah, the twin boosters provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust at launch. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the SLS. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test the Orion spacecraft and SLS as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Centaur stage for NASA’s Lucy mission is lifted by crane into the Vertical Integration Facility near Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sept. 16, 2021. Lucy is scheduled to launch no earlier than Saturday, Oct. 16, on a ULA Atlas V 401 rocket from Pad 41. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center is managing the launch. Over its 12-year primary mission, Lucy will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids, flying by one asteroid in the solar system’s main belt and seven Trojan asteroids. Additionally, Lucy’s path will circle back to Earth three times for gravity assists, making it the first spacecraft ever to return to the vicinity of Earth from the outer solar system.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at 5:49 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 23, 2021, carrying the company’s Crew Dragon Endeavour. Onboard the capsule are NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, spacecraft commander; NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, pilot; ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, mission specialist; and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, mission specialist. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission crew will dock to the Harmony module’s forward-facing international docking adapter of the International Space Station on Saturday, April 24, at 5:10 a.m.

Wes Mosedale, technical assistant to the launch director, is seated at a console inside Firing Room 1 of the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 13, 2021. They are participating in a joint integrated simulation for the Artemis I launch that covered both cryogenic loading and terminal countdown portions of prelaunch activities. Members of NASA’s mission management team and launch team conducted the simulation together. The Kennedy team was certified for the Artemis I launch. During Artemis I, the agency’s Orion spacecraft will lift off from Kennedy aboard NASA’s most powerful rocket – the Space Launch System – to fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown. Through NASA’s Artemis missions, the agency, along with commercial and international partners, will establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that will fly on the company’s 22nd commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station is now ready for its journey to space. On Thursday, May 27, teams transported the spacecraft from SpaceX’s processing facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station into the hangar at nearby Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, where it was attached to the Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 is scheduled for 1:29 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 3.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is vertical with the Crew Dragon atop for the Crew-3 mission at Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 27, 2021. In view is the crew access arm. A four-person crew will launch aboard the Crew Dragon atop the Falcon 9 on Oct. 31 to the International Space Station. Launch is targeted for 2:21 a.m. EDT from Pad 39A. Crew 3 is the third crew rotation flight to the space station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, and the first flight of a new Crew Dragon spacecraft.

The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. The linear depressions in today's false color image are part of Nili Fossae. Nili Fossae is a collection of curved faults and down-dropped blocks of crust between the faults called graben. The "fossae," or graben, lie northeast of the large volcano Syrtis Major and northwest of the ancient impact basin Isidis Planitia. The graben, which can be almost 500 meters (1,600 feet) deep, make concentric curves that follow the outline of Isidis Planitia. The graben likely formed as the crust sagged under the weight of lava flows filling the Isidis Planitia impact basin. Orbit Number: 79198 Latitude: 23.3867 Longitude: 78.7424 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2019-10-22 11:40 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24658

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soars upward after liftoff from the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1 a.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. The Falcon 9 carries NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft. NASA’s Launch Services Program managed this launch. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the IXPE mission. Ball Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations with support from the University of Colorado at Boulder. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the Explorers Program for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The IXPE spacecraft includes three space telescopes with sensitive detectors capable of measuring the polarization of cosmic X-rays, allowing scientists to answer fundamental questions about extremely complex environments in space where gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields are at their limits. The project is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency.

Inside the Integrated Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the Landsat 9 spacecraft, secured in the United Launch Alliance (ULA) payload fairing, is moved by crane toward the transfer tower for closeout operations on Aug. 19, 2021. Landsat 9 will launch on a ULA Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg in September 2021. The launch is being managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center, America’s multi-user spaceport. The Landsat 9 satellite will continue the nearly 50-year legacy of previous Landsat missions. It will monitor key natural and economic resources from orbit. Landsat 9 is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The satellite will carry two instruments: the Operational Land Imager 2, which collects images of Earth’s landscapes in visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared light, and the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2, which measures the temperature of land surfaces. Like its predecessors, Landsat 9 is a joint mission between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, center, along with fellow SpaceX Crew-1 crew members Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi speak with employees of the Space Operations and Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorates about the Crew-1 mission, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters Building in Washington. Hopkins, Glover, Walker, and Noguchi launched on the first crew rotation mission to the International Space Station for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program and spent 168 days in space across Expeditions 64 and 65. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft – the agency’s first mission dedicated to measuring X-ray polarization – arrives at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Nov. 5, 2021. IXPE is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A on Dec. 9, 2021. The launch is managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy. IXPE will study the polarization of X-rays coming to us from some of the universe’s most extreme sources, including black holes and dead stars known as pulsars.

Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, is seen in quarantine, behind glass, during a press conference, Thursday, April 8, 2021 a the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Vande Hei and fellow Expedition 65 crewmembers Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on April 9. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA Communications’ Jasmine Hopkins, left, interviews Kennedy Space Center Life Sciences Plant Scientist Gioia Massa on the Florida spaceport’s Operations and Support Building II balcony during the launch broadcast for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission on April 23, 2021. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A at 5:49 a.m. EDT. Part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, Crew-2 delivered NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet to the International Space Station for a six-month science mission.

Commercial Supersonic Transport, CST Project, X-59 Sonic Boom Test Model, in the 8x6-foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel, SWT

iss065e009492 4/29/2021 --- A view of the Spaceborne Computer-2 High Performance Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Computer System on the ISS (Spaceborne Computer-2) aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The study explores how space exploration can be advanced by the use of the commercial off-the-shelf computer systems. Spaceborne Computer-2 further tests additional techniques for recovering or mitigating errors in the extreme environment of unprotected solar radiation, galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) and other events.

iss064e043769 (March 16, 2021) --- Roscosmos cosmonaut and Expedition 64 Commander Sergey Ryzhikov, from inside the Zvezda service module, practices on a computer the relocation of the Soyuz MS-17 crew ship from the Rassvet module to the Poisk module.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket with NASA’s Landsat 9 satellite arrives at the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 3 (SLC-3) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on Sept. 27, 2021, after rolling out from the Vertical Integration Facility. Landsat 9 is scheduled to launch at 2:12 p.m. EDT (11:12 a.m. PDT) today, Sept. 27, atop the Atlas V from SLC-3. The launch is managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center. The Landsat 9 satellite will continue the nearly 50-year legacy of previous Landsat missions. It will join its sister satellite, Landsat 8, in orbit to monitor key natural and economic resources from orbit. Landsat 9 is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The satellite will carry two instruments: the Operational Land Imager 2, which collects images of Earth’s landscapes in visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared light, and the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2, which measures the temperature of land surfaces. Like its predecessors, Landsat 9 is a joint mission between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft, packed in its shipping container, arrives by truck at the entrance to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Oct. 2, 2021. DART will be transported to the Astrotech Space Operations Facility where workers will put the spacecraft through a series of final tests and checkouts to confirm it is ready for launch. DART is the first mission to test technologies for preventing an impact of Earth by a hazardous asteroid. The mission is targeted to launch on Nov. 23, 2021, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, America’s multi-user spaceport, is managing the launch.

In this black and white infrared image, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Crew-3 mission, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission is the third crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer are scheduled to launch on Nov. 3 at 1:10 a.m. ET, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Technicians are shown here working on the X-59 fuselage section of the aircraft. The fuselage contains the cockpit and helps define the distinct shape of the X-59. Lockheed Martin Photography By Garry Tice 1011 Lockheed Way, Palmdale, Ca. 93599 Event: SEG 210 Forebody-Subsystems Date: 5/12/2021

The core stage for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket is seen in the B-2 Test Stand ahead of a scheduled eight minute duration hot fire test, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021 at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The hot fire test is the final stage of the Green Run test series, a comprehensive assessment of the Space Launch System’s core stage prior to launching the Artemis I mission to the Moon. Photo Credit: (NASA/Robert Markowitz)

Staff with NASA, the National Park Service, Herndon Solutions Group, the center’s environmental services contractor, and others, prepare to release Kemp’s ridley sea turtles into the Atlantic Ocean at the Canaveral National Seashore near Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 26, 2021. The rescued and rehabilitated turtles were flown from aquatic centers in Massachusetts and New York to the Launch and Landing Facility, managed by Space Florida. NASA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA Fisheries, Space Florida, and Herndon Solutions Group provided support. The Turtles Fly Too organization provided the flight to Kennedy. All marine turtle footage/images was obtained with the approval of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) under conditions not harmful to marine turtles. Footage was acquired while conducting authorized conservation activities pursuant to: FWC 2021 Consent Permit, MTP-21-005 and MTP-21-114.

