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Making News
At NASA's Kennedy Space Cent …
8/3/09
Description At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the STS-127 crew members take part in a news conference following their return to Earth on space shuttle Endeavour after the 16-day mission to the International Space Station. From left are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists Christopher Cassidy, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette, Tom Marshburn and Dave Wolf, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, who spent four months on the space station and returned on Endeavour. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett July 31, 2009
Date 8/3/09
STS-127 Crew Back on Earth
The STS-127 crew pause on th …
8/3/09
Description The STS-127 crew pause on the runway next to space shuttle Endeavour after their landing that completed the 16-day, 6.5-million mile journey on the STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. This was the 71st landing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Commander Mark Polansky spoke to spectators and media gathered on the runway, thanking all the workers for their joint efforts that made the mission a success. Behind Polansky are Mission Specialists Christopher Cassidy and Tom Marshburn, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Julie Payette and Dave Wolf. Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett July 31, 2009
Date 8/3/09
Desert Layover
Space shuttle Discovery is p …
9/22/09
Description Space shuttle Discovery is parked within the Mate-Demate Device gantry at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Cener prior to beginning turnaround processing for its ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Discoloration on Discovery's reinforced carbon-carbon nose cap gives evidence of the extreme heating it encountered during re-entry into the Earth' atmosphere prior to landing on Sept. 11, 2009, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Image Credit: NASA/Tony Landis
Date 9/22/09
South Florida
These images of South Florid …
11/15/00
Date 11/15/00
Description These images of South Florida were acquired by NASA's Multi- angle Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MISR) on October 18, 2000, during orbit 4446 of the Terra Satellite. The view on the left includes Daytona Beach near the top and the Florida Keys at the bottom. Orlando appears as a grayish patch near the top of the image, just to the east of the greenish Lake Apopka, Florida's fourth largest and most polluted lake. On the east coast is Cape Canaveral, home of the Kennedy Space Center. The large body of water in the middle of the land area is Lake Okeechobee. Charlotte Harbor and Fort Myers are visible on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to the west. Along the Atlantic coast, partially obscured by clouds, are Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. Further to the east, the shallow waters and reefs of the Little Bahama and Great Bahama Banks appear in striking blue and green colors. The two right-hand images show the Florida Everglades and the Keys in more detail. Like the left-hand view, the top image is a natural color composite of blue, green and red band imagery. On the bottom is a false-color composite comprising green, red and near-infrared data. Near-infrared light is invisible to the human eye. The high reflectance of plants in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum, displayed here in shades of red, is the basis of many satellite-based techniques for detecting and characterizing vegetation. MISR, built and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is one of several Earth-observing experiments aboard Terra, which was launched in December 1999. MISR acquires images of the Earth at nine angles simultaneously, using nine separate cameras pointed forward, downward, and backward along its flight path. All of these South Florida images are all from MISR's downward-pointing camera The MISR science team includes members in the United States, England, and Italy. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/JPL, MISR Team # # # # #
Galaxies Gather at Great Dis …
Title Galaxies Gather at Great Distances
Description Astronomers have discovered nearly 300 galaxy clusters and groups, including almost 100 located 8 to 10 billion light-years away, using the space-based Spitzer Space Telescope and the ground-based Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. The new sample represents a six-fold increase in the number of known galaxy clusters and groups at such extreme distances, and will allow astronomers to systematically study massive galaxies two-thirds of the way back to the Big Bang. A mosaic portraying a bird's eye view of the field in which the distant clusters were found is shown at upper left. It spans a region of sky 40 times larger than that covered by the full moon as seen from Earth. Thousands of individual images from Spitzer's infrared array camera instrument were stitched together to create this mosaic. The distant clusters are marked with orange dots. Close-up images of three of the distant galaxy clusters are shown in the adjoining panels. The clusters appear as a concentration of red dots near the center of each image. These images reveal the galaxies as they were over 8 billion years ago, since that's how long their light took to reach Earth and Spitzer's infrared eyes. These pictures are false-color composites, combining ground-based optical images captured by the Mosaic-I camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, with infrared pictures taken by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Blue and green represent visible light at wavelengths of 0.4 microns and 0.8 microns, respectively, while red indicates infrared light at 4.5 microns. Kitt Peak National Observatory is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tuscon, Ariz.
Galaxies Gather at Great Dis …
Title Galaxies Gather at Great Distances
Description Astronomers have discovered nearly 300 galaxy clusters and groups, including almost 100 located 8 to 10 billion light-years away, using the space-based Spitzer Space Telescope and the ground-based Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. The new sample represents a six-fold increase in the number of known galaxy clusters and groups at such extreme distances, and will allow astronomers to systematically study massive galaxies two-thirds of the way back to the Big Bang. A mosaic portraying a bird's eye view of the field in which the distant clusters were found is shown at upper left. It spans a region of sky 40 times larger than that covered by the full moon as seen from Earth. Thousands of individual images from Spitzer's infrared array camera instrument were stitched together to create this mosaic. The distant clusters are marked with orange dots. Close-up images of three of the distant galaxy clusters are shown in the adjoining panels. The clusters appear as a concentration of red dots near the center of each image. These images reveal the galaxies as they were over 8 billion years ago, since that's how long their light took to reach Earth and Spitzer's infrared eyes. These pictures are false-color composites, combining ground-based optical images captured by the Mosaic-I camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, with infrared pictures taken by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Blue and green represent visible light at wavelengths of 0.4 microns and 0.8 microns, respectively, while red indicates infrared light at 4.5 microns. Kitt Peak National Observatory is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tuscon, Ariz.
