Students from various schools and organizations with a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) focus are photographed with employees from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at the Launch and Landing Facility following their arrival to Kennedy on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, as part of Delta Air Lines’ Women Inspiring Our Next Generation (WING) flight. The all-female flight crew brought girls from Atlanta, Georgia, ranging in age from 12 to 18, to learn about the various careers available at the Florida spaceport. While at Kennedy, the group had the opportunity to view center facilities, hear from a panel of women with a combination of careers from Kennedy and Delta, and tour the visitor complex.
Recovery team members load a container with the science canister from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission onto a C-17 Globemaster aircraft, Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Photo Credit: (NASA/Keegan Barber)
NASA Earth Science Division Deputy Director Julie Robinson delivers remarks during an Earth Information Center (EIC) student engagement event, Friday, June 23, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. The EIC is a new immersive experience that combines live data sets with cutting-edge data visualization and storytelling to allow visitors to see how our planet is changing. Photo Credit: (NASA/Keegan Barber)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson signs a memorandum of understanding between NASA and USDA, as Undersecretary of Agriculture for research, education and economics, Chavonda Jacobs-Young, looks on, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at the USDA’s Jamie L. Whitten Building in Washington. The agreement strengthens the collaboration between the two agencies, including efforts to improve agricultural and Earth science research, technology, and agricultural management, as well as the application of science data and models to agricultural decision making. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 14, 2023, on the company’s 27th commercial resupply services mission for the agency to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 8:30 p.m. EDT. Dragon will deliver more than 6,000 pounds of cargo, including a variety of NASA investigations, supplies, and equipment to the crew aboard the space station, including the final two experiments comprising the National Institutes for Health and International Space Station National Laboratory’s Tissue Chips in Space initiative, Cardinal Heart 2.0 and Engineered Heart Tissues-2. 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.
The X-59 team at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, load the lower empennage - the tail section - into place. The surfaces used to control the tilt of the airplane are called stabilators and are connected to the lower empennage. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which could help enable commercial supersonic air travel over land.
iss069e005102 (April 24, 2023) --- UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi is pictured trying on his Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or spacesuit, and testing it ahead of a spacewalk planned for Friday, April 28. Alneyadi, along with NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, will spend about six-and-a-half hours in the vacuum of space continuing to upgrade the International Space Station’s power generation system readying the orbiting lab for its next set of roll-out solar arrays.
Ashok Jha, President, Adnet, gives remarks during an event unveiling the 2022 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard, Tuesday, July 18, 2023, in the Earth Information Center at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy hosted Isabella Casillas Guzman, Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), for the unveiling of the annual scorecard which looks at how federal agencies rank on meeting their small business goals. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
iss069e030924 (July 11, 2023) -- Clouds are painted pink and white at orbital sunrise as the International Space Station orbited 259 miles above the coast of Guatemala. The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft docked to the station's Prichal module can be seen to the right of the image.
NASA's SpaceX Crew-7 in training at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California before their mission to the International Space Station. Andreas Mogensen poses for a portrait. Imagery provided by SpaceX
jsc2023e010185 (12/13/2022) --- Pair of students install a solar array panel during the flight assembly of LightCube. From left to right: David Ordaz Perez and Chandler Hutchens. Image courtesy of Jaime Sanchez de la Vega.
Technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift a ring for the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket to move it to another location in the 43-acre factory for further inspection and production. Flight hardware of the SLS EUS, a more powerful in-space propulsion stage beginning with Artemis IV, is in early production at Michoud. The rings make up the barrel sections for the flight hardware. The Exploration Upper Stage will be used on the second configuration of the SLS rocket, known as Block 1B, and will provide in-space propulsion to send astronauts in NASA’s Orion spacecraft and heavy cargo on a precise trajectory to the Moon. EUS will replace the interim cryogenic propulsion stage for the Block 1 configuration of SLS. It has larger propellant tanks and four RL10 engines, enabling SLS to launch 40% more cargo to the Moon along with crew. NASA and Boeing, the SLS lead contractor for the core stage and EUS, are currently manufacturing stages for Artemis II, III, IV, and V at the factory. NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
iss069e013999 (May 22, 2023) --- Axiom Space private astronaut and Axiom Mission-2 Mission Specialist Rayyanah Barnawi enters the International Space Station shortly after the hatches were opened between the orbital outpost and the SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft. Welcoming her inside the vestibule between the station's Harmony module and Dragon is NASA astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Frank Rubio.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, Bob Cabana, NASA associate administrator, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, speak with the 2021 astronaut candidate class, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. Upon completion of two years of training they could be assigned to missions that involve performing research aboard the International Space Station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, as well as deep space missions to destinations including the Moon on NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Crewmates for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station walk along the runway at the Launch and Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023. From left, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket at 3:49 a.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 25, 2023, from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A.
