Spacecraft Assembly and Testing

Images of spacecraft under preparation and testing in secure facilities. Highlights include technicians, assembly processes, and complex devices, showcasing high-tech environment and teamwork.

Complex device in a laboratory

NASA Ames Exploration Center exhibits Updated 2008

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, technicians begin lifting the cover of the Wide Field Camera 3, or WFC3, shipping container. As Hubble enters the last stage of its life, WFC3 will be Hubble's next evolutionary step, allowing Hubble to peer ever further into the mysteries of the cosmos. WFC3 will study a diverse range of objects and phenomena, from young and extremely distant galaxies, to much more nearby stellar systems, to objects within our very own solar system. WFC3 will take the place of Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which astronauts will bring back to Earth aboard the shuttle. WFC3 is part of the payload on the fifth and final Hubble servicing mission, STS-125, targeted for launch Oct. 8.

The Cassini spacecraft is lowered to the top of its Titan IV/Centaur launch vehicle at Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Air Station (CCAS). Cassini is an international mission conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Interior View of Orbiter Processing Facility 3

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft are in place atop a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket on Space Launch Complex 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The lunar probes are attached to a spacecraft adapter ring in their side-by-side launch configuration and wrapped in plastic to prevent contamination outside the clean room.The spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field. GRAIL's primary science objectives are to determine the structure of the lunar interior, from crust to core, and to advance understanding of the thermal evolution of the moon. Launch is scheduled for Sept. 8.

iss059e099184 (6/10/2019) --- Photo documentation of the BioNutirents packets in the Space Automated Bioproduct Laboratory (SABL) incubator onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The BioNutrients investigation demonstrates a technology that enables on-demand production of human nutrients during long-duration space missions. The process uses engineered microbes, like yeast, to generate carotenoids from an edible media to supplement potential vitamin losses from food that is stored for very long periods.

Inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, from left, technicians Kenny Leidner, Diamond ScharSenstine, Russ Novak and Darlene Beville with ASRC Federal, inspect AVCOAT block bonding on the Artemis II heat shield on July 2, 2020. The heat shield is one of the most critical elements of Orion and will protect the capsule and astronauts during reentry through Earths atmosphere. Artemis II is the first crewed mission in a series of missions to the Moon and on to Mars. Artemis II will confirm all of the Orion spacecrafts systems operate as designed in the actual environment of deep space with astronauts aboard. As part of the Artemis Program, NASA will send the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024.

STS105-E-5067 (12 August 2001) --- One of the STS-105 crew members on the aft flight deck of the Space Shuttle Discovery used a digital still camera to record this close-up view of the docking process between the shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). The shuttles Canadarm or Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm is in its stowed position at right.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the RTG Facility at Kennedy Space Center, officials check the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) after being lowered onto a transporter. The RTG is the baseline power supply for the NASAs New Horizons spacecraft, scheduled to launch in January 2006 on a journey to Pluto and its moon, Charon. As it approaches Pluto, the spacecraft will look for ultraviolet emission from Pluto's atmosphere and make the best global maps of Pluto and Charon in green, blue, red and a special wavelength that is sensitive to methane frost on the surface. It will also take spectral maps in the near infrared, telling the science team about Pluto's and Charon's surface compositions and locations and temperatures of these materials. When the spacecraft is closest to Pluto or its moon, it will take close-up pictures in both visible and near-infrared wavelengths. It is expected to reach Pluto in July 2015.

Technological resources viewed during Secretary Gale Norton's tour of the Mount Graham International Observatory, near Safford, Arizona. During the visit, Secretary Norton discussed forest management issues relevant to the area, affected by the summer's massive Nuttall and Gibson forest fires

Inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's giant clean room in Greenbelt, Md., JWST Optical Engineer Larkin Carey from Ball Aerospace, examines two test mirror segments recently placed on a black composite structure. This black composite structure is called the James Webb Space Telescope's Pathfinder” and acts as a spine supporting the telescope's primary mirror segments. The Pathfinder is a non-flight prototype. The mirrors were placed on Pathfinder using a robotic arm move that involved highly trained engineers and technicians from Exelis, Northrop Grumman and NASA. "Getting this right is critical to proving we are ready to start assembling the flight mirrors onto the flight structure next summer," said Lee Feinberg, NASA's Optical Telescope Element Manager at NASA Goddard. "This is the first space telescope that has ever been built with a light-weighted segmented primary mirror, so learning how to do this is a groundbreaking capability for not only the Webb telescop

In the Astrotech facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a technician monitors progress as the heatshield is placed on NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, or InSight, Mars. InSight will be the first mission to look deep beneath the Martian surface. It will study the planet's interior by measuring its heat output and listen for marsquakes. The spacecraft will use the seismic waves generated by marsquakes to develop a map of the planets deep interior. The resulting insight into Mars formation will provide a better understanding of how other rocky planets, including Earth, were created. InSight is scheduled for liftoff May 5, 2018.