"I’ve worked in many different roles and what drives my passion is learning things that I don’t know. It is a part of my thirst for knowledge and knowing how things work. The harder the problem for me the better. When I first joined NASA as a full time employee, my supervisor would give me an assignment, and I would get it done quickly and come back to his desk and ask, ‘What do you have for me now?’ At one point, after about two months of working for him, he looked at me and kind of sighed. I said, ‘Okay, okay. If you don’t have anything for me right now, is it okay if I see if any of the other supervisors in the building need any help with anything?’ He agreed, and so I approached the other supervisors. "Now, here’s the interesting thing. I was a young Black female in an engineering role that was pretty much dominated by white males at the time, so it was not a norm for there to be females in the building – much less black females. I came to understand later that there was some skepticism on their part that I could do design engineering. I didn’t know that some of them, not all of them, were throwing things at me to show me I wasn’t qualified. But I would tackle their problems the same way I do anything else: if I don’t know it, I’ll go find it. I’ll research. I’ll dig. I’ll look for people that might have some experience that I don’t have and ask them. So, every hard problem that they threw at me, I solved. Eventually, my supervisor told me he didn't know what he was getting into when he agreed to let me go to the other supervisors because now, they were coming to him with their hardest problems, asking, 'Hey, can Barbara help with this?' So, I started to broaden my experience base right away." — Barbara Brown, Director of Exploration Research and Technology Programs, Kennedy Space Center Interviewer: NASA / Tahira Allen

Seen here is the “Launch America” banner for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) on the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 28, 2021. NASA and SpaceX are preparing for Crew-3 – the third crew rotation flight to the International Space Station for CCP – and part of that includes conducting a dress rehearsal ahead of launch. On Oct. 28, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts and launch teams rehearsed countdown operations, concluding with the Go/No-Go poll for Falcon-9 fueling. The Crew-3 mission will carry NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer to the space station for a six-month stay. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft are scheduled to lift off from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A no earlier than Nov. 6 at 11:36 p.m. EDT.

The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 64 crew members Kate Rubins of NASA, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, Saturday, April 17, 2021. Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov returned after 185 days in space having served as Expedition 63-64 crew members onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Taken Feb. 22, 2021, this image from the Mastcam-Z instrument on NASA's Perseverance rover shows the first target for analysis by the rover's SuperCam instrument. The target rock is approximately 29 inches (73 centimeters) across its longest axis. On the left side of the image, rocks characterized by holes partially filled with dark sands contrast with the lighter-toned, smoother texture of the rock on the right. The finer-grained Martian soil can also be seen surrounding the rocks, some of which was disturbed by the Mars 2020 mission descent stage engine plumes. The image colors portray an estimate of the natural color of each scene, or approximately what the scene would look like if we viewed it with human eyes. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24484

Hal Weaver, L'LORRI Instrument Principal Investigator, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, is introduced during a science briefing for the Lucy mission held inside the TV Auditorium at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 14, 2021. The mission is scheduled to launch at 5:34 a.m. EDT Saturday, Oct. 16, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, is managing the launch. During its 12-year primary mission, Lucy will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids, flying by one asteroid in the solar system’s main belt and seven Trojan asteroids. Additionally, Lucy’s path will circle back to Earth three times for gravity assists, making it the first spacecraft to return to the vicinity of Earth from the outer solar system.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket with NASA’s Landsat 9 satellite is secured on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 3 (SLC-3) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on Sept. 27, 2021, after making the trek from the Vertical Integration Facility. Landsat 9 is scheduled to launch at 2:12 p.m. EDT (11:12 a.m. PDT) today, Sept. 27, atop the Atlas V from SLC-3. The launch is managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center. The Landsat 9 satellite will continue the nearly 50-year legacy of previous Landsat missions. It will join its sister satellite, Landsat 8, in orbit to monitor key natural and economic resources from orbit. Landsat 9 is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The satellite will carry two instruments: the Operational Land Imager 2, which collects images of Earth’s landscapes in visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared light, and the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2, which measures the temperature of land surfaces. Like its predecessors, Landsat 9 is a joint mission between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The drogue parachute of the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft is seen as the capsule lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 64 crew members Kate Rubins of NASA, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, Saturday, April 17, 2021. Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov returned after 185 days in space having served as Expedition 63-64 crew members onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Expedition 65 backup crew member, Anne McClain of NASA, is seen during Soyuz qualification exams Monday, March 22, 2021, at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) in Star City, Russia, in advance of the Expedition 65 launch April 9 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Andrey Shelepin)

iss065e000865 (April 19, 2021) --- Grand Island splits the Niagara River which runs past Buffalo, New York, and into Lake Erie. The International Space Station was orbiting 264 miles above southern Pennsylvania when this photograph was taken.