Galaxies Gather at Great Dis …
Title Galaxies Gather at Great Distances
Description Astronomers have discovered nearly 300 galaxy clusters and groups, including almost 100 located 8 to 10 billion light-years away, using the space-based Spitzer Space Telescope and the ground-based Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. The new sample represents a six-fold increase in the number of known galaxy clusters and groups at such extreme distances, and will allow astronomers to systematically study massive galaxies two-thirds of the way back to the Big Bang. A mosaic portraying a bird's eye view of the field in which the distant clusters were found is shown at upper left. It spans a region of sky 40 times larger than that covered by the full moon as seen from Earth. Thousands of individual images from Spitzer's infrared array camera instrument were stitched together to create this mosaic. The distant clusters are marked with orange dots. Close-up images of three of the distant galaxy clusters are shown in the adjoining panels. The clusters appear as a concentration of red dots near the center of each image. These images reveal the galaxies as they were over 8 billion years ago, since that's how long their light took to reach Earth and Spitzer's infrared eyes. These pictures are false-color composites, combining ground-based optical images captured by the Mosaic-I camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, with infrared pictures taken by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Blue and green represent visible light at wavelengths of 0.4 microns and 0.8 microns, respectively, while red indicates infrared light at 4.5 microns. Kitt Peak National Observatory is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tuscon, Ariz.
Galaxies Gather at Great Dis …
Title Galaxies Gather at Great Distances
Description Astronomers have discovered nearly 300 galaxy clusters and groups, including almost 100 located 8 to 10 billion light-years away, using the space-based Spitzer Space Telescope and the ground-based Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. The new sample represents a six-fold increase in the number of known galaxy clusters and groups at such extreme distances, and will allow astronomers to systematically study massive galaxies two-thirds of the way back to the Big Bang. A mosaic portraying a bird's eye view of the field in which the distant clusters were found is shown at upper left. It spans a region of sky 40 times larger than that covered by the full moon as seen from Earth. Thousands of individual images from Spitzer's infrared array camera instrument were stitched together to create this mosaic. The distant clusters are marked with orange dots. Close-up images of three of the distant galaxy clusters are shown in the adjoining panels. The clusters appear as a concentration of red dots near the center of each image. These images reveal the galaxies as they were over 8 billion years ago, since that's how long their light took to reach Earth and Spitzer's infrared eyes. These pictures are false-color composites, combining ground-based optical images captured by the Mosaic-I camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, with infrared pictures taken by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Blue and green represent visible light at wavelengths of 0.4 microns and 0.8 microns, respectively, while red indicates infrared light at 4.5 microns. Kitt Peak National Observatory is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tuscon, Ariz.
Galaxies Gather at Great Dis …
Title Galaxies Gather at Great Distances
Description Astronomers have discovered nearly 300 galaxy clusters and groups, including almost 100 located 8 to 10 billion light-years away, using the space-based Spitzer Space Telescope and the ground-based Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. The new sample represents a six-fold increase in the number of known galaxy clusters and groups at such extreme distances, and will allow astronomers to systematically study massive galaxies two-thirds of the way back to the Big Bang. A mosaic portraying a bird's eye view of the field in which the distant clusters were found is shown at upper left. It spans a region of sky 40 times larger than that covered by the full moon as seen from Earth. Thousands of individual images from Spitzer's infrared array camera instrument were stitched together to create this mosaic. The distant clusters are marked with orange dots. Close-up images of three of the distant galaxy clusters are shown in the adjoining panels. The clusters appear as a concentration of red dots near the center of each image. These images reveal the galaxies as they were over 8 billion years ago, since that's how long their light took to reach Earth and Spitzer's infrared eyes. These pictures are false-color composites, combining ground-based optical images captured by the Mosaic-I camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, with infrared pictures taken by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Blue and green represent visible light at wavelengths of 0.4 microns and 0.8 microns, respectively, while red indicates infrared light at 4.5 microns. Kitt Peak National Observatory is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tuscon, Ariz.
Galaxies Gather at Great Dis …
Title Galaxies Gather at Great Distances
Description Astronomers have discovered nearly 300 galaxy clusters and groups, including almost 100 located 8 to 10 billion light-years away, using the space-based Spitzer Space Telescope and the ground-based Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. The new sample represents a six-fold increase in the number of known galaxy clusters and groups at such extreme distances, and will allow astronomers to systematically study massive galaxies two-thirds of the way back to the Big Bang. A mosaic portraying a bird's eye view of the field in which the distant clusters were found is shown at upper left. It spans a region of sky 40 times larger than that covered by the full moon as seen from Earth. Thousands of individual images from Spitzer's infrared array camera instrument were stitched together to create this mosaic. The distant clusters are marked with orange dots. Close-up images of three of the distant galaxy clusters are shown in the adjoining panels. The clusters appear as a concentration of red dots near the center of each image. These images reveal the galaxies as they were over 8 billion years ago, since that's how long their light took to reach Earth and Spitzer's infrared eyes. These pictures are false-color composites, combining ground-based optical images captured by the Mosaic-I camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, with infrared pictures taken by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Blue and green represent visible light at wavelengths of 0.4 microns and 0.8 microns, respectively, while red indicates infrared light at 4.5 microns. Kitt Peak National Observatory is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tuscon, Ariz.