3% Space Shuttle Model preparation in Ames Machine Shop for Return to flight test to be run in the Ames 9X7ft wind tunnel test T97-0131 (IA-700B)

About the size of a small SUV, NASA's Curiosity rover is well equipped for a tour of Gale Crater on Mars. This impressive rover has six-wheel drive and the ability to turn in place a full 360 degrees, as well as the agility to climb steep hills.

ISS045E033653 (09/28/2015) --- The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Kounotori 5 H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-5) is seen through a window shortly before release from the International Space Stations robotic arm, Canadarm2. The cargo vehicle was berthed to the orbiting laboratory for five weeks until it was released on Sept. 28, 2015. HTV-5 delivered almost five tons of hardware and supplies.

One of the MarCO CubeSats inside a cleanroom at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, before being placed into its deployment box. The deployment box will eject the briefcase-sized CubeSat into space after launch. It and its twin will accompany the InSight Mars lander when it lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in May.

Air Force spouses watch an F-22 Raptor engine run at the Hush House jet engine test facility. The spouses of active duty and Reserve F-22 pilots from the 525th and 302nd Fighter Squadrons received an up close look at the F-22 mission during the Spouses Blue Carpet day here Sept. 21, 2012.

A technician performs a black light inspection of the Orbital ATK Pegasus starboard on May 22, 2018, prior to fully mating NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) to Pegasus inside Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The explorer will launch on June 15, 2018, from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands (June 14 in the continental United States) on the Pegasus XL, which is attached to the company's L-1011 Stargazer aircraft. ICON will study the frontier of space - the dynamic zone high in Earth's atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above. The explorer will help determine the physics of Earth's space environment and pave the way for mitigating its effects on our technology and communications systems.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. - Inside Orbital Sciences Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, workers check the placement of the second half of the fairing around the Space Technology 5 (ST5) spacecraft. The ST5, which contains three microsatellites with miniaturized redundant components and technologies, is mated to its launch vehicle, Orbital Sciences' Pegasus XL. Each of the ST5 microsatellites will validate New Millennium Program selected technologies, such as the Cold Gas Micro-Thruster and X-Band Transponder Communication System. After deployment from the Pegasus, the micro-satellites will be positioned in a “string of pearls” constellation that demonstrates the ability to position them to perform simultaneous multi-point measurements of the magnetic field using highly sensitive magnetometers. The data will help scientists understand and map the intensity and direction of the Earths magnetic field, its relation to space weather events, and affects on

Installing Power Supply on Cassini Probe

Ames Life Sciences Experiments Plant Volatile Chamber

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Technicians at Astrotech in Titusville, Fla., conduct an illumination test on the Deep Impact spacecraft as a final check of performance. Launch aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., is scheduled for Jan. 8. The Deep Impact mission is the first to explore a comet's interior by using a spacecraft to create a crater, allowing us to look deep inside. Dramatic images from both the flyby spacecraft and the impactor will be sent back to distant Earth as data in near-realtime. These first-ever views deep beneath a comets surface, and additional scientific measurements will provide clues to the formation of the solar system. Amateur astronomers will combine efforts with astronomers at larger telescopes to offer the public an earth-based look at this incredible July 2005 encounter with a comet.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's Morpheus lander, a vertical test bed vehicle, is being moved out of its checkout building for a short trip to a launch position at the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Morpheus is designed to demonstrate new green propellant propulsion systems and autonomous landing and an Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT, system.Checkout of the prototype lander has been ongoing at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston in preparation for its first free flight. The SLF site will provide the lander with the kind of field necessary for realistic testing. Project Morpheus is one of 20 small projects comprising the Advanced Exploration Systems, or AES, program in NASAs Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. AES projects pioneer new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth or

