Spacecraft Assembly and Laboratory Work

Images of workers wearing protective suits engaged in spacecraft assembly and laboratory tasks, showcasing a sterile environment with advanced technology.

Researcher wearing safety helmet working in laboratory

At a work bench in the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2, workers test the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) before attaching to the 2001 Mars Odyssey Orbiter. THEMIS will map the mineralogy and morphology of the Martian surface using a high-resolution camera and a thermal infrared imaging spectrometer. The orbiter will carry three science instruments: THEMIS, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS), and the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE). The GRS will achieve global mapping of the elemental composition of the surface and determine the abundance of hydrogen in the shallow subsurface. The MARIE will characterize aspects of the near-space radiation environment with regards to the radiation-related risk to human explorers. The Mars Odyssey Orbiter is scheduled for launch on April 7, 2001, aboard a Delta 7925 rocket from Launch Pad 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Space Station Processing Facility, future crew members on the International Space Station are looking at hardware to go in the Experiment Logistics Module Pressurized Section (ELM-PS) of the Japanese Experiment Module, or JEM. Seen here are Koichi Wataka (left), who will be an Expedition 18 flight engineer, and Garrett E. Reisman (center), who will be an Expedition 16 flight engineer. The ELM-PS is one of six modules that compose the JEM. The various components of JEM will be assembled in space over the course of three space shuttle missions. STS-123 is the first of those missions and will carry the ELM-PS aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, targeted for launch in 2008. Reisman will fly to the space station on STS-123.

In this 2007 image, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) microbiologist, and Special Pathogens Branch staff member, Dr. Scott Smith could be seen manipulating a flask of cells, from which he was pipetting a sample, which would be used in experiments with live viruses. Dr. Smith was working within the confines of an enclosed flow hood, within which was created a negatively-pressurized environment, thereby, drawing laboratory room air back into the hood, rather than allowing air from within the hood to re-enter the laboratory area . Note that Dr. Smith is wearing an air-tight, self-contained, positively-pressurized suit, which kept him free of possible contamination while he carried out his experiments. The Special Pathogens Branch's (SPB) charter is the study of highly infectious viruses, many of them causing hemorrhagic manifestations in humans. Our daily work involves the investigation of viruses such as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Marburg hemorrhagic fever, Lassa fever, Rift valley fever v

microbiologists at work

SDO FUELING PREPS FOR SATELLITE W/CREW

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - U.S Air Force Academy cadet Harmont Grenier performs payload checkout operations on FalconSAT-X in the Academys Space Systems Research Center clean room, March 30, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo/Joshua Armstrong)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, astronaut Charles Hobaugh, right, conducts a fit check of the robotic workstation, or RWS, in the International Space Station's Cupola module. He is assisted by Boeing technician Terry Camarata, left. The RWS is provided by the Canadian Space Agency. The module was delivered by the European Space Agency in 2004 to Kennedy from Alenia Spazio in Turin, Italy. Cupola will provide unprecedented views of activities outside the station and spectacular views of the Earth. Crew members working inside the module will have a 360-degree panoramic view. Cupola has the capability for command and control workstations to be installed to assist in space station remote manipulator system and extra vehicular activities. Cupola is the final element of the space station core and is scheduled for launch on space shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 mission, targeted for Dec. 10, 2009.

In the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Jacobs Test and Operations Support Contract, or TOSC, technicians fill portable breathing apparatuses, or PBAS. The PBAs are to be use on board the International Space Staton to provide astronauts with breathable air in the event of a fire or other emergency situation.

. Testing a Prototype Mars Lander. Engineer Abel Dizon explains how drop tests are conducted for a prototype lander being designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the planned Mars Sample Return campaign. The Sample Retrieval Lander, estimated to weigh as much as 5,016 pounds (2,275 kilograms), would be the heaviest spacecraft ever to land on the Red Planet. To study the physics involved in landing such a massive spacecraft, engineers have been testing a lander prototype that's about one-third the size it would be on Mars. Mars Sample Return will revolutionize our understanding of Mars by bringing scientifically selected samples to Earth for study using the most sophisticated instrumentation around the world. NASA's planned Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign would fulfill one of the highest priority solar system exploration goals identified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in the past three decadal surveys. This strategic partnership with the ESA (E

Technicians with Orbital ATK prepare the micro satellites for installation on the deployment module for NASAs Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) in Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. CYGNSS is being prepared at Vandenberg, and then will be transported to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket which will be attached to the Orbital ATK L-1011 carrier aircraft. CYGNSS will launch on the Pegasus XL rocket from the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. CYGNSS 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 of hurricanes.

