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NASA Transport Aircraft Operations

Images showcasing various NASA aircraft and transport operations, including cargo loading and spacecraft deliveries at Kennedy Space Center.

USA, Arizona, Tucson, PIMA Air and Space Museum. Aero Spacelines 377-SG Super Guppy nose
USA, Arizona, Tucson, PIMA Air and Space Museum. Aero Spacelines 377-SG Super Guppy nose
247 assets in this story
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010203-F-5009P-019. Base: Ahmedabad State: Gujarat Country: India (IND)
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A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket booster is transported to the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket is scheduled to launch the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-M. It will be the latest spacecraft destined for the agency's constellation of communications satellites that allows nearly continuous contact with orbiting spacecraft ranging from the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope to the array of scientific observatories. Liftoff atop the ULA Atlas V rocket is scheduled to take place from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 41 on Aug. 3, 2017 at 9:02 a.m. EDT.
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Under heavy cloud cover a C-141C Starlifter, from March Air Reserve Base, California, is uploaded. The aircraft will transport the cargo load from Christchurch, New Zealand, to McMurdo Station in Antarctica during Operation DEEP FREEZE 2001. Subject Operation/Series: DEEP FREEZE 2001 Base: Christchurch State: Canterbury Country: New Zealand (NZL) Scene Major Command Shown: AMC
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Workers unload a container holding the cruise stage, one of the first three elements for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) that arrived at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility aboard an Air Force C-17 cargo plane. The cruise stage, back shell and heat shield, the first flight elements to arrive for the MSL mission, were taken to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) located in the KSC Industrial Area to begin processing. The Curiosity rover will arrive next month.A United Launch Alliance Atlas V-541 configuration will be used to loft MSL into space. Curiositys 10 science instruments are designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including chemical ingredients for life. The unique rover will use a laser to look inside rocks and release its gasses so that the rovers spectrometer can analyze and send the data back to Earth. MSL is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Dr. Kelly Falkner, Director of the National Science Foundation's Polar Programs Division, outside a C-17 cargo plane at Christchurch International Airport in Christchurch, New Zealand, on November 11, 2016, before they make a five-hour flight to Antarctica and a planned onward flight to the South Pole.
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. The NASA Mobile Operations Facility sports new decals while parked at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California on July 20, 2022. This vehicle, also known as the MOF, is a mission control and data collection center on wheels. NASA's Advanced Air Mobility project uses it for testing.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A barge has arrived at the U.S. Army Outpost wharf at Port Canaveral in Florida, carrying the second stage, port booster and spacecraft adapter, the remaining stages for the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy boosters for NASAs upcoming Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1, mission with the Orion spacecraft. They are being offloaded in their containers for transport to the Horizontal Integration Facility, or HIF, at Space Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.At the HIF, all three booster stages will be processed and checked out before being moved to the nearby launch pad and hoisted into position. The spacecraft adapter will connect Orion to the ULA Delta IV, and also will connect Orion to NASA's new rocket, the Space Launch System, on its first mission in 2017. During the EFT-1 mission, Orion will travel farther into space than any human spacecraft has gone in more than 40 years. The data gathered during the flight will influence design de
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The Space Shuttle Endeavour OV-105 (Orbiter Vehicle-105), the fifth shuttle manufactured for NASA, displayed during roll out ceremonies attended by a large crowd of officials and the public at Rockwell International's Air Force Plant 42, Site 1, at Palmdale. Exact Date Shot Unknown. State: California (CA) Country: United States Of America (USA)
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VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- A closeup of Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket for NASAs Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft as it is enroute to the ramp on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. There, the rocket will be attached to Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft for launch. IBEX is targeted for launch from the Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, on Oct. 19. IBEX will be launched aboard the Pegasus rocket dropped from under the wing of the L-1011 aircraft flying over the Pacific Ocean. The Pegasus will carry the spacecraft approximately 130 miles above Earth and place it in orbit. The IBEX satellite will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Cranes remove a full-size replica of a space shuttle external fuel tank from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as the space-themed attraction makes way for a new exhibit featuring space shuttle Atlantis, which is currently undergoing preparations to go on public display. The tank is being placed into temporary storage at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The tank was part of a mockup of the external tank and two solid rocket boosters at the visitor complex that were used to show visitors the size of actual space shuttle components. A space shuttle rode piggyback on the tank and boosters at liftoff and during the ascent into space. The tank, which held propellants for the shuttle's three main engines, was not reused, but burned up in the atmosphere and fell into the ocean.
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Airbus A330-743L Beluga XL, wide-body aircraft on the airport tarmac, Airbus Transport International, ILA Berlin Air Show, Berlin International Aerospace Exhibition, Schoenefeld, Brandenburg, Brandenburg, Germany, Europe
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jsc2020e044851 (Nov. 8, 2020) --- SpaceX Crew-1 crewmates (from left) Shannon Walker, Soichi Noguchi, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins board their jet at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, before departing to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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Wreck of an airplane stranded
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AF-2, Major Ryan "Gunner" Reinhardt, Pattern Work & Taxi, 28 November 2012
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Carried atop an orbiter transporter, the Space Shuttle orbiter Atlantis rolls out of Orbiter Processing Facility Bay 3, in background, en route to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). This photo was taken from the roof of the VAB. The "rollover" of the orbiter is one of the prelaunch milestones. Atlantis is being readied for the next mission, STS-86, which is targeted for a September launch. STS-86 will be the seventh of nine planned dockings of the Space Shuttle orbiter with the Russian Space Station Mir
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At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket is transported from the hangar at Building 1555 to be mated to L-1011 carrier aircraft near Vandenberg's runway. On board Pegasus are eight NASA Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System, or CYGNSS, spacecraft. When preparations are competed at Vandenberg, the L-1011/Pegasus XL combination will be flown to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On Dec. 12, 2016, the carrier aircraft is scheduled to take off from the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and CYGNSS will launch on the Pegasus XL rocket with the L-1011 flying off shore. CYGNSS satellites will make frequent and accurate measurements of ocean surface winds throughout the life cycle of tropical storms and hurricanes. The data that CYGNSS provides will enable scientists to probe key air-sea interaction processes that take place near the core of storms, which are rapidly changing and play a critical role in the beginning and intensification
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Cruise Ships - 26-HK-114-23. Hurricane Katrina
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The Artemis I Orion crew module pressure vessel is loaded on NASA's Super Guppy plane in New Orleans for transport to Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 1, 2016. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.
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Landing gear, Airbus A380, Emirates Airline, 22. 06. 2005. ILA International Aerospace Exhibition Berlin, Schoenefeld, Brandenburg, Germany, Europe
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NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, and Russian Search and Recovery Forces deploy from Karaganda to Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan in advance of the landing of Expedition 57 crew members Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos. Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018. Auñón-Chancellor, Gerst, and Prokopyev are returning after 197 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 56 and 57 crews onboard the International Space Station.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the ground support equipment (GSE) is offloaded from the Antonov aircraft. The GSE will be used for processing the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) spacecraft to get it ready for launch. CALIPSO was offloaded earlier. CALIPSO will fly in combination with the CloudSat satellite to provide never-before-seen 3-D perspectives of how clouds and aerosols form, evolve, and affect weather and climate. CALIPSO and CloudSat will join three other satellites in orbit to enhance understanding of climate systems. The launch date for CALIPSO_CloudSat is no earlier than Aug. 22.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - External tank 120 is moved from NASA Kennedy Space Centers Vehicle Assembly Building to the Turn Basin and the waiting barge Pegasus. The tank will be loaded onto the barge for transport to NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana for additional modifications. Previously, the tank was stacked with Discovery and, more recently, Atlantis. The tank has already gone through two tanking cycles during tanking tests but was replaced with tank #121 for Discoverys return to flight mission STS-114.
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Sierra Nevada Corporations (SNC) Dream Chaser pressure test article arrives by flatbed truck at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 3, 2020, from Louisville, Colorado. It will be transported to the high bay in the Space Station Processing Facility. The test article is similar to the actual pressurized cabin being used in the Dream Chaser spaceplane for Commercial Resupply Services-2 (CRS-2) missions. NASA selected Dream Chaser to provide cargo delivery, return and disposal service for the International Space Station under the CRS-2 contract. The test article will remain at Kennedy while SNC engineers use it to develop and verify refurbishment operations that will be used on Dream Chaser between flights.
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Aerial view, transporting aircraft, Guppy, airport Hamburg-Finkenwerder, Hamburg, Germany, Europe
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Two new Airbus H135 (T3) helicopters arrive at the Launch and Landing Facility runway at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 30, 2020. The H135 helicopters will replace the Bell Huey 2 security aircraft in service now, maintained by Kennedys Flight Operations team. These new helicopters provide a number of technological and safety advantages over the Hueys, such as more lifting power, greater stability in the air, and expanded medical capabilities. The team expects to fully transition to flying the two H135s later this year. A third is expected to arrive in early 2021, and with its arrival, will complete the fleets upgrade.
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A firefighter at Roberts Field examines a Tu-154C cargo aircraft from the Soviet national airline Aeroflot as the aircraft straddles a ditch about 200 meters past the end of the runway. The aircraft skidded into the ditch after a failed takeoff attempt. Base: Monrovia Country: Liberia (LBR)
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Aerial view of rows of decommissioned aircraft glinting under the Arizona sun at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base boneyard, Tucson, Arizona, United States.
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Crawler Transporter-2 (CT-2) is seen outside the gates at Launch Pad 39B as teams configure systems for rolling NASAs Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA is foregoing a launch opportunity on Tues. Sept. 27 and continues to watch the weather forecast associated with Tropical Storm Ian. The NASAs Artemis I flight test is the first integrated test of the agencys deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and supporting ground systems.
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Two men stand posing outside a blimp in Northern Alaska; North Slope, Alaska, United States of America
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A Row Of Rv's.
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The Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft is rolled out to the launch pad by train on Friday, Nov. 21, 2014 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for Nov. 24 and will carry Expedition 42 Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA , and Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency into orbit to begin their five and a half month mission on the International Space Station.
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Air show attendees wander the flight line filled with static display aircraft during the Thunder and Lightning Over Arizona Air Show at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., March 26, 2023. The airshow was open to the public as a way to connect the base and local community while also highlighting the mission and capabilities of the U.S. Air Force.
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Europe, Iceland, aeroplane wreck on the beach, Iceland, Europe
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a worker walks alongside the crawler-transporter as it carries space shuttle Endeavour to Launch Pad 39A. The 3.4-mile journey was slower than usual as technicians stopped several times to clear mud from the crawler's treads and bearings caused by the waterlogged crawlerway. First motion out of the Vehicle Assembly Building was at 2:07 a.m. EDT Aug. 4. Rollout was delayed approximately 2 hours due to lightning in the area. Discovery's 13-day flight will deliver a new crew member and 33,000 pounds of equipment to the International Space Station. The equipment includes science and storage racks, a freezer to store research samples, a new sleeping compartment and the COLBERT treadmill. Launch of Discovery on its STS-128 mission is targeted for late August.
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Wide shot of a series of Spanish land vehicles on a wet tarmac.
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The Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) on Cudjoe Key, Florida, is grounded due to stormy weather in the area.
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Europe, Iceland, aeroplane wreck on the beach, Iceland, Europe
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United Space Alliance technicians work on the mate-demate device checking the forward attach point between the space shuttle Endeavour and NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA.The SCA, a modified 747 jetliner, will fly Endeavour to Los Angeles where it will be placed on public display at the California Science Center. This is the final ferry flight scheduled in the Space Shuttle Program era.
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The rear of a solar powered tuc tuc, with the text Thailand
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The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft is seen as it arrives at the launch pad Monday, Dec. 13, 2010 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz is scheduled to launch the crew of Expedition 26 on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010.
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Eurocopter AS 350 flying over Hamburg's exhibition centre grounds, Hamburg, Germany, Europe
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phaeno science centre
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Aeroplane, Singapore airlines plane preparing to take off from runaway of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport terminal of Bombay Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Copyright: xManoejxPaateel/DinodiaxPhotox
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Republic Shivaji park Mumbai Maharashtra India Asia Copyright: xRxModi/DinodiaxPhotox
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Taurus weapon system, air-to-ground cruise missile of the Bundeswehr, version KEPD-350 with tandem warhead, cruise missiles. ILA Berlin Air Show, International Aerospace Exhibition, Schoenefeld, Brandenburg, Germany, Europe
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NRP partnerships Airship Ventures Zeppelin Dedication ceremony at Moffett Field Flight Line, Moffett Field, CA Wolfgang Von Zeppelin speaks at dedication.