A news conference is held Sept. 3, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, after launch of Artemis I was waived off from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39B. Teams encountered a liquid hydrogen leak while loading propellant into the core stage of the Space Launch System rocket. Participants are, from left, Bill Nelson, NASA administrator; Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate; and Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human presence to the Moon and beyond. The primary goal of Artemis I is to thoroughly test the integrated systems before crewed missions by operating the spacecraft in a deep space environment, testing Orion’s heat shield, and recovering the crew module after reentry, descent, and splashdown.
A spectator takes a photo of a display dedicated to former Kennedy Space Center director Rocco Petrone on Feb. 22, 2022. During a ceremony held at the Florida spaceport, Kennedy’s launch control center was officially renamed to the Rocco A. Petrone Launch Control Center. Petrone was instrumental in America’s first voyages to the Moon and headed the Apollo program. He died in 2006 at the age of 80.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy speaks in a Heads of Agency panel during the 37th Space Symposium, Wednesday, April 6, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy delivers remarks during an end-of-the year all hands with senior leadership, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. Melroy, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana highlighted the agency’s 2022 accomplishments and looked forward to what is coming in 2023 and beyond. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
A Russian all terrain vehicle delivers Expedition 66 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei to an awaiting helicopter that will fly him to Karaganda after he and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos, landed in their Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. Vande Hei and Dubrov are returning to Earth after logging 355 days in space as members of Expeditions 64-66 aboard the International Space Station. For Vande Hei, his mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in history. Shkaplerov is returning after 176 days in space, serving as a Flight Engineer for Expedition 65 and commander of Expedition 66. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
iss068e033632 (Dec. 27, 2022) --- The snow-capped peaks of two different volcanoes on the island of Hawaii, Mauna Loa, an active volcano (bottom), and Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano (top), are pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 258 miles above the Pacific Ocean.
Today's VIS image shows a small portion of the immense lava flows that originated from Arsia Mons. Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the three large aligned volcanoes in the Tharsis region. Arsia Mons' last eruption was 10s of million years ago. The different surface textures are created by differences in the lava viscosity and cooling rates. The lobate margins of each flow can be traced back to the start of each flow — or to the point where they are covered by younger flows. Flows in Daedalia Planum can be as long as 180 km (111 miles). For comparison the longest Hawaiian lava flow is only 51 km (˜31 miles) long. The total area of Daedalia Planum is 2.9 million square km – more than four times the size of Texas. Orbit Number: 89650 Latitude: -23.8918 Longitude: 234.54 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-03-01 01:57 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25456
After splashing down at 12:40 p.m. EST on Dec. 11, 2022, U.S. Navy divers help recover the Orion Spacecraft for the Artemis I mission. NASA, the Navy and other Department of Defense partners worked together to secure the spacecraft inside the well deck of USS Portland approximately five hours after Orion splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
iss066e113950 (1/15/2022) --- A view of the STP-H8-COWVR aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The Space Test Program-Houston 8-Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer (STP-H8-COWVR) demonstrates on-orbit use of a new terrestrial microwave meterological sensor designed to deliver accurate sea surface wind direction and speed data .
Ioannis Allan Torounidis shows off his interpretation of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 at AirVenture at Oshkosh.
iss066e153092 (Fab. 29, 2022) -- Cotton cell samples, held by NASA astronaut and Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Kayla Barron, are pictured growing on a petri dish inside the Advanced Plant Habitat. The samples were grown and harvested for the Plant Habitat-05 space agriculture study that explores genetic expression in cotton cultures to learn more about the process of plant regeneration possibly improving crop production on Earth.
Mike Roberts, chief scientist, ISS National Lab, participates in a climate conversation at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 13, 2022, leading up to SpaceX’s 25th Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA to the International Space Station. The Dragon capsule atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A on July 14 at 8:44 p.m. EDT. Dragon will deliver more than 5,800 pounds of cargo, including a variety of NASA investigations, to the space station.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) spacecraft onboard is seen as it rolls out to the pad, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, at Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Jointly developed by NASA and Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and United Kingdom Space Agency, SWOT is the first satellite mission that will observe nearly all water on Earth’s surface, measuring the height of water in the planet’s lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and the ocean. Photo Credit: (NASA/Keegan Barber)
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits inside its run stall in preparation for maximum afterburner testing at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. Teams conduct final checks on the aircraft before its high-thrust engine runs. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission designed to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight over land, addressing a key barrier to commercial supersonic travel.