In the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2, a Russian scientist (SAEF-2) looks over the High Energy Neutron Detector (HEND), part of the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS), after its removal from the 2001 Mars Odyssey Orbiter. The HEND was built by Russias Space Research Institute (IKI). The GRS will achieve global mapping of the elemental composition of the surface and determine the abundance of hydrogen in the shallow subsurface. The orbiter will carry two other science instruments THEMIS and the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE). THEMIS will map the mineralogy and morphology of the Martian surface using a high-resolution camera and a thermal infrared imaging spectrometer. The MARIE will characterize aspects of the near-space radiation environment with regards to the radiation-related risk to human explorers. The Mars Odyssey Orbiter is scheduled for launch April 7, 2001, aboard a Delta 7925 rocket from Launch Pad 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, members of space shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 crew participate in a crew equipment interface test, or CEIT. Here, Mission Specialist Sandra Magnus, with glasses, receives guidance from a Kennedy employee, as Mission Specialist Steve Bowen looks on, at center wearing glasses. The CEIT provides hands-on experience with hardware and equipment slated to fly on their mission. Endeavour will deliver a multi-purpose logistics module to the International Space Station on the STS-126 mission. Launch is targeted for Nov. 10.

LCROSS flight hardware in clean room at Ames N-240. EEL personnel fabricating & assembling components with Glen Sasaki of Ames, Engineering Evaluation lab

Making Drugs in Bioreactor

Inside the Space Station Processing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an engineer installs the Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo) onto its radiator bracket on June 14, 2022. Having successfully completed its thermal vacuum testing, the unit will undergo vibration testing later this month. This spectrometer is part of the PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1) payload suite, slated to launch to the Moon in 2023 with Intuitive Machines. MSolo is a commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer modified to work in space and it will help analyze the chemical makeup of landing sites on the Moon, as well as study water on the lunar surface. MSolo is manifested to fly on four of the agencys Commercial Lunar Payload Delivery Service missions where under Artemis, commercial deliveries beginning in 2023 will perform science experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities to help NASA explore the Moon and prepare for human missions.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Scientists and other workers watch as the solar panels on the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) spacecraft are deployed in the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2. MAP is scheduled for launch on June 30 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket. The launch will place MAP into a lunar-assisted trajectory to the Sun-Earth for a 27-month mission. The probe will measure small fluctuations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation to an accuracy of one millionth of a degree. These measurements should reveal the size, matter content, age, geometry and fate of the universe. They will also reveal the primordial structure that grew to form galaxies and will test ideas about the origins of these primordial structures. The MAP instrument will be continuously shaded from the Sun, Earth, and Moon by the spacecraft. The probe is a product of Goddard Space Flight Center in partnership with Princeton University

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Researchers have activated the red, blue and green LED lights on the Veggie plant growth system inside a control chamber at the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In front, is Jim Smodell, a technician with SGT. Behind him is George Guerra, a quality control engineer with QinetiQ North America. The growth chamber will be used as a control unit and procedures will be followed identical to those being performed on Veggie and the Veg-01 experiment on the International Space Station by Expedition 39 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Steve Swanson.Veggie and Veg-01 were delivered to the space station aboard the SpaceX-3 mission. Veggie is the first fresh food production system delivered to the station. Six plant pillows, each containing outredgeous red romaine lettuce seeds and a root mat were inserted into Veggie. The plant chamber's red, blue and green LED lights were activated. The plant growth will be monitored for 28 d

Expedition 34 astronaut crew members Chris Hadfield and Tom Marshburn during INC-34/CB ISS EVA 2 91027. Photo Date: December 7, 2011. Location: NBL - Pool Topside.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility -2 (SAEF-2), workers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory open the drums containing the Mars microprobes that will hitchhike on the Mars Polar Lander. From left, they are Satish Krishnan, Charles Cruzan, Chris Voorhees and Arden Acord. Scheduled to be launched Jan. 3, 1999, aboard a Delta II rocket, the solar-powered spacecraft is designed to touch down on the Martian surface near the northern-most boundary of the south pole in order to study the water cycle there. The lander also will help scientists learn more about climate change and current resources on Mars, studying such things as frost, dust, water vapor and condensates in the Martian atmosphere. The Mars microprobes, called Deep Space 2, are part of NASA's New Millennium Program. They will complement the climate-related scientific focus of the lander by demonstrating an advanced, rugged microlaser system for detecting subsurface water. Such data o