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL rocket is being prepared to launch the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, spacecraft. IRIS will open a new window of discovery by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the chromospheres and transition region into the suns corona using spectrometry and imaging. IRIS fills a crucial gap in our ability to advance studies of the sun-to-Earth connection by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the foundation of the corona and the region around the sun known as the heliosphere.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Operations and Checkout Building, the U.S. Lab, a component of the International Space Station, is lowered into a three-story vacuum chamber. The 32,000-pound scientific research lab, named Destiny, is the first Space Station element to spend seven days in the renovated vacuum chamber for a leak test. Destiny is scheduled to be launched on Shuttle mission STS-98, the 5A assembly mission, targeted for Jan. 18, 2001. During the mission, the crew will install the Lab in the Space Station during a series of three space walks. The STS-98 mission will provide the Station with science research facilities and expand its power, life support and control capabilities. The U.S. Lab module continues a long tradition of microgravity materials research, first conducted by Skylab and later Shuttle and Spacelab missions. Destiny is expected to be a major feature in future research, providing facilities for biotechnology, fluid physics, combustion, and life sciences

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Technicians check the placement of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, on a work stand in the high bay at the Astrotech processing facility in Titusville, Fla. The spacecraft was built by engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center, where it recently completed two months of tests in a thermal vacuum chamber. The orbiter will carry seven instruments to provide scientists with detailed maps of the lunar surface and enhance our understanding of the moon's topography, lighting conditions, mineralogical composition and natural resources. Information gleaned from LRO will be used to select safe landing sites, determine locations for future lunar outposts and help mitigate radiation dangers to astronauts. The polar regions of the moon are the main focus of the mission because continuous access to sunlight may be possible and water ice may exist in permanently shadowed areas of the poles. Accompanying LRO on its journey to the moon will be the Lunar Crater Observa

DR. JONATHAN CIRTAIN AND ED WEST PUSH SUMI OUT OF THE LAB AND TOWARD THE LOADING DOCK. SUMI SHIPPED TO WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE ON MAY 14, 2010.

Technicians test the deployment of one of the three massive solar arrays that power NASA's Juno spacecraft.

. Microgravity

This image of the Perseverance Mars rover was taken at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on April 7, 2020, during a test of the vehicle's mass properties. The rover was rotated clockwise and counterclockwise on a spin table to determine the center of gravity, or the point at which weight is evenly dispersed on all sides. In the image, the project name Mars 2020 and rover name Perseverance can be seen on name plates that have been attached to the rover's robotic arm.

This photograph details Skylab's X-Ray Spectrographic Telescope, an Apollo Telescope Mount facility. It was designed to sequentially photograph solar flares and other active regions in x-ray spectrum. The Marshall Space Flight Center had program management responsibility for the development of Skylab hardware and experiments.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - At a hangar near the Shuttle Landing Facility, or SLF, at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Chirold Epp, Johnson Space Center Project Manager for ALHAT, speaks to members of the media. In the background is the Morpheus prototype lander, which arrived at Kennedy on July 27.Testing of the prototype lander had been ongoing at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston in preparation for its first free-flight test at Kennedy Space Center. The SLF will provide the lander with the kind of field necessary for realistic testing, complete with rocks, craters and hazards to avoid. Morpheus utilizes an autonomous landing and hazard avoidance technology, or ALHAT, payload that will allow it to navigate to clear landing sites amidst rocks, craters and other hazards during its descent. Project Morpheus is one of 20 small projects comprising the Advanced Exploration Systems, or AES, program in NASAs Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. AES projects pioneer

S99-05615 (19 May 1999) --- Astronaut Gerhard P.J. Thiele, mission specialist representing the European Space Agency (ESA), slides off the shuttle escape pole onto a soft surface during emergency bailout training for the STS-99 crew members. A second STS-99 crew member awaits his turn. Looking on are technician David Borjas (second right) and videographer Charles Clendaniel (right). The training took place at the crew compartment trainer (CCT) in the Systems Integration Facility at the Johnson Space Center (JSC).