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is seen outside the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft after he landed with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 30, 2022. Vande Hei and Dubrov are returning to Earth after logging 355 days in space as members of Expeditions 64-66 aboard the International Space Station. For Vande Hei, his mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in history. Shkaplerov is returning after 176 days in space, serving as a Flight Engineer for Expedition 65 and commander of Expedition 66. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft is seen shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, Tom Marshburn, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer aboard, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Tampa, Florida, Friday, May 6, 2022. Maurer, Marshburn, Chari, and Barron are returning after 177 days in space as part of Expeditions 66 and 67 aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Artemis I mission is the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and supporting ground systems. The mission is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to the Moon. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29 at 8:33 a.m. ET. With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.
Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program, participates in the Flight Readiness Review for NASA’s Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) inside the Operations Support Building II at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, May 11, 2022. Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:54 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 19. The uncrewed flight test will be Starliner’s second flight for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Teams completed the welding of the Artemis III core stage liquid oxygen tank dome at the NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Crews moved the dome, which is the top of the tank. The dome was moved to an assembly area where it will be loaded into a robotic welder that will join it with the forward barrel to create half of the liquid oxygen tank. Later another barrel and dome will be added to complete the entire tank. The Space Launch System (SLS) core stage liquid oxygen tank holds 196,000 gallons of super-cooled liquid propellant that serves as one of the propellants for the four RS-25 engines. The SLS core stage is made up of five unique elements: the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, liquid hydrogen tank, and the engine section. The liquid oxygen and the liquid hydrogen tank will provide propellant to the four RS-25 engines to produce more than two million pounds of thrust to help launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts, and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen at sunrise atop a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B, Sunday, April 3, 2022, as the Artemis I launch team conducts the wet dress rehearsal test at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Ahead of NASA’s Artemis I flight test, the wet dress rehearsal will run the Artemis I launch team through operations to load propellant, conduct a full launch countdown, demonstrate the ability to recycle the countdown clock, and drain the tanks to practice timelines and procedures for launch. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Demo by Case Western Reserve University, CWRU Interactive Commons and GVIS Lab
NASA joined the Space Launch System rocket’s core stage forward assembly with the 130-foot liquid hydrogen tank for the Artemis II mission on March 18. This completes assembly of four of the five large structures that make up the core stage that will help send the first astronauts to lunar orbit on Artemis II. The 66-foot forward assembly consists of the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank and the intertank, which were mated earlier. Engineers inserted 360 bolts to connect the forward assembly to the liquid hydrogen tank to make up the bulk of the stage. Only the engine section, which is currently being outfitted and includes the main propulsion systems that connect to the four RS-25 engines, remains to be added to form the final core stage. All parts of the core stage are manufactured by NASA and Boeing, the core stage lead contractor at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Currently, the team is building core stages for three Artemis missions. The first core stage is stacked with the rest of the SLS rocket, which will launch the Artemis I mission to the Moon this year. Together with its twin solid rocket boosters, the core stage will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts, and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon. The SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft form the foundation for Artemis missions and future deep space exploration. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
This seismogram shows the largest quake ever detected on another planet. Estimated at magnitude 5, this quake was discovered by NASA's InSight lander on May 4, 2022, the 1,222nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. InSight was sent to Mars with a highly sensitive seismometer, provided by France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES), to study the deep interior of the planet. As seismic waves pass through or reflect off material in Mars' crust, mantle, and core, they change in ways that seismologists can study to determine the depth and composition of these layers. What scientists learn about the structure of Mars can help them better understand the formation of all rocky worlds, including Earth and its Moon. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25180
NASA astronaut Victor Glover talks with school students in person and via live stream during an educational event, Thursday, April 28, 2022, at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. Glover most recently served as pilot and second-in-command on the Crew-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon, named Resilience, which landed after a long duration mission aboard the International Space Station, May 2, 2021. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
iss067e340959 (Sept. 8, 2022) --- Expedition 67 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti from ESA (European Space Agency) collects microbe samples from around the Veggie space botany facility in the International Space Station's Columbus laboratory module for analysis.
Emily Nelson, NASA's chief flight director, left, Richard Jones, manager of the Mission Management and Integration Office for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, center right, are seen as they monitor the countdown during a dress rehearsal in preparation for the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina onboard, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022, in firing room four of the Rocco A. Petrone Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission is the fifth 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. Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikini are scheduled to launch at 12:00 p.m. EDT on Oct. 5, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is lifted at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 4th, 2022. Starliner will be secured atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for Boeing's second Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2) to the International Space Station for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft rolled out from Boeing's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center earlier in the day.
Out the window view of the ownship aircraft in the VMS’s R-Cab during the AVA-1h simulation in the VMS, N243.
Students from San Diego State College prepare their robotic miner for its second turn to dig in the mining arena during NASA’s LUNABOTICS competition on May 27, 2022, at the Center for Space Education near the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the mining competition. Teams used their autonomous or remote-controlled robots to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with lunar simulant and rocks. The objective of the challenge is to see which team’s robot can collect and deposit the most rocky regolith within a specified amount of time.
Crews at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans move the forward skirt of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to another part of the facility Dec. 15. Teams are preparing to apply the thermal protection system to the flight hardware, which will protect it from the extreme temperatures during launch and flight. The forward skirt is part of the core stage that will power the SLS rocket for the Artemis III mission. The forward skirt houses flight computers, cameras, and avionics.. The SLS core stage is made up of five unique elements: the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, liquid hydrogen tank, and the engine section. When fully stacked, the forward skirt is located at the top of the core stage and connects the stage to the upper part of the rocket. Together with its four RS-25 engines, the rocket’s massive 212-foot-tall core stage — the largest stage NASA has ever built — and its twin solid rocket boosters produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon and, ultimately, Mars. Offering more payload mass, volume capability and energy to speed missions through space, the SLS rocket, along with NASA’s Gateway in lunar orbit, the Human Landing System, and Orion spacecraft, is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration and the Artemis lunar program. No other rocket is capable of carrying astronauts in Orion around the Moon in a single mission.
NASA is performing a series of tests to evaluate how astronauts and ground crew involved in final preparations before Orion missions will quickly get out of the spacecraft if an emergency were to occur on the pad prior to launch. In the hours before astronauts launch to space in Orion from NASA’s modernized spaceport in Florida in on the agency’s Space Launch System rocket, they will cross the Crew Access Arm 300 feet above the ground and climb inside the crew module with the assistance of ground personnel trained to help them strap into their seats and take care of last-minute needs. The testing is helping engineers evaluate hardware designs and establish procedures that would be used to get astronauts and ground crew out of the capsule as quickly as possible. Flight and ground crew are required to get out of Orion within two minutes to protect for a variety of failure scenarios that do not require the launch abort system to be activated, such as crew incapacitation, fire or the presence of toxins in the cabin. This testing took place the week of Oct. 30, 2017 using the Orion mockup in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. In this photo, engineers used fake smoke to imitate a scenario in which astronauts must exit the capsule when their vision is obscured. Markings on the ground indicate where the Crew Access Arm would be located and help guide the crew. This testing is a collaborative effort between the Orion and Ground Systems Development and Operations programs. Previous egress testing at Johnson and in the Gulf of Mexico has evaluated how crew will exit the spacecraft at the end of their missions..
Matt Johnson, CAPSTONE lead systems engineer, left, and Dylan Schmidt, CAPSTONE assembly integration and test lead, right, with the CAPSTONE spacecraft stowed in its dispenser at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., in Irvine, California.
NASA astronaut Josh Cassada is photographed in his SpaceX spacesuit inside the crew suit-up room in the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a countdown dress rehearsal on Oct. 2, 2022. Cassada, along with NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata will launch to the International Space Station on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft is targeted for noon EDT on Oct. 5, 2022, from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A.