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. - Outside the clean room at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the SciSat-1 spacecraft (background) has been removed from the shipping container mounting base (lower left) and placed on the handling fixture. Sci-Sat, which will undergo instrument checkout and spacecraft functional testing, weighs approximately 330 pounds and after launch will be placed in a 400-mile-high polar orbit to investigate processes that control the distribution of ozone in the upper atmosphere. The data from the satellite will provide Canadian and international scientists with improved measurements relating to global ozone processes and help policymakers assess existing environmental policy and develop protective measures for improving the health of our atmosphere, preventing further ozone depletion. The mission is designed to last two years.

EuCROPIS EVT-2 Power Cell in N-239 Lab with Ivan Paulino-Lima

LCROSS flight hardware in clean room at Ames N-240. EEL personnel fabricating testing components with Jerry Wang of Ames, Engineering Evaluation lab

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- During a bench review in the Space Station Processing Facility, astronaut Tim Kopra gets hands-on experience on hardware he could be using in orbit. Kopra is backup for Garrett Reisman, who will join the Expedition 16 crew on the International Space Station in 2008. Reisman will fly on mission STS-123 to the station.

jsc2021e042552 (10/29/2020) --- Maya-3 and Maya-4 Flight Model Assembly inside the Clean Booth at the University Laboratory for Small Satellites and Space Engineering Systems (ULyS3Es), University of the Philippines-Diliman . The BIRDS-2S project consists of the Maya-3 and Maya-4 CubeSats, the first Philippine university-built cube satellites developed by eight graduate students under the Space science education and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STeP-UP) Project. Image

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Jim Smodell, a technician with SGT, moves the plant pillows containing the outredgeous red lettuce leaves outside of the International Space Station Environmental Simulator chamber at the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The growth chamber was used as a control unit for Veggie and procedures were followed identical to those being performed on Veggie and the Veg-01 experiment on the International Space Station. In the background is Chuck Spern, lead project engineer with QinetiQ North America on the Engineering Services Contract.The chamber mimicked the temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentration of those in the Veggie unit on the space station. Veggie and Veg-01 were delivered to the space station aboard the SpaceX-3 mission. Veggie is the first fresh food production system delivered to the station. Six plant pillows, each containing outredgeous red romaine lettuce seeds and a root mat were inserte

Members of the cold stowage team unpack science experiments inside the Space Station Processing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 14, 2021. The experiments returned to Earth on SpaceXs 21st commercial resupply services mission (CRS-21). Making its successful parachute-assisted splashdown west of Tampa off the Florida coast, at 8:26 p.m. EST on Jan. 13, the SpaceX cargo Dragon returned more than 4,400 pounds of scientific experiments and other cargo from the International Space Station. After splashdown, SpaceX loaded Dragon aboard their Go Navigator recovery ship and packed an Airbus H225 helicopter with the time-sensitive research cargo for delivery to Kennedy. The upgraded cargo Dragon capsule also boasts double the powered locker capacity to preserve science samples, allowing for a significant increase in the research that can be carried back to Earth.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Members of the Columbia Reconstruction Project Team examine a piece of Columbia debris in the KSC RLV Hangar. The team is identifying pieces and placing them on the floor grid that includes a configuration of the orbiter. The team will attempt to reconstruct the orbiter as part of the investigation into the accident that caused the destruction of Columbia and loss of its crew as it returned to Earth on mission STS-107.

The 4-bed Carbon Dioxide Scrubber, new Environmental Control and Life Support Systems technology developed, built, tested, and integrated at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center to be launched to the International Space Station, is readied for shipment to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. The hardware will fly to space Aug. 1 via the Cygnus NG-16 commercial spacecraft, and will be tested aboard the space station for one year.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Mission Specialist Piers J. Sellers, Ph.D., got some recent hands-on experience with equipment he will soon take into space. He is working with the SPACEHAB Oceaneering Enhanced Deployable latch release. The astronauts of the second Return to Flight mission, STS-121, were at the SPACEHAB facility in Cape Canaveral to participate in the Crew Equipment Interface Test (CEIT). This test allows the astronauts to become familiar with equipment they will be using on their upcoming mission. STS-121 is scheduled to launch in July aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis.