NASA TV's This Week at NASA, …
Expedition 22 Commander Jeff …
03/19/10
Description Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Max Suraev made a safe return to Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft which landed on the remote steppes of Kazakhstan. * Students from universities in California and Kentucky built satellites that will fly on a NASA suborbital sounding rocket. The satellites are designed to gather data for possible use in the development of small Earth-orbiting space vehicles.* It√¢s been a year since the launch of NASA's Kepler mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, to begin a continuing survey of our Milky Way galaxy for signs of Earth-size planets. * NASA's next space-based observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, was the featured topic at this year's Women's Science Forum hosted in Baltimore by the Space Telescope Science Institute. * Informing youngsters and the general public about NASA's space communication systems is the goal of a new interactive 3-D computer simulation available on NASA's Website. * NASA scientists drilling through the thick ice of Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf last November didn't expect to see this shrimp-like thing swimming underneath.
Date 03/19/10
NASA TV's This Week @NASA, A …
The crew of STS-131 returned …
04/23/10
Description The crew of STS-131 returned home to Houston following their fifteen days in space aboard shuttle Discovery. * The first images are in from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, and scientists who study the sun say they are a stunning treasure trove of data about Earth's star. * NASA helped celebrate Earth Day's fortieth anniversary with nine consecutive days of activities and public exhibits on the National Mall in Washington. * Robonaut 2, or R2, as it, or he, is also known, is scheduled to become the first human-like robot to take up permanent residence on the International Space Station. * Hundreds of students from middle schools, high schools, and colleges representing 20 states were in northern Alabama for the annual Space Launch Initiative, or LaunchFest. * The STS-130 crew paid a visit to NASA Headquarters where they played highlights of their February mission to the International Space Station for employees and guests. The six-astronaut crew of space shuttle Endeavour was commanded by George Zamka, Terry Virts was the pilot, Mission Specialists were Nicholas Patrick, Bob Behnken, Steve Robinson and Kay Hire. * On April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Since then, the observatory orbiting 350 miles above Earth has produced hundreds of thousands of unprecedented images of different corners of the universe.
Date 04/23/10
Leaving Earth
title Leaving Earth
date 06.10.2003
description This spectacular shot of solid rocket motors separating from a Delta II rocket over Florida was captured during the June 10 liftoff of the Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit. The rover and its twin, Opportunity, will arrive at Mars in January 2004.
First Launch
title First Launch
date 07.24.1950
description A new chapter in space flight began in July 1950 with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral , Florida: the Bumper 2. Shown above, Bumper 2 was an ambitious two-stage rocket program that topped a V-2 missile base with a WAC Corporal rocket. The upper stage was able to reach then-record altitudes of almost 400 kilometers, higher than even modern Space Shuttles fly today. Launched under the direction of the General Electric Company, Bumper 2 was used primarily for testing rocket systems and for research on the upper atmosphere . Bumper 2 rockets carried small payloads that allowed them to measure attributes including air temperature and cosmic ray impacts. Seven years later, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I and Sputnik II, the first satellites into Earth orbit. In response, in 1958, the US created NASA . *Image Credit*: NASA
Mercury-Atlas Test Launch
Title Mercury-Atlas Test Launch
Full Description A NASA Project Mercury spacecraft was test launched at 11:15 AM EST on April 25, 1961 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in a test designed to qualify the Mercury Spacecraft and all systems, which must function during orbit and reentry from orbit. The Mercury-Atlas vehicle was destroyed by Range Safety Officer about 40 seconds after liftoff. The spacecraft was recovered and appeared to be in good condition. Atlas was designed to launch payloads into low Earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. NASA first launched Atlas as a space launch vehicle in 1958. Project SCORE, the first communications satellite that transmitted President Eisenhower's pre-recorded Christmas speech around the world, was launched on an Atlas. For all three robotic lunar exploration programs, Atlas was used. Atlas/ Centaur vehicles launched both Mariner and Pioneer planetary probes. The current operational Atlas II family has a 100% mission success rating. For more information about Atlas, please see Chapter 2 in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002.
Date 04/25/1961
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Mosaic of Clouds from ESSA-5 …
Title Mosaic of Clouds from ESSA-5 satellite
Full Description This digital mosaic of cloud pictures was taken by the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) 5 satellite on September 14, 1967. It shows more than a dozen storm areas, including hurricanes Beulah, Dora, Chloe, Monica, and Nannette. The picture signals, received in analog form from the satellite, were sampled at short time intervals, and numbers were assigned according to the brightness indicated by the basic signal. The computer then located each digital value and precise map location. The computer tape containing this information was then displayed on a television-like tube (kinescope) and photographed. The result, a mosaic. The first ESSA satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on February 3, 1966.
Date 11/20/1967
NASA Center Headquarters
OSO Launch
Title OSO Launch
Full Description NASA successfully launched more than 200 Earth-orbiting satellites, including Goddard's eighth Orbiting Solar Observatory aboard this Delta rocket on June 21,1975, at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The satellite-the final in a series of spacecraft specifically designed to look at the Sun in high-energy wavelength bands that scientists cannot see on Earth-gathered data on energy transfer in the Sun's hot, gaseous atmosphere and its 11-year sunspot cycle. Sunspots are cooler regions that appear as dark patches in the visible surface of the Sun and are more plentiful every 11 years. Flares and other powerful solar events that sometimes wreak havoc with Earth's communications systems also are associated with heightened sunspot activity. In addition to looking at the Sun, the satellite investigated celestial sources of X-rays in the Milky Way and beyond. It carried eight experiments.