NASA Armstrong’s Student Airborne Research Program celebrates 15 years of success in 2023. An eight-week summer internship program, SARP offers upper-level undergraduate students the opportunity to acquire hands-on research experience as part of a scientific campaign using NASA Airborne Science Program flying science laboratories—aircraft outfitted specifically for research projects. Students onboard NASA’s DC-8 aircraft, the largest flying science laboratory in the world, help scientists from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with a science project investigating air quality and non-vehicular pollution sources called AEROMMA, which measures Atmospheric Emissions and Reactions Observed from Megacities to Marine Areas. In 2023, NASA also introduced a sister program, SARP East to complement the West Coast program.
Wildflowers and palm trees are in view near a sign marking the entrance to NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 19, 2023. The center shares a border with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. More than 330 native and migratory bird species, along with 65 amphibian and reptile species, call Kennedy and the wildlife refuge home.
This imagery shows how technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility moved the aft dome of the liquid oxygen tank for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the next phase of production inside the Vertical Assembly center Dec. 18. The dome will form part of the core stage that will power NASA’s Artemis III mission. Engineers rotate the dome to attach it to the previously joined forward dome and aft barrel segments using friction-stir welding. The liquid oxygen tank is one of five major components that make up the SLS rocket’s core stage. Together with the forward skirt, intertank, liquid hydrogen tank, engine section, along with the four RS-25 engines at its base, the 212-foot core stage will help power NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon.
NASA Armstrong’s ER-2 aircraft deploys for its ALOFT mission. The ER-2 will fly at high altitudes above the Floridian coastline to collect data about the energetic characteristics and behavior of lightning and thunderclouds. A NASA pilot will operate the aircraft while scientists from the University of Bergen, Norway will interpret the data from the ground.
The NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft was prepared to support the Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Storms (IMPACTS) mission. For this mission, the IMPACTS team tracked storms across the Eastern United States to help understand how winter storms form and develop. The aircraft, which is based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703 in Palmdale, California, was temporarily based at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia. The three-year IMPACTS campaign concluded on Feb. 28, 2023.
Technicians with Exploration Ground Systems perform inspections of the Northrop Grumman-manufactured two aft exit cones on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, inside the Rotation, Processing and Surge Facility (RPSF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida before mating processes begin for the agency’s Artemis II mission. The aft exit cones are attached to the bottom piece of the two boosters, (seen here in these photos), which is called the aft segment, and the exit cones act like a battery pack to provide added thrust for the boosters while protecting the aft skirts from thermal environment during launch of the agency’s first crewed mission under Artemis that will test all of the Orion spacecraft systems.
iss070e044171 (Dec. 22, 2023) --- Northrop Grumman's Cygnus space freighter is pictured in the grip of the Canadarm2 robotic arm moments before its release. The orbital complex was soaring 258 miles above the African nation of Chad at the time of this photograph.
From left, NASA’s Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and Space Launch System Resident Management Office Manager Elkin Norena participate in an Artemis I student media briefing inside the John Holliman Auditorium of the News Center at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 19, 2023. As part of NASA’s NextGen STEM project, students from Florida’s St. Cloud High School and Storm Grove Middle School in Vero Beach participated in person during the briefing, while middle and high school students across the country had the opportunity to ask questions of the panel via phone to discuss the Artemis I mission and the agency’s future of human space exploration.
NASA Astronaut Christina Hammock Koch will be making her second flight to space on the Artemis II mission, serving as a mission specialist. Koch served as flight engineer aboard the space station for Expedition 59, 60, and 61. Koch set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days in space and participated in the first all-female spacewalks.
Rocket Lab’s Electron payload fairing is in view inside a processing facility near Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. NASA’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) CubeSats have been encapsulated inside the payload fairing. TROPICS is scheduled to launch on Monday, May 1, at 1 a.m. New Zealand time from Launch Complex 1, Pad B. TROPICS will provide data on temperature, precipitation, water vapor, and clouds by measuring microwave frequencies, providing insight into storm formation and intensification.