The shipping container with NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) inside, is moved into the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Inside the PHSF, the satellite will be processed and prepared for its flight. TESS is scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. TESS is the next step in NASA's search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and managed by NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Dr. George Ricker of MITs Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research serves as principal investigator for the mission. Additional partners include Orbital ATK, NASAs Ames Research Center, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Space Telescope Science Institute. More than a dozen universities, researc

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, is being readied for mating to the Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL rocket that will launch the spacecraft. A fairing will be fitted to the nose of the Pegasus to protect the spacecraft from atmospheric heating and stress during launch. Upcoming work includes electrical verification testing.IRIS will open a new window of discovery by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the chromospheres and transition region into the suns corona using spectrometry and imaging. IRIS fills a crucial gap in our ability to advance studies of the sun-to-Earth connection by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the foundation of the corona and the region around the sun known as the heliosphere.

EXTENSIONAL RHEOLOGY EXPERIMENT

NASA's Perseverance rover can be seen attached to a spin table during a test of its mass properties at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the test, the rover was rotated clockwise and counterclockwise to determine its center of gravity, or the point at which weight is evenly dispersed on all sides. The image was taken on April 7, 2020.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. - Inside Orbital Sciences Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a worker underneath the tail of the Pegasus XL rocket completes installation of the fin. The Pegasus will launch the Space Technology 5 spacecraft later this month. ST5 contains three micro-satellites that will be positioned in a "string of pearls" constellation to perform simultaneous multi-point measurements of the Earth's magnetic field using highly sensitive magnetometers. The scheduled launch date is Feb. 28.

A stereographic view of NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) in a clean room at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on Aug. 16, 2018. ICON will launch on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL vehicle, attached beneath the company's L-1011 Stargazer aircraft, from the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Launch is scheduled for Oct. 26. ICON will study the frontier of space - the dynamic zone high in Earth's atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above. The explorer will help determine the physics of Earth's space environment and pave the way for mitigating its effects on our technology, communications systems and society.

NEA (Near Earth Asteroid) Scout Hot Box - Repress Chamber V-15 and removal of Optical Witness Samples, (OWS), for analysis

Commander Bob Cabana participates in the Crew Equipment Interface Test (CEIT) for STS-88 in KSC's Space Station Processing Facility. The CEIT gives astronauts an opportunity to get a hands-on look at the payloads with which they will be working on-orbit. Here, Cabana inspects one of the six hatches on Node 1 of the International Space Station (ISS). STS-88, the first ISS assembly flight, is targeted for launch in July 1998 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour

Interior view of the Space Station Processing Facility

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's Kepler spacecraft, enclosed in a canister and protective cover, is ready to leave the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla. Kepler is being moved to Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The liftoff of Kepler aboard a Delta II rocket is currently targeted for 10:48 p.m. EST March 5 from Pad 17-B. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the RTG Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Mervin Smith watches as technicians install a flight adapter on the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). The RTG is the baseline power supply for the NASAs New Horizons spacecraft, scheduled to launch in January 2006 on a journey to Pluto and its moon, Charon. As it approaches Pluto, the spacecraft will look for ultraviolet emission from Pluto's atmosphere and make the best global maps of Pluto and Charon in green, blue, red and a special wavelength that is sensitive to methane frost on the surface. It will also take spectral maps in the near infrared, telling the science team about Pluto's and Charon's surface compositions and locations and temperatures of these materials. When the spacecraft is closest to Pluto or its moon, it will take close-up pictures in both visible and near-infrared wavelengths. It is expected to reach Pluto in July 2015.

The second Earth Sputnik the first biological satellite with a pressurised cabin that accommodated the dog Laika.

Workers in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility prepare to begin prelaunch processing of the Huygens probe, which will study the clouds, atmosphere and surface of Saturnþs largest moon, Titan, as part of the Cassini mission to Saturn. The probe was designed and developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) by a European industrial consortium led by Aerospatiale as prime contractor. Over the past year, it was integrated and tested at the facilities of Daimler Benz Aerospace Dornier Satellitensysteme in Germany. The probe will be mated to the Cassini orbiter, which was designed and assembled at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The Cassini launch is targeted for October 6 from CCAS aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur expendable launch vehicle. After arrival at Saturn in 2004, the probe will be released from the Cassini orbiter to slowly descend through the Titan atmosphere to the moon's surface

NASA Hosts National Lunar Robotics Excavation Competition '2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge At NASA's Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA

Two GetAway Special canisters (GAS can) are installed in Discoverys payload bay for mission STS-102. The smaller one, left, is filled with student experiments from schools in St. Louis (hosted by Washington University at St. Louis). The larger, at right, is an experiment on Shuttle vibration force. STS-102 is the 8th construction flight to the International Space Station and will carry the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo. STS-102 is scheduled for launch March 1, 2001. On that flight, Leonardo will be filled with equipment and supplies to outfit the U.S. laboratory module Destiny. The mission will also be carrying the Expedition Two crew to the Space Station, replacing the Expedition One crew who will return on Shuttle Discovery

iss051e028301 (4/25/2017) --- A view of the Zero Boil-Off Tank (ZBOT) experiment Vacuum Jacket Camera Window Cover hardware. Zero Boil-Off Tank (ZBOT) uses an experimental fluid to test active heat removal and forced jet mixing as alternative means for controlling tank pressure for volatile fluids. Results from the investigation improve models used to design tanks for long-term cryogenic liquid storage, which are essential in biotechnology, medicine, industrial, and many other applications on Earth.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- An overhead crane in the high bay of the Space Station Processing Facility moves the U.S. laboratory module, an element of the International Space Station, toward the workstand on the right. KSC workers watch its movement. The lab will undergo pre-launch preparations before its launch aboard the Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-98. The laboratory comprises three cylindrical sections with two end cones. Each end-cone contains a hatch opening for entering and exiting the lab. The lab will provide a shirtsleeve environment for research in the areas of life science, microgravity science, Earth science and space science. Designated Flight 5A, this mission is targeted for launch in early 2000

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, illumination testing is underway on the electricity-producing solar arrays for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft.MAVEN is being prepared for its scheduled launch in November from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Positioned in an orbit above the Red Planet, MAVEN will study the upper atmosphere of Mars in unprecedented detail.

Automated Luna-3 station; the first automated station with an attitude control system, in outer space. it was launched on October 4,1959 and orbited the Moon for first time. The satellite transmitted photo televised images, of the dark side of the Moon. It was designed by OKB-1 and was launched by Vostok launch-vehicle

This closeup shows the spin test of the Phoenix Mars Lander in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. The Phoenix mission is the first project in NASA's first openly competed program of Mars Scout missions. Phoenix will land in icy soils near the north polar permanent ice cap of Mars and explore the history of the water in these soils and any associated rocks, while monitoring polar climate. Landing is planned in May 2008 on arctic ground where a mission currently in orbit, Mars Odyssey, has detected high concentrations of ice just beneath the top layer of soil. It will serve as NASA's first exploration of a potential modern habitat on Mars and open the door to a renewed search for carbon-bearing compounds, last attempted with NASAs Viking missions in the 1970s. A stereo color camera and a weather station will study the surrounding environment while the other instruments check excavated soil samples for water, organic chemicals and conditions that could indicate whether the site wa

This photograph shows engineers inspecting the Hubble Space Telescope's (HST's) Primary Mirror at the Perkin-Elmer Corporation's large optics fabrication facility. After the 8-foot diameter mirror was ground to shape and polished, the glass surface was coated with a reflective layer of aluminum and a protective layer of magnesium fluoride, 0.1- and 0.025- micrometers thick, respectively. The purpose of the HST, the most complex and sensitive optical telescope ever made, is to study the cosmos from a low-Earth orbit. By placing the telescope in space, astronomers are able to collect data that is free of the Earth's atmosphere. The Marshall Space Flight Center had responsibility for design, development, and construction of the HST and the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, in Danbury, Cornecticut, developed the optical system and guidance sensors.

STS111-E-5165 (11 June 2002) --- Astronauts Franklin R. Chang-Diaz (left) and Philippe Perrin, both STS-111 mission specialists, work in tandem on the second scheduled session of extravehicular activity (EVA) for the STS-111 mission. During the spacewalk, Chang-Diaz and Perrin attached power, data and video cables from the International Space Station (ISS) to the Mobile Base System (MBS) and used a power wrench to complete the attachment of the MBS onto the Mobile Transporter (MT). Perrin represents CNES, the French Space Agency.