PHOTO DATE: 04-02-10LOCATION: Bldg 9NWSUBJECT: Photograph STS-132 crew during TPS Repair Skills training

Scientist working in clean room of a laboratory

In this image taken from a video clip, NASA's Curiosity rover's wheels are shown hoisted on a pink crane and moving closer to the rover's body. Video is available at the Photojournal.

SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) primary mirror being coated in the Ames N-211 Vacuum Chamber.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Orbiter Processing Facility bay 1, United Space Alliance technician George Arnett works on tile bonding for the orbiter Atlantis. The orbiter is scheduled to fly on Return to Flight mission STS-121 in July. STS-121 is a Return to Flight Utilities and Logistics Flight (ULF-2) to the International Space Station.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At Launch Complex 39B, technicians in Space Shuttle Discovery's payload bay monitor the images received during a borescope inspection of the retract link assembly on the orbiter's main landing gear door. The inspection is a precautionary measure after a small crack was found in a retract link assembly on the right-hand main landing gear on orbiter Atlantis. An initial review of the closeout photos of the link assembly on Discovery did not reveal any cracks. Discovery is scheduled to return the Space Shuttle fleet to operational status on mission STS-114. This additional work does not impact the launch planning window of July 13-31.

STS-132 LAUNCH L-3 CREW - PAYLOAD WALKDOWN

In the Vertical Processing Facility (VPF), the STS-93 crew stands in front of the VPF Aft Flight Deck simulator, which is part of KSC's Cargo Integration Test Equipment. From left, they are Mission Specialist Michel Tognini of France, Commander Eileen M. Collins, Mission Specialist Steven A. Hawley, Pilot Jeffrey S. Ashby and Mission Specialist Catherine G. Coleman. Tognini represents France's space agency, the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). STS-93, scheduled to launch July 9 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia, has the primary mission of the deployment of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which is undergoing testing in the VPF. Formerly called the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, Chandra comprises three major elements: the spacecraft, the science instrument module (SIM), and the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. Chandra will allow scientists from around the world to see previously invisible black holes and high-temperature gas clouds, giving the observatory the potential

Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, former NASA astronaut Dan Tani, who now is senior director of Missions and Cargo Operations for Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, participates in a press interview. In the background is the Cygnus spacecraft scheduled to deliver hardware and supplies to the International Space Station on the upcoming Orbital ATK Commercial Resupply Services-6 mission.

ION PROPULSION LABORATORIES - CLEAN ROOM

Study on opportunistic infections with Burkholderia cepacia complex using Zebra Fish embryos.

Interior view of the Space Station Processing Facility

ROBERT DUVALL in THX 1138 (1971), directed by GEORGE LUCAS.

Communications, Navigation, and Network Reconfigurable Test-bed, CoNNeCT

JSC2002-E-30477 (29 July 2002) --- The STS-112 crewmembers inspect flight hardware during a crew equipment bench review in an offsite facility near the Johnson Space Center (JSC). From the left are astronaut Sandra H. Magnus, cosmonaut Fyodor N. Yurchikhin, both mission specialists; astronauts Pamela A. Melroy, pilot; Piers J. Sellers, mission specialist; Jeffrey S. Ashby, mission commander, and David A. Wolf, mission specialist. Yurchikhin represents Rosaviakosmos.

NICER team members Takashi Okajima, Yang Soong, and Steven Kenyon apply epoxy to the X-ray concentrator mounts after alignment. The epoxy holds the optics assemblies fixed in position through the vibrations experienced during launch to the International Space Station. The payloads 56 mirror assemblies concentrate X-rays onto silicon detectors to gather data that will probe the interior makeup of neutron stars, including those that appear to flash regularly, called pulsars. The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is a NASA Explorer Mission of Opportunity dedicated to studying the extraordinary environments — strong gravity, ultra-dense matter, and the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe — embodied by neutron stars. An attached payload aboard the International Space Station, NICER will deploy an instrument with unique capabilities for timing and spectroscopy of fast X-ray brightness fluctuations. The embedded Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Tech

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Payload Changeout Room on NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A, STS-128 Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester (left) and Christer Fuglesang take a close look at the payloads to be installed in space shuttle Discovery. The crew is at Kennedy to take part in the terminal countdown demonstration test, or TCDT, which includes equipment familiarization, emergency exit training and a simulated countdown. On the STS-128 mission, Discovery will deliver 33,000 pounds of equipment to the station, including science and storage racks, a freezer to store research samples, a new sleeping compartment and the COLBERT treadmill. Launch is targeted for late August.

NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster - Commercial, NEXT-C Flight Power Processing Unit, PPU

Goddard technologist Vivek Dwivedi (right) and his collaborator, University of Maryland professor Raymond Adomaitis (left), are preparing to insert a sample inside a reactor that will apply a thin film using the atomic layer deposition technique.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A component of NASA's International Space Station-RapidScat scatterometer instrument is moved via forklift into the Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.ISS-RapidScat is the first scientific Earth-observing instrument designed to operate from the exterior of the space station. It will measure Earth's ocean surface wind speed and direction, providing data to be used in weather and marine forecasting. Built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, ISS-RapidScat is slated to fly on the SpaceX-4 commercial cargo resupply flight in 2014.

jsc2019e063585 (Nov. 5, 2019) --- (From left) Andria Mosie, Charis Krysher and Juliane Gross, lunar sample curators, positioning the Apollo 17 drive tube prior to removing from its teflon bag and extruding sample 73002 at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The extrusion, which occurred Nov. 5, 2019 at Johnson Space Center in Houston, was done as part of NASAs Apollo Next-Generation Sample Analysis initiative

A technician prepares a test sample in the Zero Gravity Research Facility clean room at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt and his wife, Teresa, toured the Orion Stage Adapter while at Marshall and signed it before its flight on Exploration Mission-1 in late 2019

Study on opportunistic infections with Burkholderia cepacia complex using Zebra Fish embryos

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Members of the space shuttle Discovery's STS-124 crew inspect cables on Launch Pad 39A. From left are Mission Specialists Akihiko Hoshide and Mike Fossum. Hoshide represents the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The crew is getting ready for launch at 5:02 p.m. on May 31. The STS-124 mission is the second of three flights launching components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. The shuttle crew will install Kibo's large Japanese Pressurized Module and its remote manipulator system, or RMS. The 14-day flight includes three spacewalks.

Charles Spern, at right, project manager on the Engineering Services Contract (ESC), and Glenn Washington, ESC quality assurance specialist, perform final inspections of the Veggie Series 1 plant experiment inside a laboratory in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Series 1 experiment is being readied for flight aboard Orbital ATK's Cygnus module on its seventh (OA-7) Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. The Veggie system is on the space station.

Day In The Life of Artemis Employees

. Artemis II Crew Training on Lunar Fundamentals. Photo Date: May 9, 2023. Location: Building 31 - Lunar Lab.. Photographer: Robert Markowitz

Making Drugs in Bioreactor

Inside Space Exposed Hardware Lab a member of the JSC Curation Team with NASA's Stardust canister in lab.

MATING OF THE MULTI-PURPOSE CREW VEHICLE STAGE ADAPTER (MSA) WITH ITS DIAPHRAGM IN BLDG. 4708. DECEMBER 20, 2014.

LCROSS flight hardware in clean room at Ames N-240. EEL personnel fabricating testing components with Glen Sasaki of Ames, Engineering Evaluation lab

AFS-8/101

While wearing his air tight safety suit in this 2007 image, CDC microbiologist Dr. Scott Smith is in the process of placing a rotor cuff containing tubes of virus particles and cellular debris into a high-speed centrifuge. This activity is taking place inside the confines of the organizations Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories. The Special Pathogens Branch mission focuses mainly on viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs), such as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Lassa fever, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (

OCI Flight Thermal Blanketing Installation. Thermal engineer, Deepak Patel, inspects the tightness on a tensioning cable on the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI). After his inspection, technicians will install thermal blanketing to insulate the flight hardware for further testing. OCI is a highly advanced optical spectrometer that will be used to measure properties of light over portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It will enable continuous measurement of light at finer wavelength resolution than previous NASA satellite sensors, extending key system ocean color data records for climate studies. OCI is PACE's (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) primary sensor built at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Damon Petty, with United Space Alliance, prepares the cover of another insulation blanket in the oven” prior to heat cleaning. The blankets fit inside the nose cap of an orbiter. They consist of layered, pure silica felt sandwiched between a layer of silica fabric (the hot side) and a layer of S-Glass fabric. The blanket is through-stitched with pure silica thread in a 1-inch grid pattern. After fabrication, the blanket is bonded directly to the vehicle structure and finally coated with a high purity silica coating that improves erosion resistance. The blankets are semi-rigid and can be made as large as 30 inches by 30 inches.