The Artemis plaque is attached to the wall in Firing Room 1 of the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a ceremony on March 24, 2023. Hanging the plaque on the wall are Elliot Payne (left) and Devin Aikman (right), members of the Arms and Umbilicals engineering team. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I launched successfully from Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B at 1:47 a.m. EST on Nov. 16, 2022.
jsc2023e045331 - NASA's SpaceX Crew-7 mission specialist Satoshi Furukawa is pictured training inside a Dragon mockup crew vehicle at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Credit: SpaceX
These photos and videos show how technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans installed the third and fourth RS-25 engines onto the core stage for the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that will help power NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission to the Moon. Technicians added the first engine to the SLS core stage Sept. 11. The second engine was installed onto the stage Sept. 15 with the third and fourth engines following Sept. 19 and Sept. 20. Engineers consider the engines to be “soft” mated to the rocket stage. Technicians with NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company and the RS-25 engines lead contractor, along with Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, will now focus efforts on the complex tax of fully securing the engines to the stage and integrating the propulsion and electrical systems within the structure. NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson gives remarks during a NASA town hall event, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023, at the NASA Headquarters Mary W. Jackson Building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
jsc2024e011735 (Oct. 12, 2023) --- The four crew members that comprise the SpaceX Crew-8 mission pose for a photo inside SpaceX Hangar X at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Hangar X supports Falcon 9 rocket refurbishment and houses administration offices. From left are, Mission Specialist Alexander Grebenkin, Pilot Michael Barratt, Commander Matthew Dominick, and Mission Specialist Jeanette Epps. Credit: SpaceX
NASA 862, which is an F/A-18D based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, has paint applied at the U.S. Air Force Corrosion Control Facility. The facility is located on Edwards Air Force Base and is also known as the Paint Barn.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this mosaic of an isolated hill nicknamed "Pinestand." Scientists think sedimentary layers stacked on top of one another here could have been formed by a deep, fast-moving river. But uncertainty about their formation remains because the layers are exceptionally tall by Earth geology standards to have been created by a river – some standing 66 feet (20 meters) high. The mosaic was captured by Perseverance's Mastcam-Z camera on Feb. 26, 2023, the 718th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The mosaic was stitched together from 18 individual Mastcam-Z images after they were sent back to Earth. This natural color view is approximately how the scene would appear to an average person if they were on Mars. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets. 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/PIA25830
iss070e002033 (Oct. 4, 2023) --- ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and Expedition 70 Commander Andreas Mogensen is pictured trying on his spacesuit and testing its components aboard the International Space Station's Quest airlock in preparation for an upcoming spacewalk.
Technicians are preparing to integrate one of two solar arrays to NASA’s Psyche spacecraft inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 24, 2023. The solar arrays were shipped from Maxar Technologies, in San Jose, California. They are part of the solar electric propulsion system, provided by Maxar, that will power the spacecraft on its journey to explore a metal-rich asteroid. Psyche will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. Launch is targeted for Oct. 5, 2023. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration, NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment.
The Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Observatory inside the Space Environment Simulator (SES) thermal vacuuum chamber before thermal environmental testing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland on June 16th, 2023. PACE's unprecedented spectral coverage will provide the first-ever global measurements designed to identify phytoplankton community composition. The mission will make global ocean color measurements, using the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), to provide extended data records on ocean ecology and global biogeochemistry along with polarimetry measurements, using the Spectro-polarimeter for Planetary Exploration (SPEXone) and the Hyper Angular Research Polarimeter (HARP2) to provide extended data records on clouds and aerosols. The Earth-observing satellite mission, built at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, will continue and advance observations of global ocean color, biogeochemistry, and ecology, as well as the carbon cycle, aerosols and clouds.
jsc2023e055874 (10/5/2023) --- The Testing Contaminant Rejection of Aquaporin Inside® HFFO Module (Aquamembrane-3) hardware consists of three separate and parallel systems to quantify the membrane's water flux and contamination rejection in microgravity, which are key parameters for a full water recovery system. This image shows the bags in which samples of the ISS WPA are collected for the experiment.
iss068e040769 (Jan. 17, 2023) --- Roscosmos cosmonaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Anna Kikina removes and replaces electronics hardware inside the International Space Station's Zarya module. Credit: Roscosmos
Kennedy Space Center director Janet Petro speaks with NASA Social participants during a tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building ahead of the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission is the sixth 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 Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are scheduled to launch at 1:45 a.m. EST on Feb. 27, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg by the crew access arm on the fixed service structure of Launch Complex 39A as fellow crewmates Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi exit the elevator the floor below before boarding SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket before the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station, Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission is the sixth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Bowen, Hoburg, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, and UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi launched at 12:34 a.m. EST from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission aboard the orbital outpost. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Members of the Artemis II launch team, including personnel with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs, monitor activities during the Artemis II terminal countdown simulation inside Firing Room 1 in the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Sept. 11, 2023. This is part of a series of simulations to help the team prepare for the launch of Artemis II, the first mission with astronauts under Artemis that will test and check out all of the Orion spacecraft’s systems needed for future crewed missions.