Date 01/01/1975
NASA Center Goddard Space Flight Center
Pioneer III Probe
Title Pioneer III Probe
Full Description Looking more like surgeons, these technicians wearing "cleanroom" attire inspect the Pioneer III probe before shipping it to Cape Canaveral, Florida. Pioneer III was launched on December 6, 1958 aboard a Juno II rocket at the Atlantic Missile Range, Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission objectives were to measure the radiation intensity of the Van Allen radiation belt, test long range communication systems, the launch vehicle and other subsystems. The Juno II failed to reach proper orbital escape velocity. The probe re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on December 7th ending its brief mission.
Date 01/01/1961
NASA Center Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pioneer Launch on Delta Vehi …
Title Pioneer Launch on Delta Vehicle
Full Description NASA launches the last in the series of interplanetary Pioneer spacecraft, Pioneer 10 from Cape Kennedy, Florida. The long-tank Delta launch vehicle placed the spacecraft in a solar orbit along the path of Earth's orbit. The spacecraft then passed inside and outside Earth's orbit, alternately speeding up and slowing down relative to Earth. The Delta launch vehicle family started development in 1959. The Delta was composed of parts from the Thor, an intermediate-range ballistic missile, as its first stage, and the Vanguard as its second. The first Delta was launched from Cape Canaveral on May 13, 1960 and was powerful enough to deliver a 100-pound spacecraft into geostationary transfer orbit. Delta has been used to launch civil, commercial, and military satellites into orbit. For more information about Delta, please see Chapter 3 in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002.
Date 08/22/1969
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Recovery of Gemini V Booster
Title Recovery of Gemini V Booster
Full Description Recovery of part of the first stage of NASA?s Gemini V Booster, the first to ever be retrieved from space was made by the U.S.S. Dupont. The booster was used to launch the Gemini V Spacecraft from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and re-entered the earth's atmosphere 450 miles N.E. of Cape Kennedy.
Date 08/21/1965
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Sally Ride, First U.S. Woman …
Title Sally Ride, First U.S. Woman in Space
Full Description Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. Born on May 26, 1951 in Los Angeles, California, she received a Bachelor in Physics and English in 1973 from Stanford University and, later, a Master in Physics in 1975 and a Doctorate in Physics in 1978, also from Stanford. NASA selected Dr. Ride as an astronaut candidate in January 1978. She completed her training in August 1979, and began her astronaut career as a mission specialist on STS-7, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on June 18, 1983. The mission spent 147 hours in space before landing on a lakebed runway at Edwards Air Force Base, California on June 24, 1983. Dr. Ride also served as a mission specialist on STS-41-G, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on October 5, 1984 and landed 197 hours later at Kennedy Space Center, Florida on October 13, 1984. In June 1985, NASA assigned Dr. Ride to serve as mission specialist on STS-61-M. She discontinued mission training in January 1986 to serve as a member of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger accident, also known as the Rogers Commission. Upon completing the investigation she returned to NASA Headquarters as Special Assistant to the Administrator for Long Range and Strategic Planning, where she lead a team that wrote NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space:A Report to the Administrator in August 1987. Dr. Ride has also written a children's book, To Space and Back, describing her experiences in space, has received the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and has twice been awarded the National Spaceflight Medal. Her latest books include Voyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System and The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth from Space. She was also a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), which investigated the February 1, 2003 loss of Space Shuttle Columbia. Dr. Ride is currently a physics professor and Director of the California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego.
Date 06/1984
NASA Center Johnson Space Center
Dynamic Test Chamber
Title Dynamic Test Chamber
Full Description NASA's International Sun-Earth Explorer C (ISEE C) was undergoing testing and evaluation inside Goddard's dynamic test chamber when this photo was taken. Working inside a dynamic test chamber, Goddard engineers wear protective "clean room" clothing to prevent microscopic dust particles from damaging the sophisticated instrumentation. NASA launched the 16-sided polyhedron, which weighed 1,032 lbs. (469 kg.), from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 12, 1978. From its halo orbit 932,000 miles (1.5 million km.) from Earth, the satellite monitored the characteristics of solar phenomena about one hour before its companion satellites-ISEE-A and ISEE-B-observed the same phenomena from a much closer near-Earth orbit. The correlated measurements supported the work of 117 scientific investigators who were trying to get a better understanding of how the Sun controls Earth's near-space environment. The scientists represented 35 universities in 10 nations
Date 11/06/1976
NASA Center Goddard Space Flight Center
Endeavour on Runway with Col …
Title Endeavour on Runway with Columbia on SCA Overhead
Full Description The Space Shuttle Endeavour receives a high-flying salute from its sister Shuttle Columbia, atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, shortly after its landing Oct. 12, 1994 at Edwards, California, to complete mission STS-68. Columbia was being ferried from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida to Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, where it will undergo six months of inspections, modifications, and systems upgrades. The STS-68 11-day mission was devoted to radar imaging of Earth's geological features with the Space Radar Laboratory. The orbiter is surrounded by equipment and personnel that make up the ground support convoy that services the space vehicles as soon as they land.