At Launch Pad 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Station, workers watch as the protective canister is lifted from the Stardust spacecraft. Preparations continue for liftoff of the Boeing Delta II rocket carrying Stardust on Feb. 6. Stardust is destined for a close encounter with the comet Wild 2 in January 2004. Using a silicon-based substance called aerogel, Stardust will capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of the comet. The spacecraft also will bring back samples of interstellar dust. These materials consist of ancient pre-solar interstellar grains and other remnants left over from the formation of the solar system. Scientists expect their analysis to provide important insights into the evolution of the sun and planets and possibly into the origin of life itself. The collected samples will return to Earth in a sample return capsule to be jettisoned as Stardust swings by Earth in January 2006

Bios-Primat Capsule was a complex technical device designed to accomodate monkeys during space flights by the Soviet Union

Engineers from NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, remove samples on May 4, 2015, from Orion's heat shield which flew on Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) in 2014. The heat shield protected the spacecraft from temperatures reaching 4000 degrees F. Part of Batch image transfer from Flickr.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Space Station Processing Facility, the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo (right) is ready for installation of a laboratory rack (left center). Leonardo is the first of three such pressurized modules that will serve as the International Space Station's moving vans, carrying laboratory racks filled with equipment, experiments and supplies to and from the Space Station aboard the Space Shuttle. Approximately 21 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, Leonardo will be launched on Shuttle mission STS-102 March 1, 2001. On that flight, Leonardo will be filled with equipment and supplies to outfit the U.S. laboratory module, being carried to the ISS on the Jan. 19, 2001, launch of STS-98

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Space Station Processing Facility, an overhead crane begins to lift the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) pressure module out of the shipping canister to move it to a work stand. A research laboratory, the pressurized module is the first element of the JEM, named "Kibo" (Hope), to be delivered to KSC. The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) developed the laboratory at the Tsukuba Space Center near Tokyo and is Japan's primary contribution to the Station. It will enhance the unique research capabilities of the orbiting complex by providing an additional environment for astronauts to conduct science experiments. The JEM also includes an exposed facility (platform) for space environment experiments, a robotic manipulator system, and two logistics modules. The various JEM components will be assembled in space over the course of three Shuttle missions.

Computer generated scenes depicting the Hubble Space Telescope capture and a sequence of planned events on the planned extravehicular activity (EVA). Scenes include the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm assisting two astronauts changing out the Wide Field/Planetary Camera (WF/PC) (48699); RMS arm assisting in the temporary mating of the orbiting telescope to the flight support system in Endeavour's cargo bay (48700); Endeavour's RMS arm assisting in the capture of the orbiting telescope (48701); Two astronauts changing out the telescope's coprocessor (48702); RMS arm assistign two astronauts replacing one of the telescope's electronic control units (48703); RMS assisting two astronauts replacing the fuse plugs on the telescope's Power Distribution Unit (PDU) (48704); The telescope's High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS) kit is depicted in this scene (48705); Two astronauts during the removal of the high speed photometer and the installation of the COSTAR instrument (48706); Two astronau

Testing of the Solar Dynamic Collector for Space Freedom. The solar dynamic power system includes a solar concentrator, which collects sunlight; a receiver, which accepts and stores the concentrated solar energy and transfers this energy to a gas; a Brayton turbine, alternator, and compressor unit, which generates electric power; and a radiator, which rejects waste heat.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers prepare to mate the Mars Exploration Rover-2 (MER-2) to the third stage of a Delta II rocket for launch on June 5. NASAs twin Mars Exploration Rovers are designed to study the history of water on Mars. These robotic geologists are equipped with a robotic arm, a drilling tool, three spectrometers, and four pairs of cameras that allow them to have a human-like, 3D view of the terrain. Each rover could travel as far as 100 meters in one day to act as Mars scientists' eyes and hands, exploring an environment where humans cant yet go. MER-1 (MER-B) will launch June 25.

Madrid, 12/22/2019. Celebration of the Christmas Lottery prizes sold in the administration of Doña Manolita, among them, El Gordo. Photo: Isabel Permuy ARCHDC.

XV-3 in Ames Reseach Center 40x80ft wind tunnel; Rotor dynamic stability tests

ELECTRO MAGNETIC INTERFERENCE TESTING OF HALL EFFECT THRUSTER

NASA's Rover 1 in the cruise configuration in Jet Propulsion Laboratory's 25-ft Solar Thermal Vacuum Chamber where it underwent environmental testing.