Catherine Koerner, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, speaks during NASA’s Moon to Mars Architecture Workshop, Tuesday, June 27, 2023, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. Following the release of the 2022 Architecture Concept Review, NASA is conducting the workshop to engage the broader space community and collect feedback from U.S. industry and academia to inform the Moon to Mars mission architecture and operational delivery. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev onboard, Thursday, March 2, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission is the sixth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Bowen, Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev launched at 12:34 a.m. EST from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission aboard the orbital outpost. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
This visualization shows sea surface height measurements of the Gulf Stream off the coast of North Carolina and Virginia. The data was collected on Jan. 21, 2023, by seven satellites currently in operation. The information, provided by the Copernicus Marine Service of ESA (European Space Agency), comes from radar instruments called Earth-facing altimeters. In the visualization, red and orange areas represent sea levels that are higher than the global average, while shades of blue represent sea levels that are lower than average. An altimeter – widely used to measure sea level from space – works by bouncing radar signals off the ocean's surface directly beneath the instrument. It records both the time the signal takes to travel from a satellite to Earth and back, as well as the strength of the return signal. The spatial resolution offered by these instruments – shown in the composite image that's been modified so that different sea levels appear as different colors – is in contrast to the spatial resolution offered by a new instrument called the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn), which is 10 times greater. KaRIn launched on board the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite on Dec. 16, 2022. SWOT is now in a six-month period called commissioning, calibration and validation. This is when engineers on the mission check out the performance of the satellite's systems and science instruments before the planned start of science operations in July 2023. Led by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES), SWOT will measure the height of water on over 90% of Earth's surface, providing a high-definition survey of our planet's water for the first time. The satellite's measurements of freshwater bodies and the ocean will provide insights into how the ocean influences climate change; how a warming world affects lakes, rivers, and reservoirs; and how communities can better prepare for floods and other disasters. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25773
iss068e051617 (Feb. 12, 2023) --- Roscosmos cosmonaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Anna Kikina plays with a sphere of water flying in microgravity that has been dyed with green food coloring and is bubbling due to an antacid that was placed inside.
These images show technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lifting and installing the liquid oxygen dome weld confidence article for a future upper stage for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket onto the LTAC (LOX Tank Assembly Center) in Building 115 at Michoud for the next phase of manufacturing in July 2023. The dome makes up a portion of the liquid oxygen tank weld confidence article for the EUS (exploration upper stage). Teams use weld confidence articles to verify welding procedures and structural integrity of the welds to manufacture structural test and flight versions of the hardware. EUS flight hardware is in early production at Michoud. The more powerful upper stage and its four RL10 engines will be used on the second configuration of the SLS rocket, known as Block 1B, and will provide in-space propulsion to send astronauts in NASA’s Orion spacecraft and heavy cargo on a precise trajectory to the Moon. NASA and Boeing, the lead contractor for the SLS core stage and EUS, are manufacturing SLS stages for Artemis II, III, IV, and V at the facility. NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
NASA astronaut Alvin Drew poses for a photo with guests during the White House Easter Egg Roll, Monday, April 10, 2023, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Keegan Barber)
Technicians begin to retract one of the two solar arrays attached to NASA’s Psyche spacecraft inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 25, 2023. The solar arrays, which were shipped from Maxar Technologies, in San Jose, California, are being stowed for launch. They are part of the solar electric propulsion system, provided by Maxar, that will power the spacecraft on its journey to explore a metal-rich asteroid. Psyche will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy. Launch is targeted for Oct. 5, 2023. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration, NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment.
jsc2023e065198 (10/19/2023) --- iForward Public Online Charter School student researchers work on their experiment on Germination of Pleurotus ostreatus Spores, which will be included in the Nanoracks-National Center for Earth and Space Science Education-Orbiter-Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Mission 17 to ISS (Nanoracks-NCESSE-Orbiter-SSEP).
The ALOFT mission, Airborne Lightning Observatory for Fly’s eye simulator and Terrestrial gamma ray flashes, is a collaboration between NASA and the University of Bergen, Norway. NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center’s ER-2 aircraft flies just above the height of thunderclouds over the Floridian and Caribbean coastlines to collect data about lightning glows and terrestrial gamma ray flashes. Scientists expect to collect more accurate data than ever before that can advance the study of high-energy radiation emissions from thunderstorms.
iss069e060965 (Aug. 16, 2023) --- The St. Clair River separates the American city of Port Huron, Michigan (left), from the Canadian city of Sarnia, Ontario (right), and enters into Lake Huron in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 263 miles above.