Date 10/11/1994
NASA Center Dryden Flight Research Center
Endeavour with Columbia Ferr …
Title Endeavour with Columbia Ferry Flyby
Full Description The Space Shuttle Endeavour receives a high-flying salute from its sister shuttle, Columbia, atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, shortly after Endeavor's landing October 12 1994, at Edwards, California, to complete mission STS-68. Columbia was being ferried from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, to Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, where it will undergo six months of inspections, modifications, and systems upgrades. The STS-68 11-day mission was devoted to radar imaging of Earth's geological features with the Space Radar Laboratory. The orbiter is surrounded by equipment and personnel that make up the ground support convoy that services the space vehicles as soon as they land.
Date 10/12/1994
NASA Center Dryden Flight Research Center
Engineers checkout Early Bir …
Title Engineers checkout Early Bird-Communication Satellite
Full Description Engineers Stanley R. Peterson (left) and Ray Bowerman (right), checkout the Early Bird, the world's first communication satellite. NASA launched the satellite built by Hughes Aircraft Corporation on April 6, 1955 at 6:48pm E.S.T. from Complex 17a at Cape Kennedy, Florida. Early Bird was built for the Communications Satellite Corporation and weighed about 85 pounds after being placed in a synchronous orbit of 22,300 miles above the earth. It was positioned over the Atlantic to provide 240 two-way telephone channels or 2-way television between Europe and North America. The outer surface of Early Bird was covered with 6,000 silicon-coated solar cells, which absorbed the sun's rays to provide power to the satellite for its intricate transmitting and receiving equipment.
Date 11/05/1984
NASA Center Headquarters
Female Astronauts
Title Female Astronauts
Full Description Astronauts Dr. N. Jan Davis (left) and Dr. Mae C. Jemison (right) were mission specialists on board the STS-47 mission. Born on November 1, 1953 in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Dr. N. Jan Davis received a Master degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1983 followed by a Doctorate in Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1985. In 1979 she joined NASA Marshall Space Flight Center as an aerospace engineer. A veteran of three space flights, Dr. Davis has logged over 678 hours in space since becoming an astronaut in 1987. She flew as a mission specialist on STS-47 in 1992 and STS-60 in 1994, and was the payload commander on STS-85 in 1997. In July 1999, she transferred to the Marshall Space Flight Center, where she became Director of Flight Projects. Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, was born on October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama but considers Chicago, Illinois her hometown. She received a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering (and completed the requirements for a Bachelor degree in African and Afro-American studies) at Stanford University in 1977, and a Doctorate degree in medicine from Cornell University in 1981. After receiving her doctorate, she worked as a General Practitioner while attending graduate engineering classes in Los Angeles. She was named an astronaut candidate in 1987, and flew her first flight as a science mission specialists on STS-47, Spacelab-J, in September 1992, logging 190 hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds in space. In March 1993, Dr. Jemison resigned from NASA, thought she still resides in Houston, Texas. She went on to publish her memoirs, Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life, in 2001. The astronauts are shown preparing to deploy the lower body negative pressure (LBNP) apparatus in this 35mm frame taken in the science module aboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Endeavor. Fellow astronauts Robert L. Gibson (Commander), Curtis L. Brown (Junior Pilot), Mark C. Lee (Payload Commander), Jay Apt (Mission Specialist), and Mamoru Mohri (Payload Specialist) joined the two on their maiden space flight. The Spacelab-J mission was a joint effort between Japan and the United States.
Date 09/15/1992
NASA Center Johnson Space Center
First Class of Female Astron …
Title First Class of Female Astronauts
Full Description From left to right are Shannon W. Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher, and Sally K. Ride. NASA selected all six women as their first female astronaut candidates in January 1978, allowing them to enroll in a training program that they completed in August 1979. Shannon W. Lucid was born on January 14, 1943 in Shanghai, China but considers Bethany, Oklahoma to be her hometown. She spent many years at the University of Oklahoma, receiving a Bachelor in chemistry in 1963, a Master in biochemistry in 1970, and a Doctorate in biochemistry in 1973. Dr. Lucid flew on the STS-51G Discovery, STS-34 Atlantis, STS-43 Atlantis, and STS-58 Columbia shuttle missions, setting the record for female astronauts by logging 838 hours and 54 minutes in space. She also currently holds the United States single mission space flight endurance record for her 188 days on the Russian Space Station Mir. From February 2002 to September 2003, she served as chief scientist at NASA Headquarters before returning to JSC to help with the Return to Flight program after the STS-107 accident. Born November 8, 1947, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Margaret Rhea Seddon received a Doctorate of Medicine in 1973 from the University of Tennessee. She flew on space missions STS-51 Discovery, STS-40 Columbia, and STS-58 Columbia for a total of over 722 hours in space. Dr. Seddon retired from NASA in November 1997, taking on a position as the Assistant Chief Medical Officer of the Vanderbilt Medical Group in Nashville, Tennessee. Kathryn Sullivan was born October 3, 1951 in Patterson, New Jersey but considers Woodland Hills, California to be her hometown. She received a Bachelor in Earth Sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1973 and a Doctorate in Geology from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1978. She flew on space missions STS-41G, STS-31, and STS-45 and logged a total of 532 hours in space. Dr. Sullivan left NASA in August 1992 to assume the position of Chief Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She later went on to serve as President and CEO of the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Judith Resnik was born April 5, 1949 in Akron, Ohio. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1970, and a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland in 1977. Dr. Resnik left a job as a senior systems engineer in product development with Xerox Corporation at El Segundo, California to work for NASA in 1978. She died on January 28, 1986 on her second mission, during the launch of Challenger STS-51-L. Anna Fisher was born August 24, 1949 in New York City, New York hometown. She received a Doctorate in Medicine in 1976 and a Master of Science in Chemistry in 1987, both from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Fisher flew on STS-51A, the Space Shuttle Discovery's November 8, 1984, mission, and logged 192 hours in space, her second schedule mission was cancelled after the Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51L accident. She remains with NASA, where she has filled many positions over decades of service. Dr. Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. Born on May 26, 1951 in Los Angeles, California, she went on to receive a Bachelor in Physics and English in 1973 from Stanford University and, later, a Master in Physics in 1975 and a Doctorate in Physics in 1978, also from Stanford. She began her astronaut career as a mission specialist on STS-7, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on June 18, 1983, and later went on to fly on STS-41G. She withdrew from training for her third scheduled mission in order to serve on the investigative committee for the Space Shuttle Challenger accident and never returned to training, although she went on to work for headquarters and later to serve on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board before returning to the private sector as a physics professor.