LCROSS in Ames clean room N-240- special made crate for transfer to Northrup Grumman Redondo Beach, CA where more calibration will be done before finally being sent for mating with the LRO spacecraft

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - In the clean room high bay at the Astrotech payload processing facility near NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes A and B are secured on test stands and ready for prelaunch preparations and spacecraft testing to begin. The Radiation Belt Storm Probes, or 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. 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, particularly those that generate hazardous space weather effects in the vicinity of Earth and phenomena that could impact solar system exploration. RBSP will begin its mission of exploration o

This time-lapse video, which has been sped up by 24 times, uses an engineering model of one of the instruments aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover to show how the instrument evaluates safe placement against a rock. If it's determined to be safe, the rover places the instrument, called the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), close to the targeted rock for science observations. This test occurred at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on June 8, 2023. Located on the end of Perseverance's robotic arm, PIXL scans postage stamp-size areas on rocks with an X-ray beam the width of a human hair, determining which elements are present. Scientists use this information to infer what minerals and chemicals are in a rock and help decide whether Perseverance should collect a rock core using its drill. The X-ray beam exits the circular opening at the center of PIXL; colored LED lights around that circle can light up a surface, allowing an internal camera to tak

Deputy Secretary of Defense, Dr. Kathleen H. Hicks visits NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., April 6, 2022. Hicks is visiting with service members, university students and faculty, leading researchers, entrepreneurs, and defense industry representatives in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles to highlight the Departments focus on building enduring advantages, in line with our National Defense Strategy.

In the Space Station Processing Facility, an overhead crane is lowered toward the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello so workers can attach it. The MPLM will be lifted and moved to a scale for weight and balance. Raffaello is the second MPLM built by the Italian Space Agency, and serves as a reusable logistics carrier and primary delivery system used to resupply and return station cargo requiring a pressurized environment. Weighing nearly 4.5 tons, the Raffaello measures 21 feet long and 15 feet in diameter. The MPLM will fly on mission STS-100, scheduled to launch aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on April 19

Illustration of the Capture, Containment, and Return System for Mars Sample Return. This illustration shows the proposed Capture, Containment, and Return System, a NASA payload on the European Space Agency's Earth Return Orbiter. As part of the Mars Sample Return Campaign, samples collected by NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover would be launched into Mars orbit within sealed tubes inside an Orbiting Sample container. The Earth Return Orbiter would then rendezvous with this container, and the Capture, Containment, and Return System would be tasked with capturing the Orbiting Sample container, orienting it, sterilizing its exterior, and transferring it into a clean zone for secondary containment, toward safe return to Earth. The Capture, Containment, and Return System is part of the multi-mission Mars Sample Return program being planned by NASA and European Space Agency (ESA). https //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25860

Engineer Marleen Sundgaard watches as a test version of NASA's Mars InSight lander grasps a model of the spacecraft's seismometer. This work was done at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

A technician and a staff sergeant attach a device which will connect the video systems to the telescope and the ground-based electro-optical deep space surveillance site. Base: White Sands Missile Test Range State: New Mexico (NM) Country: United States Of America (USA)

This image shows a deployed half-scale starshade with four petals at NASA's JPL. On a starshade ready for launch, the thermal gold foil will only cover the side of the petals facing away from the telescope.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In the high bay of the RTG storage facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, preparations are under way to attach the shipping cask enclosing the multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG) for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission to the cables that will lift it from its transportation pallet.The MMRTG will generate the power needed for the mission from the natural decay of plutonium-238, a non-weapons-grade form of the radioisotope. Heat given off by this natural decay will provide constant power through the day and night during all seasons. Waste heat from the MMRTG will be circulated throughout the rover system to keep instruments, computers, mechanical devices and communications systems within their operating temperature ranges. MSL's components include a compact car-sized rover, Curiosity, which has 10 science instruments designed to search for evidence on whether Mars has had environments favorable to microbial life, including c

Commercial Lunar Payload Services Announcemnt was made at Goddard May 31, 2019. Tom Zurbuchen- AA Science Mission Directorate, congratulated three companies for providing lunar landers for Artemis: Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond.