The transport carrier containing NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) observatory spacecraft arrives at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023. PACE was shipped from the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and is targeted to launch on January 30, 2024, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The PACE observatory will help us better understand how the ocean and atmosphere exchange carbon dioxide, measure key atmospheric variables associated with air quality and Earth's climate, and monitor ocean health, in part by studying phytoplankton, tiny plants and algae that sustain the marine food web.
More than 37,000 people registered to attend the NASA Langley open house. Starting with the Annual 5K Moon Walk Run and the talented Nils Larson, X59 pilot and Astronaut Victor Glover reunited at Langley’s hangar and hosted by Center Director Clayton Turner.
Andrey Fedyaev, Roscosmos cosmonaut and mission specialist for Crew-6, checks his SpaceX spacesuit inside the crew suit-up room in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a countdown dress rehearsal on Feb. 23, 2023, to prepare for the upcoming Crew-6 launch. Fedyaev, along with NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, spacecraft commander; NASA astronaut Warren “Woody” Hoburg, pilot; and Sultan Alneyadi, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut and mission specialist will launch to the International Space Station aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour on a SpaceX Falcon 9. Launch is targeted for 1:45 a.m. EST on Feb. 27 from Launch Complex 39A. Crew-6 is the sixth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the station, and the seventh flight of Dragon with people as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
NASA’s Lisa Frazier introduces NASA TV producer of “The Color of Space” Jori Kates and NASA astronaut Alvin Drew before a screening of “The Color of Space” as part of the Department of Education’s HBCU Week Conference, Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, at the Hyatt Regency in Arlington, Va. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
CSA (Canadian Space Agency) President Lisa Campbell gives remarks as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen looks on, during a meet and greet, Wednesday, May 17, 2023, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington. Hansen along with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, who will fly around the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II flight test, visited Washington to discuss their upcoming mission with members of Congress and others. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
SpaceX USCV-7 (Crew 7) Imagery provided by SpaceX
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, poses for a photo with Associate Administrator for the Office of Small Business Programs Glenn Delgado, right, during a flag raising ceremony in recognition and celebration of Juneteenth, Thursday, June 15, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Keegan Barber)
The Gateway space station hosts the Orion spacecraft in a polar orbit around the Moon, supporting scientific discovery on the lunar surface during the Artemis IV mission.
Senior Program Specialist Kevin Gilligan speaks during a Strengthening Acquisition and Program Management at the Agency fireside chat, Thursday, May 18, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Keegan Barber)
This map shows the route NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took from May into July 2023 to complete the most difficult climb of the mission. Starting in "Marker Band Valley" (the darker area at the top center), the route shows white dots for each stop the rover made. As it struggled to crest a 23-degree slope covered with slippery sand and wheel-size rocks, the rover experienced a number of faults that stopped it mid-drive. That area can be seen just below the center of the image, where a cluster of the white dots bunch up. Rover drivers ultimately decided to veer off 492 feet (150 meters), approaching part of the slope with an incline below 15 degrees and less sand and fewer rocks (the part of the route farthest to the right). Curiosity was able to crest the slope there, then drove back to view a cluster of impact craters (the pockmarked terrain towards the bottom of the image). Curiosity is now heading further up Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain it has been climbing since 2014. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26017
NASA’s DC-8 aircraft from Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California flies to Everett, Washington to conduct science research about reducing engine particle emissions. Partners include Boeing, United, General Electric Aerospace, German Aerospace Center (DLR), the FAA, and World Energy. Boeing’s new passenger aircraft uses revolutionary Sustainable Aviation Fuel, SAF, and NASA’s DC-8 flies behind the Boeing plane to measure its impact throughout flight. The results of this study will be released publicly to facilitate the improvement of aviation technology worldwide.
The aerial prototype of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is seen at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steve F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, in Chantilly, Va. The prototype, which was the first to demonstrate it was possible to fly in a simulated Mars environment at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), was donated to the museum on Friday. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
NASA’s DC-8 aircraft from Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California flies to Everett, Washington to conduct science research about reducing engine particle emissions. Partners include Boeing, United, General Electric Aerospace, German Aerospace Center (DLR), the FAA, and World Energy. Boeing’s new passenger aircraft uses revolutionary Sustainable Aviation Fuel, SAF, and NASA’s DC-8 flies behind the Boeing plane to measure its impact throughout flight. The results of this study will be released publicly to facilitate the improvement of aviation technology worldwide.