iss064e018944 (Jan. 1, 2021) --- Two spaceships are pictured attached to the International Space Station as the orbiting complex flew into on orbital sunset 269 miles above the Indian Ocean off the southern coast of South Africa. From left, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter is pictured with its prominent cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar arrays next to the Soyuz MS-17 crew ship with its rectangular-shaped solar arrays.

Photo Date: 2021-12-06 Subject: NASA announced its 2021 astronaut candidate class on Dec. 6, 2021. The 10 candidates, pictured here in an event at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are Nichole Ayers, Christopher Williams, Luke Delaney, Jessica Wittner, Anil Menon, Marcos Berríos, Jack Hathaway, Christina Birch, Deniz Burnham, and Andre Douglas. NASA’s new astronaut candidates will begin about two years of training in January 2022, after which they could be assigned to missions performing research on the International Space Station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, and launching on Artemis missions to the Moon on NASA’s new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket. Location: Ellington Hangar 135 Photographer: James Blair

A postlaunch news conference for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission is held at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 23, 2021. From left, participants are: moderator Jackie McGuinness, NASA press secretary; Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center; Kathy Lueders, associate administrator, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters; Joel Montalbano, manager, International Space Station Program; Steve Jurczyk, acting administrator, NASA; Elon Musk, CEO and lead designer, SpaceX; Hiroshi Sasaki, vice president and director general, JAXA’s Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate; and Frank de Winne, manager, International Space Station Program, ESA. Liftoff time on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was at 5:49 a.m. EDT. Crew Dragon Endeavour is carrying NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, spacecraft commander; NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, pilot; ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, mission specialist; and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, mission specialist, to the international Space Station.

iss065e110749 (June 14, 2021) --- Expedition 65 Commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is pictured inside the cupola, the International Space Station's "window to the world," during Earth photography activities.

Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (Viper)

iss065e074888 (May 28, 2021) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 65 Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei works to relocate the Multi-use Variable-g Platform (MVP) inside the Kibo laboratory module. The MVP is a space biology research platform that can produce up to 2 g of artificial gravity housing samples such as fruit flies, flatworms, plants, fish, cells, protein crystals and many others.

The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image. Today's false color image shows a cross section of Crommelin Crater. This crater contains a large mound of layered materials on the crater floor (center of image). This material was deposited after the crater formed. Crommelin Crater is one a several craters in the vicinity that contain large mounds of material on the crater floor. Crommelin Crater is 114 km (71 miles) in diameter and is located near Meridiani Planum. The THEMIS VIS camera is capable of capturing color images of the Martian surface using five different color filters. In this mode of operation, the spatial resolution and coverage of the image must be reduced to accommodate the additional data volume produced from using multiple filters. To make a color image, three of the five filter images (each in grayscale) are selected. Each is contrast enhanced and then converted to a red, green, or blue intensity image. These three images are then combined to produce a full color, single image. Because the THEMIS color filters don't span the full range of colors seen by the human eye, a color THEMIS image does not represent true color. Also, because each single-filter image is contrast enhanced before inclusion in the three-color image, the apparent color variation of the scene is exaggerated. Nevertheless, the color variation that does appear is representative of some change in color, however subtle, in the actual scene. Note that the long edges of THEMIS color images typically contain color artifacts that do not represent surface variation. Orbit Number: 85478 Latitude: 4.57872 Longitude: 349.844 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-03-22 13:38 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25059

An Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) optical lens is installed into the flight housing hardware for alignment measurements. OCI is a highly advanced optical spectrometer that will be used to measure properties of light over portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It will enable continuous measurement of light at finer wavelength resolution than previous NASA satellite sensors, extending key system ocean color data records for climate studies. OCI is PACE's (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) primary sensor built at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.

iss066e081189 (Nov. 8, 2021) --- The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a flyaround of the orbiting lab that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on Nov. 8, 2021.