jsc2019e063626 (Nov. 5, 2019) --- (From left) Andria Mosie, Charis Krysher and Juliane Gross, lunar sample curators, extruding sample 73002 from its container in a glove box at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The extrusion, which occurred Nov. 5, 2019 at Johnson Space Center in Houston, was done as part of NASAs Apollo Next-Generation Sample Analysis initiative.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - College students from Montana State University, dressed in protective suits, prepare their robot for a trial run at NASAs Robotics Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. More than 35 teams from around the U.S. have designed and built remote-controlled robots for the mining competition.The competition is a NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate project designed to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, fields by expanding opportunities for student research and design. Teams use their remote-controlled robotics to maneuver and dig in a supersized sandbox filled with a crushed material that has characteristics similar to Martian soil. The objective of the challenge is to see which teams robot can collect and move the most regolith within a specified amount of time.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-120 Mission Specialist Daniel Tani (center) talks about his mission and the Node 2, another element to be added to the International Space Station with astronaut Peggy Whitson, at right. Whitson served on Expedition 5 aboard the space station. During her 6-month stay, Dr. Whitson installed the Mobile Base System, the S1 truss segment, and the P1 truss segment. He and other crew members are at KSC for equipment familiarization. Tani will be joining the Expedition 15 crew on the space station as flight engineer. Node 2 will provide a passageway between three station science experiment facilities: the U.S. Destiny Laboratory, the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module, and the European Columbus Laboratory. STS-120 is targeted for launch on October 20.

X-59 Low Boom Flight Demonstrator, LBFD Probe Calibration Test

From left to right, Tiffany Nail, KSC Protocol Officer; Nicole Stott, NASA Astronaut (former); Dottie Duke, wife of Charlie Duke; Charlie Duke, NASA Astronaut (former); Christina Korp, Assistant to Charlie Duke; Jim Keys, Pilot; Adam Leppek, ARES Corporation (KLXSIII), Deputy Element Operations Manager; and Nick Kindred, Jacobs Technology, Flow Manager, shown in front of the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission, inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) during a visit to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 10, 2021. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will test Orion and the Space Launch System rocket as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon.

Visit by Dr. Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 Astronaut

Two scientists at a water treatment plant

Students in the My Brothers Keeper program line the railings of an observation deck overlooking the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Lab at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spaceport is one of six NASA centers that participated in My Brothers Keeper National Lab Week. The event is a nationwide effort to bring youth from underrepresented communities into federal labs and centers for hands-on activities, tours and inspirational speakers. Sixty students from the nearby cities of Orlando and Sanford visited Kennedy, where they toured the Vehicle Assembly Building, the Space Station Processing Facility and the centers innovative Swamp Works Labs. The students also had a chance to meet and ask questions of a panel of subject matter experts from across Kennedy.

Technicians at Textron in Wimington, MA, inspect the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) Orion heat shield after a cold soak test on Nov. 22, 2013. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Inside a laboratory in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, April Spinale, a payload integration specialist with Bionetics, and Ray Polniak, a quality assurance specialist with Dynamac, place a set of vials for the Protein Crystal Growth 2 experiment into a vacuum chamber for an acceptance leak test. The vials have been filled with clear water. The test will verify that the hardware is providing adequate containment for the liquids. Both are consultants for the Center for Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS. The experiment is one of many that will be delivered to the International Space Station on the SpaceX-4 commercial cargo resupply mission.Kennedy's ISS Ground Processing and Research Project Office is providing the necessary laboratories, equipment, supplies and consumables for 61 principal investigators, including 17 from other countries, as they prepare their science experiments for flight. The SpaceX-4 fl

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- During a bench review in the Space Station Processing Facility, astronauts, in the background, get a close look at hardware they will be taking into and using in orbit. The astronauts are slated to join future expedition crews aboard the International Space Station. Among those participating in the review are Mission Specialist Garrett Reisman, who will fly on mission STS-123, Koichi Wakata, who will fly on mission STS-126, and Tim Kopra, who is a backup for Reisman.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A United Space Alliance (USA) technician (left) discusses the construction of a thermal blanket used in the Shuttle's thermal protection system with USA Vice President and Space Shuttle Program Manager Howard DeCastro (right). NASA and USA Space Shuttle program management are participating in a leadership workday. The day is intended to provide management with an in-depth, hands-on look at Shuttle processing activities at KSC.