View of STS-9 Mission Specialist (MS) Owen K. Garriott with hardware.
ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen addresses members of the news media during NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 crew arrival event at the Launch and Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023. In the background, from left, is NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa. Liftoff for the Crew-7 mission is targeted for 3:49 a.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 25, 2023, from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A.
NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, left, and Congressman Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), right, meet with students and faculty prior to a STEM event at DuVal High School, Thursday, March 30, 2023, in Lanham, Maryland. Lindgren spent 170 days in space as part of Expeditions 67 and 68 aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Keegan Barber)
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy is seen on a monitor back stage as she gives remarks during a NASA town hall event, Wednesday, July 19, 2023, at the NASA Headquarters Mary W. Jackson Building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson testifies before the Senate Appropriations’ Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies subcommittee during a budget hearing, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Kennedy Space Center Janet Petro recognizes the Red Crew/High Crew for their support of the Artemis I test flight.
iss069e014391 (May 16, 2023) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 69 Flight Engineer Woody Hoburg conducts maintenance on the treadmill located inside the International Space Station's Tranquility module.
Students from local schools view STEM exhibits during an event celebrating Black History Month at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023, in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Isabella Casillas Guzman, Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), center, speaks with NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, left, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, right, before unveiling the 2022 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard, at an event hosted by NASA, Tuesday, July 18, 2023 in the Earth Information Center at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. For the sixth year in a row NASA has received an “A” rating from SBA for its work with small businesses. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, center, with NASA and COSI staff at the East Oakland Youth Development Center in Oakland, California. Hosted in honor of Women’s History Month by the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) under a NASA OSTEM agreement, the Oakland activities reached 500 East Bay students and provided five space-focused learning activities that showcase the diversity of STEM at NASA.
This imagery shows how technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility moved the aft dome of the liquid oxygen tank for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the next phase of production inside the Vertical Assembly center Dec. 5. The dome will form part of the core stage that will power NASA’s Artemis III mission. Engineers will soon rotate the dome to attach it to the previously joined forward dome and aft barrel segments using friction-stir welding. The liquid oxygen tank is one of five major components that make up the SLS rocket’s core stage. Together with the forward skirt, intertank, liquid hydrogen tank, engine section, along with the four RS-25 engines at its base, the 212-foot core stage will help power NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
iss068e041971 (1/26/2023) --- Three-week-old Thale cress plants from the Plant Habitat-03 (PH-03) investigation are seen just before a harvest aboard the International Space Station. One leaf was harvested from each of the 48 plants and then preserved before being sent back to Earth for further analysis. The samples are critical to PH-03 as the preserved leaves allow for the transcriptome (gene expression) and methylome (epigenetic modifications) analyses. PH-03 aims to discover whether genetic changes persist through multiple plant generations, a first step in developing plants better suited for future space exploration.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson gives remarks as NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman look on, during a media gather, Thursday, May 18, 2023, on Capitol Hill grounds in Washington. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who will fly around the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II flight test, visited Washington to discuss their upcoming mission with members of Congress and others. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano gives remarks during the State Commission meeting to approve the Soyuz launch of Expedition 70 to the international Space Station, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023 at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub are scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft on Sept. 15. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Karen St. Germain, Director of the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, gives and interview following the ribbon cutting ceremony to open NASA’s Earth Information Center, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. The Earth Information Center is new immersive experience that combines live data sets with cutting-edge data visualization and storytelling to allow visitors to see how our planet is changing. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., questions NASA Administrator Bill Nelson as he testifies before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation during a hearing titled “Examining NASA’s Budget and Priorities,” Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The Russian Search and Recovery Forces All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) team have lunch and prepare for the landing of Expedition 69 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, outside of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The trio are returning to Earth after logging 371 days in space as members of Expeditions 68-69 aboard the International Space Station. For Rubio, his mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in history. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have installed the first of four RS-25 engines on the core stage of the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that will help power NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission to the Moon. The Sept. 11 engine installation follows the joining of all five major structures that make up the SLS core stage earlier this spring. NASA, lead RS-25 engines contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3 Harris Technologies company, and Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, will continue integrating the remaining three engines into the stage and installing the propulsion and electrical systems within the structure. All four RS-25 engines are located at the base of the core stage within the engine section. NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with Orion and the Gateway in orbit around the Moon. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single mission.