Date 02/28/1979
NASA Center Johnson Space Center
Florida From Space
Title Florida From Space
Full Description Taken during the STS-95 mission from a point over Cuba, this photo shows an oblique, foreshortened view of the Florida Peninsula, with the light blue, shallow seafloor of both the Florida Keys (curving across the bottom of the view) and the Bahama banks (right). "Popcorn" cumulus cloud covers Miami and the Southern Everglades, although the built-up area from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach can be discerned. Lake Okeechobee is the prominent waterbody in Florida. Cape Canaveral is shown well, half way up the peninsula. Orlando appears as the lighter patch West (left) of Cape Canaveral, near the middle of the peninsula. Cape Hatteras appears top right, with the North part of Chesapeake Bay also visible. This is a visibility of 16 degrees of latitude (23 degrees N over Cuba to 39 degrees at Baltimore), showing unusual atmospheric clarity.
Date 10/31/1998
NASA Center Johnson Space Center
STS-66 Atlantis Landing and …
Title STS-66 Atlantis Landing and Chute Deployment at Edwards
Full Description The Space Shuttle Atlantis lands with its drag chute deployed on runway 22 at Edwards, California, to complete the STS-66 mission dedicated to the third flight of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science-3 (ATLAS-3), part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. The astronauts also deployed and retrieved a free-flying satellite designed to study the middle and lower thermospheres and perform a series of experiments covering life sciences research and microgravity processing. The landing was at 7:34 a.m. (PST) November 14, 1994, after being waved off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, due to adverse weather.
Date 11/14/1994
NASA Center Dryden Flight Research Center
STS-66 Atlantis Landing Appr …
Title STS-66 Atlantis Landing Approach at Edwards
Full Description The Space Shuttle Atlantis approaches runway 22 at Edwards, California, to complete the STS-66 mission dedicated to the third flight of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science-3 (ATLAS-3), part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. The astronauts also deployed and retrieved a free-flying satellite designed to study the middle and lower thermospheres and perform a series of experiments covering life sciences research and microgravity processing. The landing was at 7:34 a.m. (PST) November 14, 1994, after being waved off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, due to adverse weather.
Date 11/14/1994
NASA Center Dryden Flight Research Center
STS-66 Launch
Title STS-66 Launch
Full Description The 66th Space Shuttle flight begins with a nearly ontime liftoff of Space Shuttle Mission STS-66 into clear Florida skies. The orbiter Atlantis returned to space after an approximately two year absence with a liftoff from Launch Pad 39B at 11:59:43 a.m. EST, about four minutes after the launch window opened. The planned 11 day flight will continue NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, a comprehensive international collaboration to study how Earth's environment is changing and how human beings affect that change. Primary payloads for the last Shuttle flight of 1994 include the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-3), making its third flight, and the German built Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere Shuttle Pallet Satellite (CRISTA-SPAS), which will be deployed and later retrieved during the mission. Mission commander is Donald R. McMonagle, Curtis L. Brown Jr. is the pilot, Ellen Ochoa is the payload commander, and the three mission specialists are Joseph R. Tanner, Scott E. Parazynski, and Jean-Francois Clervoy, a French citizen who is with the European Space Agency.
Date 11/3/1994
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Television Infrared Observat …
Title Television Infrared Observation Satellite TIROS
Full Description Scientist giving a vibration test to TIROS, Television Infrared Observation Satellite, at the Astro-Electronic Products Division of RCA in Princeton, New Jersey. TIROS was NASA's first experimental step to determine if satellites could be useful to study the Earth. The first priority of the TIROS program was the development of a meteorological satellite information system. It provided the first accurate weather forecasts based on data gathered from space. The first TIROS was launched on April 1, 1960, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and was operational for 78 days. The satellite was designed and constructed by Radio Corporation of America (RCA) under the technical supervision of the U.S. Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory, Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey.