Expedition 65 prime crew members, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, left, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, second form left, and Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos, third from left, and backup crew members Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, third from right, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, second from right, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, right, pose for a photo in front of the Tsar Bell in Red Square after laying flowers at the site where Russian space icons are interred as part of traditional pre-launch ceremonies, Wednesday, March 24, 2021 in Moscow. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Andrey Shelepin)

iss066e023184 (October 29, 2021) -- An astronaut cuts slices of red chile pepper during a taste test of chile peppers grown as part of the Plant Habitat-04 investigation aboard the International Space Station. The chile peppers started growing on July 12, 2021, and represent one of the longest and most challenging plant experiments attempted aboard the orbiting laboratory. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei conducted the first harvest of the pepper crop on October 29, 2021. Crew members sanitized the peppers and completed a scientific survey after their taste test. The Crew-3 astronauts will take over the crop when they arrive at the orbiting laboratory, and will conduct a final harvest of the peppers in late November. They will also sanitize and sample the crop, and complete surveys. Some peppers from the final harvest and their leaves will return to Earth for further analysis. What we learn will inform future crop growth and food supplementation activities for deep space exploration.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen at sunrise on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 will be Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test and will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission, currently targeted for launch at 1:20 p.m. EDT, will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

NASA's DC-8 taking off to St. Croix in support of the Convective Processes Experiment - Aerosols and Winds campaign (CPEX-AW) on Aug 17, 2021.

Vice President Kamala Harris is seen during the National Space Council’s first meeting, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021 at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington. Chaired by Vice President Harris, the council's role is to advise the President regarding national space policy and strategy, and ensuring the United States capitalizes on the opportunities presented by the country’s space activities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. testifies on behalf of former U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, President Biden’s nominee to be the next administrator of NASA, before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Wednesday, April 21, 2021, Russell Senate Office Building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

jsc2021e063274 (3/17/2021) --- Preflight imagery for the Characterizing Antibiotic Resistance in Microgravity Environments (CARMEn) experiment, part of Nanoracks Module-96. CARMEn observes how spaceflight affects the growth of a culture of two species of bacteria. The Mechanical Engineering team is pictured in the Mechanical Engineering Shop with connector piece. From left to right: Deanna Duqmaq, Alfonso Ussia, Gaurav Kulkarni, Kalpana Ganeshan.

Scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, clean equipment and prepare for shipment of the ring sheared drop payload currently set for launch on Northrop Grumman 16 the first week in August, 2021. The payload studies the formation of potentially destructive amyloid fibrils, or protein clusters, like those found in the brain tissue of patients battling neurodegenerative diseases. Such illnesses may damage neurons, the drivers of the human nervous system. Experimentation in microgravity provides the opportunity to study amyloid fibril formation in conditions more analogous to those found in the human body than can be studied in a ground-based laboratory environment.

The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis I mission, fully assembled with its launch abort system, was lowered on top of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 20, 2021. The stacking of Orion on top of the SLS completes assembly for the Artemis I flight test. Teams will begin conducting a series of verification tests ahead of rolling out to Launch Complex 39B for the Wet Dress Rehearsal. Artemis I will be an uncrewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon. Under Artemis, NASA aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon and establish sustainable lunar exploration.

NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen, left, and other NASA leadership listen as Julianna Scheiman, director for civil satellite missions at SpaceX, center, gives a tour of the hanger where the Falcon 9 rocket and DART spacecraft are being readied for launch, Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. DART is the world’s first full-scale planetary defense test, demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection technology. The mission was built and is managed by Johns Hopkins APL for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The right-hand and left-hand forward assembly exit cones for the Artemis I Space Launch System (SLS) are in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 21, 2021. The exit cones will be transferred to High Bay 3 for stacking on the twin boosters on the mobile launcher. Workers with Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs teams will stack the twin five-segment boosters on the mobile launcher in High Bay 3 over a number of weeks. When the core stage arrives, it will join the boosters on the mobile launcher, followed by the interim cryogenic propulsion stage and Orion spacecraft. Manufactured by Northrop Grumman in Utah, the twin boosters provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust at launch. The SLS is managed by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test the Orion spacecraft and SLS as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.

