Spacecraft and Satellites

Dramatic views of various spacecraft in orbit around Earth and other celestial bodies, capturing the essence of space exploration.

Illustration of a satellite orbiting Earth with a detailed view of its solar panels and communication dish against the backdrop of space.
Illustration of a satellite orbiting Earth with a detailed view of its solar panels and communication dish against the backdrop of space.
226 assets in this story
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Lunar Gateway space station concept, with SpaceX Lunar Starship.
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Chinese Space Station Tiangong 2022, exploded view.
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An unmanned scramjet flys toward outer space near the edge of Earth's atmosphere.
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ISS039-E-005704 (27 March 2014) --- A view from the International Space Station shows the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft shortly before docking of the two orbiting vehicles. Onboard the Soyuz at this time were incoming Expedition 39 crew members -- Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Flight Engineer Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos. Onboard the orbiting complex were Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos.
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Space probe launched from the Earth, flying among the Solar System planets.
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Artists rendition. On February 7, 1999 the Stardust spacecraft was successfully launched aboard a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida and thus started Stardust's journey to be the first NASA mission to return particles from beyond the Earth Moon orbit.
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Orientation and Magnitude of Mars' Magnetic Field
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A crewmember aboard the Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis (STS-46) used a 70mm handheld camera to capture this medium closeup view of early operations with the Tethered Satellite System (TSS). TSS-1 is being deployed from its boom as it is perched above the cargo bay of the Earth-orbiting Shuttle circling the Earth at an altitude of 296 kilometers (184 miles), the TSS-1 will be well within the tenuous, electrically charged layer of the atmosphere known as the ionosphere. There, a satellite attached to the orbiter by a thin conducting cord, or tether, will be reeled from the Shuttle payload bay. On this mission the satellite was plarned to be deployed 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) above the Shuttle. The conducting tether will generate high voltage and electrical currents as it moves through the atmosphere allowing scientists to examine the electrodynamics of a conducting tether system. These studies will not only increase our understanding of physical processes in the near-Earth space environ
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Shown is an illustration of the Ares I concept. The first stage will be a single, five-segment solid rocket booster derived from the space shuttle programs reusable solid rocket motor. The first stage is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama for NASA's Constellation program.
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Infographic on the Ulysses space probe, launched from the Shuttle on October 6, 1990 and which has since conducted a detailed study of the Sun. Adobe InDesign (.indd); 4795x3543.
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Space elevator, computer artwork.
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Artist concept of NASA's Stardust-NExT mission, which will fly by comet Tempel 1 on Feb. 14, 2011.
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Deep space probe, computer artwork.
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Deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, 1990. Artist: Unknown
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Reconstruction of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing 2013.
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BioSentinel spacecraft leaves Earth and enters a lunar flyby trajectory into a heliocentric orbit. BioSentinel will detect and measure the impact of space radiation on living organisms over long durations beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO).
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2007-2012 Double-sided Mission Events Calendar, part of the Dawn Mission Art series.
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STS072-720-042 (13 Jan. 1996) --- The crew members captured this 70mm view of the Japanese Space Flyer Unit (SFU) just prior to the jettisoning of the solar panels. Later, they used the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) to latch onto the satellite and berth it in the Space Shuttle Endeavours aft cargo bay.
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On platforms suspended from the top of the 525-foot-high VAB, workers use rollers and brushes to repaint the U.S. flag on the southwest side of the Vehicle Assembly Building. The flag spans an area 209 feet by 110 feet, or about 23, 437 square feet. Each stripe is 9 feet wide and each star is 6 feet in diameter. The logo is also being painted. Known as the "meatball," the logo measures 110 feet by 132 feet, or about 12,300 square feet. The flag and logo were last painted in 1998, honoring NASA's 40th anniversary.
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Infographics of the different types of meteorologic satellites that orbit the Earth. QuarkXPress (.qxp); 6259x4015.
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New Horizons, interplanetary space probe, launched as part of NASA's New Frontiers program, to study Pluto, its moons and the Kuiper belt 2015
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Orbital Debris and Satellites
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This illustration shows the core structure with ion propulsion system installed aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft.
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Yutu 2 Lunar rover landed on the surface of the moon on January 3, 2019 with the flag of china in the background. 3D illustration