The mobile launcher, with NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft atop, rolls out of the Vehicle Assembly Building’s High Bay 3 to begin its 4.2-mile journey to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 4, 2022. Artemis I will be the first integrated test of NASA’s SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft and is scheduled to launch Monday, Nov. 14. The primary goal of Artemis I is to thoroughly test the integrated systems before crewed missions by launching Orion atop the SLS rocket, operating the spacecraft in a deep space environment, testing Orion’s heat shield, and recovering the crew module after reentry, descent, and splashdown. During the flight, Orion will launch atop the most powerful rocket in the world and fly farther than any human-rated spacecraft has ever flown, paving the way for human deep space exploration and demonstrating our commitment and capability to extend human presence to the Moon and beyond.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher as it rolls out of the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis I mission is the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and supporting ground systems. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
A full rainbow is in view over the Launch Complex 39B area at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 12, 2022. The Artemis I Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft atop the mobile launcher were moved to Pad 39B atop the crawler-transport 2 for a prelaunch test called a wet dress rehearsal. Artemis I will be the first integrated test of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. In later missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.
On the second day of the 25.5-day Artemis I mission, Orion used its optical navigation camera to snap black and white photos of planet Earth. Orion uses the optical navigation camera to capture imagery of the Earth and the Moon at different phases and distances, providing an enhanced body of data to certify its effectiveness as a method for determining its position in space for future missions under differing lighting conditions.
Alexander Ivanov, Deputy Head of Roscosmos, speaks during the State Commission to approve the Soyuz launch of Expedition 68 to the International Space Station, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Expedition 68 astronaut Frank Rubio of NASA, and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos, are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft on Sept. 21. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
jsc2022e068660 (April 3, 2022) --- SpaceX Crew-5 Commander Nicole Aunapu Mann of NASA is pictured during a Crew Dragon cockpit training session at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Credit: SpaceX
NASA Public Affairs Officer Alise Fisher moderates a briefing, Wednesday, June 29, 2022, at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore. The briefing focused on the status of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in its final weeks of preparing for its science mission, as well as overviews of planned science for Webb’s first year of operations. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Guests watch the launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis I flight test, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022, from Operations and Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis I flight test is the first integrated flight test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and ground systems. SLS and Orion launched at 1:47 a.m. EST, from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. The Moon is in the upper right. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Mechanical technicians and thermal engineers work together to carefully feed the lines of a Loop Heat Pipe onto the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI). This integration operation will allow proper heat transfer throughout the instrument. 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.
iss067e189903 (July 20, 2022) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 67 Flight Engineer Bob Hines works to remove and replace the Material Science Laboratory's vacuum sensor inside the International Space Station's U.S. Destiny laboratory module.
The channels at the top and bottom of this VIS image are different sections of Tinto Vallis. This northward flowing channel is 180 km (112 miles) long and is located in northern Hesperia Planum. Tinto Vallis arises in the plains of Hesperia Planum and empties into Palos Crater (visible at the top of the image). Orbit Number: 88606 Latitude: -4.34333 Longitude: 111.244 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-12-05 02:55 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25294
Dr. Kate Calvin, NASA's chief scientist and senior climate advisor, speaks at the 37th Space Symposium, Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 14, 2022, on the company’s 25th Commercial Resupply Services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 8:44 p.m. EDT. Dragon will deliver more than 5,800 pounds of cargo, including a variety of NASA investigations, to the space station. The spacecraft is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before it returns to Earth with research and return cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.
Work Request Description: Photographic coverage of ASCAN 2021 Class Wilderness Survival Training at Ft. Rucker, Alabama
Cindy Hasselbring, NASA K-12 Education Advisor at NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement, teaches students about aeronautics and testing during a presentation, Thursday, April 28, 2022, at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
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 small section of Cydonia Colles, a group of hills located in southeastern Acidalia Planitia. 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: 88036 Latitude: 38.7031 Longitude: 349.62 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-10-19 04:44 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25386
art001e001722 (Nov. 30, 2022) A camera mounted on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays captured the Earth as the spacecraft was in a distant lunar orbit.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft is seen as it lands with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. Lindgren, Hines, Watkins, and Cristoforetti are returning after 170 days in space as part of Expeditions 67 and 68 aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is lifted at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex-41 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 4th, 2022. Starliner will be secured atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for Boeing's second Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2) to the International Space Station for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft rolled out from Boeing's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center earlier in the day.
jsc2022e031226 (4/26/2022) --- A mission overview of the Protein Manufacturing investigation shows hardware, operations, and scientific details. The Protein Manufacturing project demonstrates and tests the operation of a novel bioreactor technology to support robust fungal growth for the production of high-protein food in a low-Earth orbit, space environment. Image courtesy of BioServe.