Expedition 65 Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov has his Russian Sokol suit pressure checked as he and fellow crewmates Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, prepare for their Soyuz launch to the International Space Station Friday, April 9, 2021 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket sent the trio on a mission to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Expedition 65 backup crew members Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, first, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, second, and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, arrive in Baikonur, Kazakhstan from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), Friday, March 26, 2021. The prime crew is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Soyuz rocket April 9. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Irina Spector)

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with the Lucy spacecraft aboard is seen as it is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Lucy will be the first spacecraft to study Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids. Like the mission's namesake – the fossilized human ancestor, "Lucy," whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity's evolution – Lucy will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

iss065e099946 (June 14, 2021) --- Expedition 65 Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) is pictured working on maintenance activities aboard the International Space Station.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard is seen on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission, Monday, Aug. 2, 2021 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 will be Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test and will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The mission, currently targeted for launch at 1:20 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 3, will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

Perseverance entry, descent, and landing phase lead Allen Chen and Members of NASA’s Perseverance rover team react in mission control after receiving confirmation the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Launch team members are seated at the Hypergols consoles inside Firing Room 1 of the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 13, 2021. They are participating in a joint integrated simulation for the Artemis I launch that covered both cryogenic loading and terminal countdown portions of prelaunch activities. Members of NASA’s mission management team and launch team conducted the simulation together. The Kennedy team was certified for the Artemis I launch. During Artemis I, the agency’s Orion spacecraft will lift off from Kennedy aboard NASA’s most powerful rocket – the Space Launch System – to fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown. Through NASA’s Artemis missions, the agency, along with commercial and international partners, will establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars.

iss066e001149 (Oct. 17, 2021) --- The Soyuz MS-18 crew ship, carrying Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participants Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko, is pictured departing the vicinity of the International Space Station as both spacecraft were orbiting 263 miles above far eastern Russia.

Photo Date: 2021-12-06 NASA announced its 2021 astronaut candidate class on Dec. 6, 2021. The 10 candidates, pictured here in an event at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are Nichole Ayers, Christopher Williams, Luke Delaney, Jessica Wittner, Anil Menon, Marcos Berríos, Jack Hathaway, Christina Birch, Deniz Burnham, and Andre Douglas. NASA’s new astronaut candidates will begin about two years of training in January 2022, after which they could be assigned to missions performing research on the International Space Station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, and launching on Artemis missions to the Moon on NASA’s new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket. Location: Ellington Hangar 135 Photographer: James Blair

Expedition 65 backup crew member, Anne McClain of NASA signs a guest book at the "Memorial working study of Yuri Gagarin" at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), as her crew mates watch, Wednesday, March 24, 2021 in Star City, Russia. The memorial study represents Gagarin's working study in the way it was abandoned by Gagarin on March 27, 1968 before leaving for the airfield for training flight that became his last. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Irina Spector)

The Landsat 9 PSR to EFS C29 lift and mate inside the Integrated Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Expedition 65 backup crew member, Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos signs in for Soyuz qualification exams Saturday, March 20, 2021 at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) in Star City, Russia, in advance of the Expedition 65 launch April 9 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Andrey Shelepin)

Engineers wait at the top of the Soyuz Rocket for boarding of Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov, Friday, April 9, 2021 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket sent the trio on a mission to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Team members at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, complete refurbishment work on the first core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The work followed a successful hot fire of the stage and its four RS-25 engines March 18. The hot fire marked the culmination of a yearlong Green Run series of tests of the stage and its integrated systems. Following refurbishment work, the core stage will be removed from the test stand and transported to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge, shown delivering equipment to the B-2 Test Stand. At Kennedy, the core stage will be integrated with the rest of SLS rocket and prepared for the launch of the Artemis I mission to the Moon. Photo Credit: NASA

NASA conducts a hot fire test March 18, 2021, of the core stage for the agency’s Space Launch System rocket on the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The hot fire test of the stage’s four RS-25 engines generated a combined 1.6 million pounds of thrust, just as will occur during an actual launch. The hot fire is the final test of the Green Run test series, which represents a comprehensive assessment of the core stage and its integrated systems prior to its launch on the Artemis I mission to the Moon.