Date 4/1960
NASA Center Headquarters
Unloading Atlas Launch Vehic …
Title Unloading Atlas Launch Vehicle
Full Description The Atlas launch vehicle is shown being unloaded at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This vehicle was expected to launch a Mercury spacecraft (without any astronauts aboard), built by McDonnell Aircraft Corp., into orbit. The Atlas attempted to place the Mercury spacecraft into its first orbital flight. The spacecraft was supposed to be launched in an orbital flight path and reentry was to be initiated about 90 minutes later as the craft neared the end of the first orbit. Unfortunately, this Atlas exploded at launch. Atlas was designed to launch payloads into low Earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. NASA first launched Atlas as a space launch vehicle in 1958. Project SCORE, the first communications satellite that transmitted President Eisenhower's pre-recorded Christmas speech around the world, was launched on an Atlas. For all three robotic lunar exploration programs, Atlas was used. Atlas/ Centaur vehicles launched both Mariner and Pioneer planetary probes. The current operational Atlas II family has a 100% mission success rating. For more information about Atlas, please see Chapter 2 in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002.
Date 04/23/1961
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Launch of Mercury-Atlas
Title Launch of Mercury-Atlas
Full Description In this Project Mercury test, a spacecraft booster by a modified Atlas was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Mercury capsule reached a peak altitude of 107 statute miles and landed 1.425 miles down range. Atlas was designed to launch payloads into low Earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. NASA first launched Atlas as a space launch vehicle in 1958. Project SCORE, the first communications satellite that transmitted President Eisenhower's pre-recorded Christmas speech around the world, was launched on an Atlas. For all three robotic lunar exploration programs, Atlas was used. Atlas/ Centaur vehicles launched both Mariner and Pioneer planetary probes. The current operational Atlas II family has a 100% mission success rating. For more information about Atlas, please see Chapter 2 in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002 (in which Dennis Jenkins notes on page 98 that "as a space launch vehicle there is no question that Atlas has made a mark for itself, and a great deal of money for its manufacturers").
Date 02/21/1961
NASA Center Kennedy Space Center
Astronomers Use Innovative T …
Title Astronomers Use Innovative Technique to Find Extrasolar Planet
Astronomers Use Innovative T …
Title Astronomers Use Innovative Technique to Find Extrasolar Planet
First Map of Subsurface Flow …
Description First Map of Subsurface Flows in the Sun's Convection Zone This map provides the first view of an important part of the Sun's interior, the region call the convection zone. The convection zone lies directly beneath the photosphere, which forms the Sun's visible surface and effectively hides what is below. As a result, very little is known about the convection zone's internal structure, despite the fact that it is the source of sunspots, solar flares and most other forms of solar activity that affect Earth. "This map is important for two reasons," said team member Alexander G. Kosovichev, a senior research scientist at Stanford. "First, it gives us a new window into the solar interior. Second, it appears to provide support for one of two theories that have been proposed to explain the dynamics of this region." Kosovichev and Thomas L. Duvall, Jr., a scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD., reported the successful mapping effort on Tuesday, June 11, at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society held in Madison, Wis. Also collaborating on the project were Stanford physics research Professor Philip H. Scherrer and Peter N. Milford of Parallel rules Inc. of Los Gatos, Calif. The Scientists constructed the map using detailed data of the Sun's surface motion provided by an instrument called a doppler imager carried aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. SOHO is a $1.1 billion spacecraft that is a joint project of the European Space Agency and NASA. The observatory was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida last December and now has taken up a station 930,000 miles sunward from the Earth. Its mission is to provide new knowledge about the Sun, Earth's nearest star. Accordfing to current understanding, the Sun's interior is divided into threevery different regions: The core, which extends out about 100,000 miles for the Sun's center, contains about half of its mass and generates about 98 percent of its energy through processes of nuclear fusion. Next, there is a relatively stable radiative zone that conducts heat smoothly from the core to within 125,000 miles of the Sun's surface. Finally, there is the convection zone, where the Sun's gases boil much like water in a pot on the stove, forming giant cells of rising and falling gases that carry heat to the surface. Most knowledge about the Sun has come form studying the light emitted from the photosphere. Although the photosphere is only about 200 miles thick, it has proven very difficult for scientists to pierce its fiery veil. In the last 30 years, solar scientists have developed a technique called global helioseismology, which uses low-pitched sound waves to study the Sun's deep interior. This method has allowed researchers to measure limportant properties of the solar interior, such as temperature and rotational variation. But it has not provided much information about the convection layer. The Michelson Doppler Imager on board SOHO, built by Stanford and, Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory, measures lthe vertical motion of the Sun's surface at a million different points once a minute. The researchers used this information to calculate the time it takes sounds to travel between many different points on the solar surface. Because the paths of these sound waves loop down into the interior, the scientists can use this information to map the temperature and flow patterns beneath the surface. "We can do this by using a maghematical technique similar to that used in computer-aided tomography to produce CAT scans," Duvall said. Thus, after a solid week of number crunching on a supercomputer, the researchers were able to reconstruct a picture of the three-dimensional flows in a volume at the Sun's equator that extends for 110,000 miles horizontally and penetrates to a depth of 4,800 miles below the photosphere. Additional observations at other times and locations are needed to determine whether the features that the map reveals are characteristic, the scientists stress. Nevertheless, it provides a tantalizing first view of how the convection zone is organized internally. For example, the map provides the first direct evidence for the depth of the features called granuled, which cover the face of the Sun and are typically about 1,000 miles across. Granules typically are organized into larger domaine called supergranules that average about 15,000 miles across. Theoretical calculations predicted that supergranule thickness should be between 25 and 30 percent of their width. But the mapping effort suggests that they are shaped more like pancakes, with a thickness only one-tenth of their width. More significantly, the new map shows no evidence of giant convection cells that had been predicted by a popular theory called the global circulation model, the scientists said. It does, however, show evidence of narrow plumes of cooler gases streaming downward toward the boundary with the radiative layer - a view consistent with the result of some numerical simulations of the region. According to the simulations, these plumes extend all the way down to the boundary between the convective and radiative zones. When the material in the plumes plunges into the radiative zone, it may create the magnetic loops that produce the fiery flares that rise above the Sun's surface and that are intimately involved in the formation of sunspots. Surprisingly, however, the plumes appear to originate from the middle of the supergranuled, rather than at their edges as had been proposed. Onboard SOHO, the doppler imager has begun a continuous, 60-day observing program. This will allow the researchers to make a "movie" of this part of the convection zone so that they can observe how its structure changes over time.