With all of the work platforms retracted, NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft atop the mobile launcher are in view in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 3, 2022. The crawler-transporter, driven by engineers, will slide under the Artemis I stack atop the mobile launcher and carry it to Launch Complex 39B for a wet dress rehearsal test ahead of the Artemis I launch. Artemis I will be the first integrated test of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. In later missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.
This VIS shows part of Acheron Fossae. Acheron Fossae is the highly fractured, faulted and deformed terrain located 1,050 kilometers (650 miles) north of the large shield volcano Olympus Mons. Lava flows from Olympus Mons at the base of Acheron Fossae show that the fossae predate the flows. The scarps visible in this image are approximately one kilometer (3,300 feet) high. Orbit Number: 88190 Latitude: 37.8893 Longitude: 226.816 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-10-31 21:03 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25191
Electronics Engineer and Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) team member Nate Cain conducts electromagnetic interference (EMI) testing inside the EMI Laboratory at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 14, 2022. The tests will verify that MSolo can control the emissions it will produce during its missions and meets EMI susceptibility requirements as part of its preparation to operate in the lunar environment. The third MSolo to go through EMI testing, this is an engineering development unit representative of the flight unit manifested to fly to the Moon’s South Pole as a payload on the agency’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) in 2023. Researchers and engineers are preparing MSolo instruments to launch on four robotic missions as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) – the first of which is slated for later this year. MSolo will help analyze the chemical makeup of landing sites on the Moon, with the later missions also studying water on the lunar surface.
Inside the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an engineer installs the Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo) onto its radiator bracket on June 14, 2022. Having successfully completed its thermal vacuum testing, the unit will undergo vibration testing later this month. This spectrometer is part of the PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1) payload suite, slated to launch to the Moon in 2023 with Intuitive Machines. MSolo is a commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer modified to work in space and it will help analyze the chemical makeup of landing sites on the Moon, as well as study water on the lunar surface. MSolo is manifested to fly on four of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Delivery Service missions where under Artemis, commercial deliveries beginning in 2023 will perform science experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities to help NASA explore the Moon and prepare for human missions.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, as the Artemis I launch teams load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants including liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as the launch countdown progresses at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis I flight test is the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and supporting ground systems. The launch director halted today’s launch attempt at approximately 8:30 a.m. ET. Photo Credit: (NASA/Keegan Barber)
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard launches from Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test and will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2 launched at 6:54 p.m. ET, and will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Today's VIS image shows part of Aram Chaos. Aram Chaos was initially formed by a large impact. Over time the crater interior was modified by several different processes, including liquid water. Chaos forms from erosion of the surface into mesa features. With time the valleys expand creating the jumble of mesas seen in the image. Orbit Number: 88099 Latitude: 1.62222 Longitude: 337.317 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-10-24 09:02 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25118
The X-59, NASA’s quiet supersonic technology experimental aircraft, is suspended in the air at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, following several months of critical ground testing in Ft. Worth, Texas
iss068e021452 (Nov. 9, 2022) --- The Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter is pictured in the grip of the Canadarm2 robotic arm as ground controllers remotely install the cargo craft to the International Space Station's Unity module. The space station was orbiting into a sunset 257 miles above the Indian Ocean off the coast of the African nation of Tanzania.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, as the Artemis I launch teams load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants including liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as the launch countdown progresses at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis I flight test is the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and supporting ground systems. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than no earlier than 2:17 p.m. EDT. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
The Desert Research and Technology Studies (DesertRATS) is one of NASA’s analog missions to test hardware and operational scenarios in a remote environment with geographic similarities to the Moon and Mars. In October 2022, NASA evaluated rover design and operations, communications with the Mission Control Center and a Science Evaluation Room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. A key element of the DesertRATS analog is the pressurized rover, a capability that is planned for astronaut surface exploration at the Moon and Mars. NASA has a study agreement with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for development of the Artemis pressurized rover, and JAXA representatives joined NASA at DesertRATS.
iss067e149818 (July 27, 2022) --- ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and Expedition 67 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti is pictured inside the vestibule between the Unity module and the Cygnus space freighter finalizing cargo operations the day before the vehicle's departure from the International Space Station.
iss066e135744 (2/3/2022) --- A view of the deployed GT-1 CubeSat. The Georgia Institute of Technology-1 (GT-1) is a 1.14 kg 1-Unit (1U) CubeSat, developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology, with experimental deployable solar panels and a deployable UHF radio antenna. The GT-1 mission demonstrates a rapid “cradle-to-grave” development lifecycle of a university level CubeSat. GT-1 is deployed as a part of the JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer-20 (J-SSOD-20) CubeSat deployment mission, and is launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the SpaceX-24 Dragon Cargo Vehicle.
The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the site 31 launch pad, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 68 astronaut Frank Rubio of NASA, and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft on Sept. 21. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule soars upward after lifting off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 14, 2022, on the company’s 25th Commercial Resupply Services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 8:44 p.m. EDT. Dragon will deliver more than 5,800 pounds of cargo, including a variety of NASA investigations, to the space station. The spacecraft is expected to spend about a month attached to the orbiting outpost before it returns to Earth with research and return cargo, splashing down off the coast of Florida.
iss067e367893 (Sept. 15, 2022) --- ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and Expedition 67 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti works inside the International Space Station's Unity module reconfiguring components for the Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction investigation that explores fire growth and fire safety techniques in space.
iss067e000259 (March 30, 2022) --- The Soyuz MS-19 crew ship, carrying three Expedition 66 crew members, departs the International Space Station after undocking from the Rassvet module. The Soyuz crew ship would parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan just over four hours later with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov.
Christopher Williams, STEM Education Specialist for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, left, introduces NASA astronaut Victor Glover during an education event, Thursday, April 28, 2022, at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. Glover most recently served as pilot and second-in-command on the Crew-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon, named Resilience, which landed after a long duration mission aboard the International Space Station, May 2, 2021. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Support teams onboard the recovery ship Megan work around the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. Lindgren, Hines, Watkins, and Cristoforetti are returning after 170 days in space as part of Expeditions 67 and 68 aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
From left, NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Deputy Manager Jeremy Parsons, EGS Manager Mike Bolger, Artemis I Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, and Assistant Launch Director Jeremy Graeber are photographed inside Firing Room 2 of the Rocco A. Petrone Launch Control Center at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a certification ceremony on Aug. 12, 2022. The ceremony was held to commemorate the certification of the Artemis I launch team following their launch simulation held in December 2021. During the ceremony, management staff handed out certificates to individual team members. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I will test NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the lunar surface, paving the way for long-term lunar presence and using the Moon as a steppingstone before venturing to Mars.
The linear depressions in this VIS image are part of Galaxias Fossae, a series of fractures on the northern part of the Elysium Mons volcanic complex. Orbit Number: 87232 Latitude: 33.1807 Longitude: 145.108 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-08-13 23:54 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25206
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard launches from Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test and will dock to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2 launched at 6:54 p.m. ET, and will serve as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
NASA astronaut Robert Hines waves after egress of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship Megan after he, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. Lindgren, Hines, Watkins, and Cristoforetti are returning after 170 days in space as part of Expeditions 67 and 68 aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B, Sunday, April 3, 2022, as the Artemis I launch team conducts the wet dress rehearsal test at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Ahead of NASA’s Artemis I flight test, the wet dress rehearsal will run the Artemis I launch team through operations to load propellant, conduct a full launch countdown, demonstrate the ability to recycle the countdown clock, and drain the tanks to practice timelines and procedures for launch. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Sublimation (ice vaporizing without passing through a liquid stage) is an important process affecting water ice in the mid-latitudes of Mars. This might be responsible for creating two different landforms: scalloped depressions and expanded craters. Scalloped depressions are oval or irregular pits with relatively steep pole-facing slopes, and expanded craters appear to be impact craters that have grown larger as the upper slopes sublimate, while dust and debris protect the bottom. The two usually do not occur together, but here we see what appears to be a slightly expanded crater in a field of scalloped depressions. It's possible that it will evolve over time to look more like the scallops. Unfortunately, this process is too slow to see with before-and-after HiRISE images, even if they were spaced years apart. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25557
NASA T-38s fly in formation above the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft on Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Aircraft designations and passengers: NASA 901: Chris Condon / Astronaut Zena Cardman. 902: Astronaut Candidate Nicole Ayers / Astronaut Christina Koch. 903: Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen / Astronaut Drew Morgan. 904: Chief Astronaut Reid Wiseman / Astronaut Joe Acaba. 905 (Photo Chase): Astronaut Candidate Jack Hathaway / Josh Valcarcel. Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel
Vice President Kamala Harris shakes hands with Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA (European Space Agency), and views the Artemis II Service Module during a visit, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, at the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
jsc2022e083572 (10/20/20220 --- A preflight image of a beating Engineered Heart Tissue (EHT) for the Engineered Heart Tissues-2 investigation. The tissue is fabricated between two posts, one flexible and one rigid. In the flexible post, you can see a square magnet. This magnet enables researchers to measure tissue function using an underlying magnetic sensor, giving real time tissue function data. Image courtesy of Johns Hopkins University.