NASA astronauts Raja Chari, right, Tom Marshburn, second from right, Kayla Barron, second from left, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer, left, are seen as they arrive from Houston at the Launch and Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center ahead of SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021, in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission is the third crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Chari, Marshburn, Barron, Maurer are scheduled to launch at Oct. 31 at 2:21 a.m. ET, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Mars earrings are seen on Director of NASA's Science Mission Directorate’s Planetary Science Division, Lori Glaze during a NASA Perseverance rover mission post-landing update, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The payload fairing containing NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is hoisted up at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Oct. 7, 2021. It will be lowered onto the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V Centaur second stage. Lucy is scheduled to launch no earlier than Saturday, Oct. 16, on the ULA Atlas V 401 rocket from Launch Pad 41. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, America’s premier multi-user spaceport, is managing the launch. Over its 12-year primary mission, Lucy will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids, flying by one asteroid in the solar system’s main belt and seven Trojan asteroids. Additionally, Lucy’s path will circle back to Earth three times for gravity assists, making it the first spacecraft ever to return to the vicinity of Earth from the outer solar system.

iss064e039347 (Feb. 26, 2021) --- Petal 2 Beach, on the southern tip of the island nation of Bahrain, is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 261 miles above the Persian Gulf. Credit: Roscosmos

The live NASA TV broadcast from inside the Mission Support Area of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is seen on the Morgan Stanley video board as NASA's Perseverance rover begins its descent towards the surface of Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021 in New York City. A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. Photo Credit: (NASA/Emma Howells)

Workers inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Florida, move the first half of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) payload fairing toward NASA’s Lucy spacecraft on Sept. 30, 2021. The payload fairing will encapsulate and protect the spacecraft during launch and ascent. Lucy is scheduled to launch no earlier than Saturday, Oct. 16, on a ULA Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center is managing the launch. Over its 12-year primary mission, Lucy will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids, flying by one asteroid in the solar system’s main belt and seven Trojan asteroids. Additionally, Lucy’s path will circle back to Earth three times for gravity assists, making it the first spacecraft ever to return to the vicinity of Earth from the outer solar system.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy visited the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Dec. 8, 2021 for tours and briefings on Michoud’s role in the Artemis program and other capabilities that enrich many facets of the nation’s space exploration endeavors. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker

A pathfinder test article of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket is seen at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Aug. 26, 2021. The pathfinder booster is undergoing a series of fueling tests to validate the infrastructure in place at the launch pad and allow the launch team to rehearse countdown operations before the Vulcan’s first flight.

Angustus Labyrinthus is a unique region near the south polar cap. The squares formed by intersecting ridges earned the feature the informal name of the Inca City when it was discovered in Mariner 9 images in 1972. The linear ridges are believed to have formed by volcanic and tectonic forces, where magma filled fractures in the subsurface and then erosion revealed the magmatic material. Orbit Number: 84158 Latitude: -81.3484 Longitude: 296.938 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2020-12-03 20:45 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24408

Team members at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, load the first core stage of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on to the agency’s Pegasus barge in preparation for its transport to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The loading activity followed removal of the stage from the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis on April 19-20, 2021. It comes about a month after NASA conducted a successful hot fire of the stage and its four RS-25 engines on March 18 and after teams completed various refurbishment activities. Once at Kennedy, the will be integrated with the rest of SLS rocket and prepared for the launch of the Artemis I mission to the Moon. Photo Credit: NASA

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is moved to the horizontal position on a rotation stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility in Titusville, Florida, on Sept. 1, 2021. In view, the high gain antenna and solar arrays have been installed on the Lucy spacecraft. Lucy is scheduled to launch no earlier than Saturday, Oct. 16, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket from Launch Pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center is managing the launch. Over its 12-year primary mission, Lucy will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids, flying by one asteroid in the solar system’s main belt and seven Trojan asteroids. Additionally, Lucy’s path will circle back to Earth three times for gravity assists, making it the first spacecraft ever to return to the vicinity of Earth from the outer solar system.

iss064e021974 (Jan. 9, 2021) --- The SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply ship is pictured docked to the Harmony module's space-facing international docking adapter. At right, a portion of the JAXA Kibo laboratory module, the Experiment Logistics Module (Kibo's stowage facility), is pictured.

iss065e162499 (July 6, 2021) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 65 Flight Engineer Megan McArthur signs her name next to the SpaceX CRS-22 cargo mission sticker attached to the vestibule between the SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply ship and the Harmony module's space-facing international docking adapter.