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 Proctor Crater and the large dune field on the crater floor. These dunes are composed of basaltic sand that has collected in the bottom of the crater. The topographic depression of the crater forms a sand trap that prevents the sand from escaping. Dune fields are common in the bottoms of craters on Mars and appear as dark splotches that lean up against the downwind walls of the craters. Dunes are useful for studying both the geology and meteorology of Mars. The sand forms by erosion of larger rocks, but it is unclear when and where this erosion took place on Mars or how such large volumes of sand could be formed. The dunes also indicate the local wind directions by their morphology. In this case, there are few clear slipfaces that would indicate the downwind direction. The crests of the dunes also typically run north-south in the image. This dune form indicates that there are probably two prevailing wind directions that run east and west (left to right and right to left). Proctor Crater is located in Noachis Terra and is 172km (107miles) in diameter. 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: 93120 Latitude: -47.5698 Longitude: 30.2743 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-12-11 18:38 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26124
NASA Armstrong’s ER-2 aircraft is uploaded with instruments for its ALOFT mission. The ER-2 will fly at high altitudes above the Floridian coastline to collect data about the energetic characteristics and behavior of lightning and thunderclouds. Scientists from the University of Bergen, Norway will interpret that data from the ground and collaborate with NASA pilots to safely collect the most accurate data for this project about the power of lightning.
NASA Strategic Partnerships Manager for STEM Engagement, Rob LaSalvia, provides remarks during Space Education Day, Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at the Microsoft Technology Center in Arlington, Va. Microsoft hosted the event to showcase the collaboration, early successes, and future plans for high quality student engagement through activities that combined space content and technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
A NASA team prepares the agency’s Psyche spacecraft for launch inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 15, 2023. Psyche will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy to explore a metal-rich asteroid. Launch is targeted for Oct. 5, 2023. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration, NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment.
Carlos Del Castillo, chief of the Ocean Ecology Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, speaks during a news conference to discuss the latest global temperature data, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
The CPS controls operations used by Glenn Research Center's wind tunnels, propulsion systems lab, engine components research lab, and compressor, turbine and combustor test cells. Used widely throughout the lab, it operates equipment such as exhausters, chillers, cooling towers, compressors, dehydrators, and other such equipment.
Patrick Chan, electronics engineer, and NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center’s FOSS portfolio project manager, shows a fiber used in a temperature sensing system. Armstrong’s Fiber Optic Sensing System was used to measure temperatures during tests aimed at turning oxygen into liquid oxygen. Testing was conducted at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
Expedition 69 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio left, Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, center, and Dmitri Petelin sit in chairs outside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft after they landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. The trio are returning to Earth after logging 371 days in space as members of Expeditions 68-69 aboard the International Space Station. For Rubio, his mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in history. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Seen here is a close-up view of newly planted seagrass in the Banana River – one of three bodies of water that make up the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) – at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 29, 2023. Kennedy’s Environmental Management Branch is working to plant a minimum of 28,000 shoots of seagrass divided into 18 sites across three areas at the Florida spaceport as part of a pilot project for seagrass restoration efforts. Each “plot” of seagrass contains 16 shoots tied to a burlap mesh square with floral ties and has bamboo skewers at each corner that are staked into the sediment. The project, which involves using all biodegradable materials, will look at the feasibility of replanting seagrass in Kennedy waters and, if successful, could lead to the spaceport becoming a donor site where shoots of grass can be broken off and relocated to other areas within Kennedy or along the Indian River Lagoon to promote growth.
jsc2023e017444 (April 3, 2023) -- NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman addresses the crowd after being announced as one of four members of the Artemis II crew during a Monday, April 3, 2023, news conference at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The crew is comprised of Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. The four astronauts will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis. Wiseman is joined on stage by Artemis II crew members from left, NASA astronauts Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialist Christina Koch.
Arthur Muir, a retired Chicago attorney and America’s oldest Mt. Everest summiteer, addresses the audience during the inaugural Cross-Program Connection event at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Space Station Processing Facility on March 8, 2023. Muir, 75, was the speaker at the Florida spaceport function titled “Explorers Doing the Impossible.” He toured Kennedy before sharing his experiences in overcoming incredible challenges during his journey to the top of Earth’s highest mountain.
iss068e054122 (Feb. 14, 2023) --- Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Josh Cassada of NASA is seated in a specialized chair in the International Space Station's Columbus laboratory module for the GRIP human research experiment. The study investigates how astronauts regulate their grip force and move their arms when manipulating objects in microgravity in response to pre-programmed stimuli as a computer and video cameras record the responses.
jsc2023e065214 (2/7/2023) --- Eighth grade student researchers work on their experiment, Microgreen Growth in Microgravity Environment, which will be included in the Nanoracks-National Center for Earth and Space Science Education-Orbiter-Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Mission 17 to ISS (Nanoracks-NCESSE-Orbiter-SSEP).
