Astronaut Launch Preparations

Images of astronauts in orange launch suits, preparing for space missions with a focus on their expressions and suit fittings.

JSC2007-E-33315 (4 May 2007) --- Astronaut Tracy E. Caldwell, mission specialist alternate portrait
JSC2007-E-33315 (4 May 2007) --- Astronaut Tracy E. Caldwell, mission specialist alternate portrait
127 assets in this story
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Day In The Life of Artemis Employees
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S94-E-5004 (5 July 1997) --- Astronaut Susan L. Still, at the pilot's station on the Space Shuttle Columbia's forward flight deck, works at a lap top computer.
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NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins speaks to members of the media after arriving at the Launch and Landing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center with fellow crewmates NASA astronauts Robert Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti ahead of SpaceXs Crew-4 mission, Monday, April 18, 2022, in Florida. NASAs SpaceX Crew-4 mission is the fourth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agencys Commercial Crew Program. Lindgren, Hines, Watkins, and Cristoforetti are scheduled to launch at April 23 at 5:26 a.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
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NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins poses for a portrait, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, in the Blue Flight Control Room at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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jsc2020e049706_alt (Nov. 30, 2020) --- NASA astronaut and SpaceX Crew-3 Mission Specialist Kayla Barron poses for a portrait at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
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PHOTO DATE: 11-16-12LOCATION: Bldg. 9NW - ISS Mockups SUBJECT: Expedition 41/42 crew members Barry Wilmore, Terry Virts and Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti during ISS Joint AL Hardware training in the ISS mockups.
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NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor gives a brief on the current NASA astronaut corps at a bipartisan Congressional Caucus for Womens Issues event on NASAs Artemis lunar exploration program, Wednesday, September 11, 2019 at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- STS-114 Mission Commander Eileen Collins tries out one of the seats in the Rubber Room. Located under the launch pad, the steel dome Rubber Room floats on rubber isolators. It was the escape area used during the Apollo launches and it could not be removed when the pad was modified for the Shuttle. In case of an emergency on the pad, the astronauts would slide down the long vertical tube to the Rubber Room, strap themselves into the seats and wait for the danger to clear. The STS-114 mission is Logistics Flight 1, which is scheduled to deliver supplies and equipment plus the external stowage platform to the International Space Station.
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NASAs SpaceX Crew-5 Employee Engagement Event. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann answers questions during an employee engagement event Monday, June 5, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. Mann, Cassada, and Wakata spent 157 days in space as part of Expedition 68 aboard the International Space Station.
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ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and Expedition 67 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti checks out a camera inside the International Space Station's "window to the world," the seven-windowed cupola.
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STS-84 Mission Specialist Elena V. Kondakova of the Russian Space Agency rides in an M-113 armored personnel carrier as part of the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities. Her nickname on this mission is Betty Sue. STS-84 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis will be the sixth docking of the Space Shuttle with the Russian Space Station Mir. After docking, STS-84 Mission Specialist C. Michael Foale will transfer to the space station and become a member of the Mir 23 crew, replacing U.S. astronaut Jerry M. Linenger, who will return to Earth aboard Atlantis. Foale will live and work on Mir until mid-September when his replacement is expected to arrive on the STS-86 mission. STS-84 is targeted for a May 15 liftoff
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STS-99 Mission Specialist Janice Voss (Ph.D.) looks happy after landing at KSC aboard a T-38 jet aircraft to prepare for launch of Endeavour Jan. 31 at 12:47 p.m. EST. Over the next few days, the crew will review mission procedures, conduct test flights in the Shuttle Training Aircraft and undergo routine preflight medical exams. STS-99 is the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which will chart a new course, using two antennae and a 200-foot-long section of space station-derived mast protruding from the payload bay to produce unrivaled 3-D images of the Earth's surface. The result of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission could be close to 1 trillion measurements of the Earth's topography. Besides contributing to the production of better maps, these measurements could lead to improved water drainage modeling, more realistic flight simulators, better locations for cell phone towers, and enhanced navigation safety
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STS-81 Mission Specialist Marsha S. Ivins gets a helping hand from a suit technician as she prepares to don the helmet of her launch/entry suit in the suitup room of the Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building. She is the veteran of three Shuttle flights and became an astronaut in 1984. Among other responsibilities, Ivins will perform photo and video surveys of the Russian Mir space station and operate the Kidsat experiment camera on the orbiters aft flight deck. She and five crew members will shortly depart the O&C and head for Launch Pad 39B, where the Space Shuttle Atlantis will lift off during a 7-minute window that opens at 4:27 a.m. EST, January 12
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Teri McKinney, with Shuttle Crew Escape, Johnson Space Center, holds a replica of the Olympic torch carried aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-101. The addition of the torch to the payload was coordinated by astronaut Andy Thomas, who is from Australia. The torch will travel to Australia for the 2000 Olympic games being held there in September. . STS-101 was the third flight to the International Space Station and included repairs to the Station plus transfer of equipment and supplies to the Station for future missions. The landing of Atlantis completed a 9-day, 20-hour, 9-minute-long mission. It was the 98th flight in the Space Shuttle program and the 21st for Atlantis. The landing was the 51st at KSC, the 22nd consecutive landing at KSC and the 29th in the last 30 Shuttle flights, plus the 14th nighttime landing in Shuttle history
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Tammy Long, NASA Communicaions, moderates a Mars 2020 Mission Tech and Humans to Mars Briefing at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 28, 2020. The Mars Perseverance rover is scheduled to launch July 30, on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rover is part of NASAs Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The rover will search for habitable conditions in the ancient past and signs of past microbial life on Mars. The Launch Services Program at Kennedy is responsible for launch management.