LUNABOTICS MINING COMPETITION

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- - Two members of the Columbia Reconstruction Project Team examine a piece of Columbia debris, comparing it to a drawing of the orbiter. The team is attempting to identify the debris and reconstruct the orbiter as part of the investigation into the accident that caused the destruction of Columbia and loss of its crew as it returned to Earth on mission STS-107.

The SpaceOMIX team traveling to Space Applications Services, Brussels, Belgium for sample integration

120109-N-OY799-261 ARABIAN SEA (Jan. 9:: 2012) Machinist's Mate 2nd Class John Burge:: from Alpharetta:: Ga.:: collects liquid oxygen samples in the forward O2N2 plant aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). John C. Stennis is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations and support missions as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes, enclosed in protective shipping containers, have arrived in the airlock of the Astrotech payload processing facility near NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida where Applied Physics Laboratory technicians will begin spacecraft testing and prelaunch preparations. The spacecraft were delivered to Kennedys Shuttle Landing Facility in the cargo bay of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft earlier in the day.The RBSP mission will help us understand the suns influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the Earths radiation belts on various scales of space and time. The RBSP instruments will provide the measurements needed to characterize and quantify the plasma processes that produce very energetic ions and relativistic electrons. The mission is part of NASAs broader Living With a Star Program that was conceived to explore fundamental processes that operate throughout the solar system, and in particular those that gen

Expedition 64 NASA astronaut Kate Rubins is seen as she climbs inside the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft during the final fit check, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft on October 14.

PHOTO DATE: 09-30-09LOCATION: NBL, TopsideSUBJECT: STS-132 Preflight Training - DiveWith Garret Reisman, Mike Goode and Stephen Bowen

NASAs Biology Experiment-1 (BioExpt-1) is officially packaged and ready for handover to the Orion team for Artemis I inside the Space Station Processing Facility at the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 18, 2022. BioExpt-1 is a space biology pathfinder, which will carry Arabidopsis, algae, yeast, and fungi science payloads for biology research beyond low-Earth orbit aboard the Orion capsule on the Artemis I mission. The payload container assemblies will be installed onto panels in the Orion capsule and will return to Earth to provide critical and unique data about life beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time in more than 40 years. Artemis I is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the Moon and eventually on to Mars.

NEAR EARTH ASTEROID (NEA) SAIL TEAM PERFORMING A DEPLOYMENT OF THE FLIGHT-LIKE ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT UNIT SOLAR SAIL. THE SAIL WAS MANUFACTURED AT NEXOLVE (HSV, AL) AND DEPLOYED FOR THE FIRST TIME AT MSFC ON AUGUST 4TH, 2016

In this February 2015 scene from a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, specialists are building the heat shield to protect NASA's InSight spacecraft when it is speeding through the Martian atmosphere.

As the size of a satellite is scaled down to the form factor of a CubeSat, the hardware must scale down as well. Unfortunately, the software inside does not follow the same trend. Simulation-to-Flight 1 (STF-1) aims to solve this problem by providing a simulation of the CubeSat that can be used for developing and testing the software on any laptop or desktop computer. Additionally, STF-1 hosts payloads that aim to increase the accuracy of navigation for CubeSats, monitor Space Weather over the North and South Poles, and test the durability of new materials used for Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). The first spacecraft built in the state of West Virginia, STF-1, is a collaborative effort between the NASA Independent Verification and Validation Program, West Virginia University, and West Virginia small businesses.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Space Station Processing Facility, STS-130 Commander George Zamka (center) and Pilot Terry Virts Jr. (right) look at photos in the camera they used to capture images of the Cupola, part of the payload on the mission to the International Space Station. The seven-windowed module will be used as a control room for robotics on the station. Endeavour will also deliver the final connecting node, Node 3.

Press tour as part of SPIN2030, a campaign to highlight the diversity, excellence and attractiveness of Saxony as a centre of science, : Nanoelectronic Materials Laboratory (NaMLab) Test facility for measuring and analysing surface structures

Reportage in a Swiss biobank which specialises in storing stem cells from blood in the umbilical cord (hematopoietic stem cells) and stem cells from tissue from the umbilical cord (mesenchymal stem cells). The stem cells are stored at -150° in liquid nitrogen tanks.

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