Members of NASA’s Landing and Recovery team and partners from the Department of Defense stand on the flight deck of USS John P. Murtha during Underway Recovery Test 10 (URT-10) off the coast of San Diego. URT-10 is the tenth in a series of Artemis recovery tests, but the first time NASA and its partners from the Department of Defense put their Artemis II recovery procedures to the test.
A team of engineers and technicians from the Indian Space Research Organisation and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California pose in June at ISRO's U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in Bengaluru, India, after working together to combine the two main components of the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite. Set to launch in early 2024 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, NISAR is being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO to observe movements of Earth's land and ice surfaces in extremely fine detail. As NISAR observes nearly every part of Earth at least once every 12 days, the satellite will help scientists understand, among other observables, the dynamics of forests, wetlands, and agricultural lands. The radar instrument payload, partially wrapped in gold-colored thermal blanketing, arrived from JPL in March and consists of L- and S-band radar systems, so named to indicate the wavelengths of their signals. Both sensors can see through clouds and collect data day and night. The bus, which is shown in blue blanketing and includes components and systems developed by both ISRO and JPL, was built at URSC and will provide power, navigation, pointing control, and communications for the mission. The team combined the payload and the bus with the help of a crane. NISAR is an equal collaboration between NASA and ISRO and marks the first time the two agencies have cooperated on hardware development for an Earth-observing mission. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, leads the U.S. component of the project and is providing the mission's L-band SAR. NASA is also providing the radar reflector antenna, the deployable boom, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem. URSC, which is leading the ISRO component of the mission, is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band SAR electronics, the launch vehicle, and associated launch services and satellite mission operations. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25867
This VIS image of Olympia Undae was collected during north polar spring. The dunes are still partially covered by the winter frosts; as the region heats up the frost will dissipate to reveal the dark sand beneath. The density of dunes and the alignments of the dune crests varies with location, controlled by the amount of available sand and the predominant winds over time. Olympia Undae is a vast dune field in the north polar region of Mars. It consists of a broad sand sea or erg that partly rings the north polar cap from about 120° to 240°E longitude and 78° to 83°N latitude. The dune field covers an area of approximately 470,000 km2 (bigger than California, smaller than Texas). Olympia Undae is the largest continuous dune field on Mars. Olympia Undae is not the only dune field near the north polar cap, several other smaller fields exist in the same latitude, but in other ranges of longitude, e.g. Abolos and Siton Undae. Barchan and transverse dune forms are the most common. In regions with limited available sand individual barchan dunes will form, the surface beneath and between the dunes is visible. In regions with large sand supplies, the sand sheet covers the underlying surface, and dune forms are found modifying the surface of the sand sheet. In this case transverse dunes are more common. Barchan dunes "point" down wind, transverse dunes are more linear and form parallel to the wind direction. The "square" shaped transverse dunes in Olympia Undae are due to two prevailing wind directions. Orbit Number: 94436 Latitude: 80.4194 Longitude: 227.978 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2023-03-30 04:29 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26028
Lisa Schott, vice chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, speaks during a memorial ceremony honoring former Apollo astronaut Walter Cunningham at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The ceremony was held Jan. 9, 2023, at the Heroes and Legends exhibit within the Astronaut Hall of Fame at the spaceport’s visitor complex. Cunningham was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 7 – the first crewed flight test of the Apollo spacecraft – where he tested maneuvers necessary for docking and lunar orbit rendezvous. He passed away Jan. 3 at the age of 90.
jsc2023e065185 (2/9/2023) --- Burleson Independent School District’s Mission 17 flight team for Lavender Seed Germination work on their experiment, which will be included in the Nanoracks-National Center for Earth and Space Science Education-Orbiter-Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Mission 17 to ISS (Nanoracks-NCESSE-Orbiter-SSEP). Team members left to right: Abigail Bain, Jack Crow, Lyla Meek, and Addison White.
Dana Hutcherson, a deputy manager in the Commercial Crew Program, speaks to participants during an internal knowledge sharing program hosted by Launching Leaders at the Kennedy Learning Institute on May 3, 2023. Launching leaders is an employee resource group that works to identify opportunities to engage emerging professionals at Kennedy Space Center to stimulate the growth of leadership skills, increase overall employee satisfaction, and enhance retention.