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STS-131 TCDT - CREW ARRIVAL
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STS-131 TCDT - CREW ARRIVAL
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STS-98 Mission Specialist Marsha Ivins arrives at the Shuttle Landing Facility in a T-38 jet aircraft. She and other crew members Commander Ken Cockrell, Pilot Mark Polansky and Mission Specialists Robert Curbeam and Thomas Jones have returned to KSC to prepare for their launch to the International Space Station. The seventh construction flight to the Space Station, STS-98 will carry the U.S. Laboratory Destiny, a key module for space experiments. The 11-day mission includes three spacewalks to complete outside assembly and connection of electrical and plumbing lines between the laboratory, Station and a relocated Shuttle docking port. STS-98 is Ivins fifth space flight. Launch is targeted for Feb. 7 at 6 11 p.m. EST
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Expedition 40 backup crew member Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti answers a question during a press conference, Tuesday, May 27, 2014, at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Expedition 40 Soyuz Commander Maxim Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, ESA, and Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman of NASA will launch aboard their Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft on their mission to the International Space Station in the early hours of May 29.
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NASAs SpaceX Crew-4 Employee Engagement Event. NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins speaks about her time onboard the International Space Station during an employee engagement event, Tuesday, March 28, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. Watkins, and fellow crewmates NASA astronauts Robert Hines and Kjell Lindgren spent 170 days in space as part of Expeditions 67 and 68 aboard the International Space Station.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- STS-120 Commander Pam Melroy addresses the media following the arrival of the STS-120 crew at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility aboard T-38 jet aircraft. The crew is at Kennedy to take part in terminal countdown demonstration test activities and also includes Pilot George Zamka and Mission Specialists Paolo Nespoli, Doug Wheelock, Stephanie Wilson, Scott Parazynski and Daniel Tani, who will remain of the International Space Station as a member of the Expedition 16 crew. The terminal countdown demonstration test provides astronauts and ground crews an opportunity to participate in various simulated countdown activities, including equipment familiarization and emergency training. The STS-120 mission will deliver the U.S. Node 2 module, named Harmony, aboard space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station. Launch of Discovery on mission STS-120 is targeted for Oct. 23 at 11:38 a.m. EDT on a 14-day mission to the International
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In the Kennedy Space Centers Press Site auditorium, Capt. Laura Godoy, launch weather officer of the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron, speaks to members of the media at a prelaunch news conference for Orbital ATK CRS-6 commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station.
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At the Skid Strip at the Cape Canaveral Air Station, Commander Eileen Collins and her daughter, Bridget Youngs, prepare to board an aircraft for their return flight to Houston following the completion of the STS-93 Space Shuttle mission. Landing occurred on runway 33 at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility on July 27 with main gear touchdown at 11:20:35 p.m. EDT. The mission's primary objective was to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which will allow scientists from around the world to study some of the most distant, powerful and dynamic objects in the universe. This was the 95th flight in the Space Shuttle program and the 26th for Columbia. The landing was the 19th consecutive Shuttle landing in Florida and the 12th night landing in Shuttle program history. On this mission, Collins became the first woman to serve as a Shuttle commander
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Student Launch Initiative participants launch their rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama
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NASA astronaut Suni Williams wears Boeing's new spacesuit designed to be worn by astronauts flying on the CST-100 Starliner. The suit is lighter and more flexible than previous spacesuits but retains the ability to pressurize in an emergency. Astronauts will wear the suit throughout the launch and ascent into orbit as well as on the way back to Earth. Starliners will launch atop Atlas V rockets from United Launch Alliance on missions including flights to the International Space Station for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. NASA's commercial crew astronauts Eric Boe and Williams tried on the suits at Boeings Commercial Crew and Cargo Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center. Boe, Williams, Bob Behnken, and Doug Hurley were selected by NASA in July 2015 to train for commercial crew test flights aboard the Starliner and SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecraft. The flight assignments have not been set, so all four of the astronauts are rehearsing heavily for flights aboard both vehicles.
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. jsc2023e018213 (April 3, 2023) - NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson sings the national anthem before the NCAA Mens Final Four national championship game at NRG Stadium in Houston, where the Artemis II astronauts were introduced. 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 NASAs path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis.