Space Exploration Milestones

Historic moments in space exploration, including launches, planetary encounters, and cosmic phenomena, depicted with dramatic visuals and archival footage.

Solar Flare
Solar Flare
136 assets in this story
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3D rendering heat red cracked ground texture after eruption volcano
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Volcano, lava, activate volcano, volcan ** volcano, lava, Active Volcano, Volcanos, Lavas, Active Volcanos 539-N5C
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The Space Shuttle Discovery night launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday Dec, 9.
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Burning Wreckage of Model Saturn V Rocket
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View of separated lightning strokes in a cloud-to-ground lightning strike over city at night. This picture of scientific interest was made possible by zooming a photographic lens during the full interval of the lightning flash, thereby separating and recording on film each electrical stroke contained within the strike. And the effect of zooming records the city lights as streaks across the film. Tucson, Arizona, USA.
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USA, New Mexico, Albuquerque, Hot air balloon pilot testing propane burners prior to flight
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A lightning strike is recorded at Launch Complex 39B at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida in March 2014. The event was captured by high-speed cameras stationed at the pad and mobile launcher. At pad 39B, there are three, 600-foot-tall masts with overhead wires used to transmit electrical energy around the perimeter of the pad to provide lightning protection for launch vehicles as they are processed and launched from the pad.
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Photography negative background 2. Resolution and high quality beautiful photo
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View of separated lightning strokes in a cloud-to-ground lightning strike over city at night, clearly visible in the upper portion of the flash on the left. This picture of scientific interest was made possible by zooming a photographic lens during the full interval of the lightning flash, thereby separating and recording on film each electrical stroke contained within the strike. The effect of zooming records the city lights as streaks across the film. Tucson, Arizona, USA.
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Vandenberg, AFB, California - Sequence of five exposures showing Titan I silo launch from ignition, emergence and lift-off.
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iss062e140329 (April 8, 2020) --- The "aurora australis" is pictured near the southern-most point of the International Space Station's orbital trek above the Indian Ocean.
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Isaac Weld, 1774-1856, Irish, Vesuvius, ca. 1818. Watercolor and graphite on medium, moderately textured, blued white, laid paper.
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Aerial View Of UFO Crash Site
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Humanoid Plasma Creation
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A lightning strike was recorded at Launch Complex 39B at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 10, 2022. NASAs Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft atop the mobile launcher are on the launch pad in preparation for the Artemis I mission. The lightning strike was recorded by cameras stationed at the pad and mobile launcher using a special filter called a “clear day frame,” which provides an overlay of the raw frame on a reference image. Artemis I will be the first integrated test of the SLS and Orion spacecraft. In later missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first woman of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.
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Tear in Solar Array Wing
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LA PALMA: EL ULTIMO VOLCAN (2022), directed by DESIREE HERNANDEZ and CESAR ARMAS.
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Tectonic formations and processes, illustration
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Crowds of spectators watch from Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 2, 2019, as a Northrop Grumman provided booster launches from Launch Pad 46 carrying, a fully functional Launch Abort System with a test version of Orion attached for NASAs Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2). Launch time was 7 a.m. EDT. During AA-2, the booster will send the LAS and Orion to an altitude of 31,000 feet, traveling at Mach 1.15 (more than 1,000 mph). The LAS three motors will work together to pull the crew module away from the booster and prepare it for splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The flight test will prove that the abort system can pull crew to safety in the unlikely event of an emergency during ascent.
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Psyche Live Launch Coverage. NASAs Psyche spacecraft, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, soars into the sky after lifting off from Kennedy Space Centers historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida at 10:19 a.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. This daytime long exposure photo was taken from Kennedys Press Site near the historic countdown clock. The Psyche mission will study a metal-rich asteroid with the same name, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This is NASAs first mission to study an asteroid that has more metal than rock or ice. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration - NASAs Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment - which will be the first test of laser communications beyond the Moon.
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The mosasaur is an extinct marine reptile that lived 70-65 million years ago. It had a long, barrel-shaped body, paddle-like flippers and a large heav...
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Vulcanologists at Mauna Loa Eruption, Big Island of Hawaii, 1984
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The 2017 solar eclipse is seen at the front gate of NASAs Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Approximately 4,000 people gathered at the Wallops NASA Visitor Center to view a 81.5% totality of the eclipse.
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A 48 inch Advanced Solid Rocket Motor is test fired at Marshall's Solid Propulsion Research Test Article facility for M-NASA Project.
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Opportunity's Travels
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NASAs SpaceX Crew-5 Launch. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASAs SpaceX Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina onboard, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASAs SpaceX Crew-5 mission is the fifth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agencys Commercial Crew Program. Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikini launched at 12:00 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission onboard the orbital outpost.
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Aerial view of phreatic eruptions at Gn. Batok vulcan, Indonesia.
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STS080-S-006 (19 Nov. 1996) --- The space shuttle Columbia lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's (KSC) Launch Pad 39B at 2:55:47 p.m. (EST), Nov. 19, 1996. Onboard are astronauts Kenneth D. Cockrell, mission commander; Kent V. Rominger, pilot; along with Story Musgrave, Tamara E. Jernigan and Thomas D. Jones, all mission specialists. The two primary payloads for STS-80 stowed in Columbia's cargo bay for later deployment and testing are the Wake Shield Facility (WSF-3) and the Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer (ORFEUS) with its associated Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS).
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Flüssiger Stickstoff dampft aus Milchtopf - chemisches Experiment Flüssiger Stickstoff dampft aus Milchtopf - chemisches Experiment Copyright: xZoonar.com/AlfredxHoferx 22902654
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - An early morning sky illuminates the United Launch Alliance Delta II Heavy rocket that will launch NASAs twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission from Space Launch Complex 17B on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for 9:08:52 a.m. EDT Sept.10. GRAIL will fly twin spacecraft in tandem around the moon to precisely measure and map variations in the moon's gravitational field. The mission will provide the most accurate global gravity field to date for any planet, including Earth. This detailed information will reveal differences in the density of the moon's crust and mantle and will help answer fundamental questions about the moon's internal structure, thermal evolution, and history of collisions with asteroids. The aim is to map the moon's gravity field so completely that future moon vehicles can safely navigate anywhere on the moons surface.
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Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower laboratory, illustration
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Thousands of people watch the first-ever evening public engine test of a Space Shuttle Main Engine at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center. The spectacular test marked Stennis Space Center's 20th anniversary celebration of the first Space Shuttle mission.
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Parabolic antenna and lightning Creative photo of the high-tech parabolic antenna and lightning Copyright: xZoonar.com/ArmanxZhenikeyevx 3337748
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Germany, Frankfurt on Main, composite sequence of total lunar with European Central Bank