Landsat 7 Looks at Coral Ree …
Title Landsat 7 Looks at Coral Reefs: (1 of 2)
Abstract Coral forms off shore from volcanic islands in tropical latitudes, developing a barrier reef that's separated by a growing lagoon.But over time, while the surrounding ocean wears away the main body of the island, the coral ring remains.
Completed 2000-10-23
Hurricane Frances Progressio …
Title Hurricane Frances Progression with a Fixed View
Abstract A fixed view of the Atlantic Ocean with Hurricane Frances sprinting towards Florida
Completed 2004-09-07
Hurricane Frances Progressio …
Title Hurricane Frances Progression with a Fixed View
Abstract A fixed view of the Atlantic Ocean with Hurricane Frances sprinting towards Florida
Completed 2004-09-07
Hurricane Frances Progressio …
Title Hurricane Frances Progression with a Fixed View
Abstract A fixed view of the Atlantic Ocean with Hurricane Frances sprinting towards Florida
Completed 2004-09-07
Hurricane Frances Progressio …
Title Hurricane Frances Progression with a Fixed View
Abstract A fixed view of the Atlantic Ocean with Hurricane Frances sprinting towards Florida
Completed 2004-09-07
Hurricane Frances Progressio …
Title Hurricane Frances Progression with a Fixed View
Abstract A fixed view of the Atlantic Ocean with Hurricane Frances sprinting towards Florida
Completed 2004-09-07
Hurricane Frances Progressio …
Title Hurricane Frances Progression with a Fixed View
Abstract A fixed view of the Atlantic Ocean with Hurricane Frances sprinting towards Florida
Completed 2004-09-07
Hurricane Frances Progressio …
Title Hurricane Frances Progression with a Fixed View
Abstract A fixed view of the Atlantic Ocean with Hurricane Frances sprinting towards Florida
Completed 2004-09-07
Hurricane Frances Progressio …
Title Hurricane Frances Progression with a Fixed View
Abstract A fixed view of the Atlantic Ocean with Hurricane Frances sprinting towards Florida
Completed 2004-09-07
Hurricane Frances Progressio …
Title Hurricane Frances Progression with a Fixed View
Abstract A fixed view of the Atlantic Ocean with Hurricane Frances sprinting towards Florida
Completed 2004-09-07
Tropical Storm Allison Progr …
Title Tropical Storm Allison Progression (WMS)
Abstract Tropical Storm Allison began just five days into the 2001 hurricane season. Allison formed in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and dumped an enormous amount of rain on Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and other states in the southeastern United States.
Completed 2004-03-11
National Map Showing Habitat …
Title National Map Showing Habitat Suitability for Tamarisk Invasion
Abstract The spread of invasive species is one of the most daunting environmental, economic, and human-health problems facing the United States and the World today. It is one of several grand challenge environmental problems being addressed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate through a national application partnership with the US Geological Survey. NASA and USGS are working together to develop a National Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) for the management and control of invasive species on Department of Interior and adjacent lands. The system provides a framework for using USGS's early detection and monitoring protocols and predictive models to process MODIS, ETM+, ASTER and commercial remote sensing data, to create on-demand, regional-scale assessments of invasive species likely habitats. Recent work on the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) project has shown the importance of remotely-sensed time-series data in geostatistical models for mapping the distribution of Tamarisk and other invasive plant species. This video shows the habitat suitability for a Tamarisk invasion in the continental United States. Red indicates areas that are highly suitable and yellow indicates areas which are less suitable. Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada are the most highly suitable states. Utah and Arizona have the next greatest risk. California, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, Wyoming, and Florida also have a significant risk.
Completed 2005-10-18
National Map Showing Habitat …
Title National Map Showing Habitat Suitability for Tamarisk Invasion
Abstract The spread of invasive species is one of the most daunting environmental, economic, and human-health problems facing the United States and the World today. It is one of several grand challenge environmental problems being addressed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate through a national application partnership with the US Geological Survey. NASA and USGS are working together to develop a National Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) for the management and control of invasive species on Department of Interior and adjacent lands. The system provides a framework for using USGS's early detection and monitoring protocols and predictive models to process MODIS, ETM+, ASTER and commercial remote sensing data, to create on-demand, regional-scale assessments of invasive species likely habitats. Recent work on the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS) project has shown the importance of remotely-sensed time-series data in geostatistical models for mapping the distribution of Tamarisk and other invasive plant species. This video shows the habitat suitability for a Tamarisk invasion in the continental United States. Red indicates areas that are highly suitable and yellow indicates areas which are less suitable. Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada are the most highly suitable states. Utah and Arizona have the next greatest risk. California, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, Wyoming, and Florida also have a significant risk.
Completed 2005-10-18
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