A view of the Artemis I Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft atop the mobile launcher on Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 15, 2022. Also in view are two of the three lightning towers that surround the pad and protect the SLS and Orion from lightning strikes. Artemis I is the first integrated test of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. In future Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.
An artist illustration of the Low-Boom Flight Demonstration vehicle flying over a community.
jsc2022e083567 (10/20/2022) --- An inside view of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative Extrusion payload, shown in preparation for flight prior to sample loading. This technology demonstration tests new methods for rapid extrusion and UV curing of liquid resin shapes in microgravity. Image courtesy of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative.
This high-resolution image captures the inside of the Orion crew module on flight day one of the Artemis I mission. At left is Commander Moonikin Campos, a purposeful passenger equipped with sensors to collect data that will help scientists and engineers understand the deep-space environment for future Artemis missions. At center is the Callisto payload, a technology demonstration of voice-activated audio and video technology from Lockheed Martin in collaboration with Amazon and Cisco. Callisto could assist future astronauts on deep-space missions. Below and to the right of Callisto is the Artemis I zero-gravity indicator, astronaut Snoopy.
PHOTO DATE: 10-08-22 LOCATION: Flagstaff, Arizona SUBJECT: Photographic coverage of JETTS3 engineering night run 3. PHOTOGRAPHER: BILL STAFFORD
Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are testing the spacesuit astronauts will wear in the agency’s Orion spacecraft on trips to deep space. On June 22, 2017, members of the Johnson team participated in a Vacuum Pressure Integrated Suit Test to verify enhancements to the suit will meet test and design standards for the Orion spacecraft. During this test, the suit is connected to life support systems and then air is removed from Johnson’s 11-foot thermal vacuum chamber to evaluate the performance of the suits in conditions similar to a spacecraft. The suit will contain all the necessary functions to support life and is being designed to enable spacewalks and sustain the crew in the unlikely event the spacecraft loses pressure. Part of Batch images transfer from Flickr.
art001e000342 (Nov. 21, 2022) – On the sixth day of the Artemis I mission, Orion’s optical navigation camera captured black-and-white images of craters on the Moon below. Orion uses the optical navigation camera to capture imagery of the Earth and the Moon at different phases and distances, providing an enhanced body of data to certify its effectiveness under different lighting conditions as a way to help orient the spacecraft on future missions with crew.
This right-side view shows an F/A-18E from the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Patuxent River, Maryland. The aircraft is in NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Flight Loads Laboratory in Edwards, California, where it underwent the center’s biggest load calibrations tests. This testing will permit the aircraft to serve as a test vehicle for determining if it can safely manage maneuvers and proposed upgrades.
iss067e266393 (Aug. 14, 2022) --- ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti unloads cargo from the SpaceX Dragon 25th resupply mission to the space station in July, 2022.
Today's VIS image shows part of Aram Chaos right at the outflow channel that connects to Ares Vallis. Aram Chaos was initially formed by a large impact. Over time the crater interior was modified by several different processes, including liquid water. This narrow channel links the Aram Chaos crater with the northward flowing Ares Vallis and indicates a substantial amount of water was located in the crater. Aram Chaos is 280 km (175 miles) in diameter. Orbit Number: 87737 Latitude: 2.57814 Longitude: 340.64 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-09-24 13:40 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25265
On May 24, 2022, the core stage production team moved the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket engine section for Artemis II to the core stage final integration area at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. While there, the engine section team is completing installation of the main propulsion systems, finishing integration of the electrical and avionics systems, and preparing for functional testing of the various systems. During final integration, the team also will install remaining internal thermal protection systems and prepare to position the engine section from vertical to horizontal so that it can be joined with the rest of the core stage. The engine section is located at the bottom of the core stage and includes the rocket’s main propulsion systems that connect to the core stage’s four RS-25 engines that will help launch the Artemis II lunar mission. This fall, the engine section will be horizontally integrated with the previously-joined forward assembly and liquid hydrogen tank to complete the core stage. NASA and core stage lead contractor Boeing are building core stages for the next three Artemis missions. The 212-foot core stage with its RS-25 engines will provide more than 2 million pounds of thrust at launch. With Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and establish long-term exploration in preparation for missions to Mars. SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft, along with the commercial human landing system and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, are NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
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-4 mission, Friday, April 22, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission is the fourth 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 Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti are scheduled to launch no earlier than April 26, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Crews at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans move the forward skirt of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to another part of the facility Dec. 15. Teams are preparing to apply the thermal protection system to the flight hardware, which will protect it from the extreme temperatures during launch and flight. The forward skirt is part of the core stage that will power the SLS rocket for the Artemis III mission. The forward skirt houses flight computers, cameras, and avionics.. The SLS core stage is made up of five unique elements: the forward skirt, liquid oxygen tank, intertank, liquid hydrogen tank, and the engine section. When fully stacked, the forward skirt is located at the top of the core stage and connects the stage to the upper part of the rocket. Together with its four RS-25 engines, the rocket’s massive 212-foot-tall core stage — the largest stage NASA has ever built — and its twin solid rocket boosters produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust to send NASA’s Orion spacecraft, astronauts and supplies beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon and, ultimately, Mars. Offering more payload mass, volume capability and energy to speed missions through space, the SLS rocket, along with NASA’s Gateway in lunar orbit, the Human Landing System, and Orion spacecraft, is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration and the Artemis lunar program. No other rocket is capable of carrying astronauts in Orion around the Moon in a single mission.
Engineers and technicians drive the crawler-transporter 2 along the crawlerway toward the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 11, 2022. The crawler will go inside the VAB, where it will slide under the Artemis I Space Launch System with the Orion spacecraft atop on the mobile launcher and carry it to Launch Complex 39B for a wet dress rehearsal test ahead of the Artemis I launch. Artemis I will be the first integrated test of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. In later missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.
iss067e264450 (8/14/2022) --- A view aboard the International Space Station (ISS) of the Space Tango-Human Brain Organoids (BOARDS3) investigation. The Effect of Microgravity on Human Brain Organoids (Space Tango-Human Brain Organoids) observes the response of brain organoids to microgravity. This investigation demonstrates how exposure to microgravity affects survival, metabolism, and features of brain cells and, therefore, cognitive function.
NASA Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, at right, and Melissa Jones, NASA’s Artemis I Recovery director, both with the Exploration Ground Systems program, look at the Artemis I Orion spacecraft inside the well deck of the USS Portland at U.S. Naval Base San Diego on Dec. 13, 2022. The Orion spacecraft is secured inside the well deck after splashing down at 12:40 p.m. EST on Dec. 11, 2022. U.S. Navy divers helped recover the Orion spacecraft. NASA, the Navy and other Department of Defense partners worked together to secure the spacecraft inside the ship’s well deck approximately five hours after Orion splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja, California.
iss067e035819 (May 7, 2022) --- The Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick, are pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 260 miles above the North American continent. The major bodies of water seen in the photograph (from right) are the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Northumberland Strait, and New London Bay.
Boeing and NASA teams participate in a mission dress rehearsal to prepare for the landing of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft in White Sands, New Mexico, Monday, May 23, 2022. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. OFT-2 serves as an end-to-end test of the system's capabilities. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff meet with NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, NASA astronaut candidate Andre Douglas, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, and NASA STEM interns, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, at the Operations and Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Vice President was to watch the launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis I flight test, however the launch attempt was halted at approximately 8:30 a.m. ET. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)