Dr. Holdren (left), Administrator Bolden (center) and Dr. Michele Gates (right) discuss the ARM mission during a live NASA TV briefing. Behind them is a mockup of robotic capture module for the Asteroid Redirect Mission. More info Asteroid Redirect Mission Update - On Sept. 14, 2016, NASA provided an update on the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) and how it contributes to the agencys journey to Mars and protection of Earth. The presentation took place in the Robotic Operations Center at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Assistant to the President for Science and Technology Dr. John P. Holdren, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and NASAs ARM Program Director, Dr. Michele Gates discussed the latest update regarding the mission. They explained the missions scientific and technological benefits and how ARM will demonstrate technology for defending Earth from potentially hazardous asteroids. The briefing aired live on NASA TV and the agencys website.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 (AMS) will be rotated 180 degrees to provide better access for work to be performed on its avionics box. Technicians also will install a flight releasable grappling fixture to AMS while it is upside down.AMS is designed to operate as an external experiment on the International Space Station. It will use the unique environment of space to study the universe and its origin by searching for dark matter. AMS will fly to the station aboard space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission targeted to launch Feb. 27, 2011.

MAGNETO PLASMA DYNAMIC MPD HARDWARE IN VACUUM FACILITY 1

iss038e045758 (2/12/2014) --- A view of Columnar-to-Equiaxed Transition in Solidification Processing-2 (CETSOL-2) test sample 7 which is to be installed into the Material Science Laboratory (MSL) Solidification and Quench Furnace (SQF). This investigation aims to deepen the understanding of the physical principles that govern solidification processes in metal alloys. The patterns of the crystals resulting from transitions of liquids to solids is important for processes used to produce materials such as solar cells, thermoelectrics, and metal alloys.

Engineers in a Mars-like test area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory try possible strategies to aid the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) on NASA's InSight lander, using engineering models of the lander, robotic arm and instrument. In this image, the model's robotic arm is lifting up part of HP3 to expose the self-hammering mole that is partially embedded in the testbed soil. Standing mid-ground are engineers Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu (left) and Troy Lee Hudson (right). Lights in the testbed intended to simulate Mars' lighting conditions give the image an orange tint. Engineers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which provided HP3, have also been working on strategies to help the probe.

Loading and Departure of the Ares 1-X segments

Inside a clean room at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, workers stand beside NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, or AIM, spacecraft, waiting for an overhead crane they will attach. AIM is the seventh Small Explorers mission under NASA's Explorer Program. The program provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space within heliophysics and astrophysics. The AIM spacecraft will fly three instruments designed to study polar mesospheric clouds located at the edge of space, 50 miles above the Earth's surface in the coldest part of the planet's atmosphere. The mission's primary goal is to explain why these clouds form and what has caused them to become brighter and more numerous and appear at lower latitudes in recent years. AIM's results will provide the basis for the study of long-term variability in the mesospheric climate and its relationship to global climate change. AIM is scheduled to be mated to the Pegasus XL during the second

Artemis I Orion Post-Flight Payload Processing - MARE. After a 25-day flight beyond the Moon and back inside the Artemis I Orion crew module, two manikins undergo post-flight payload inspections inside the Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 11, 2023. As part of the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE) investigation, the two female manikins - Helga and Zohar - were equipped with radiation detectors. Zohar also wore a radiation protection vest, to determine the radiation risk during the Artemis I mission and potentially reduce exposure during future missions with astronauts. The detectors will be removed at Kennedy and the torsos will return to teams at the German Space Agency for further analysis. Artemis I Orion launched atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Kennedys Launch Complex 39B on Nov. 16, 2022, at 1:47 a.m. EST. During the flight, Orion flew farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown, paving the way

Professor John Beddington, UK (United Kingdom) Government Chief Scientist Advisor visit to Ames on tour of the Small Satellites area Bldg 45 (and a lunar lander prototype LADEE)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The NASA payload is installed on the prototype rover Artemis Jr. for NASAs Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction, or RESOLVE, project in a test facility behind the Operations and Checkout Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The cylindrical structure at left is the drill the tabletop surface at right is the rovers solar array.The drill and rover were provided to NASA by the Canadian Space Agency. The NASA payload is designed to prospect for water, ice and other lunar resources. RESOLVE also will demonstrate how future explorers can take advantage of resources at potential landing sites by manufacturing oxygen from soil. NASA will conduct field tests in July outside of Hilo, Hawaii, with equipment and concept vehicles that demonstrate how explorers might prospect for resources and make their own oxygen for survival while on other planetary bodies.

Members of the media were invited to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the launch of the first element of the International Space Station by touring the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at KSC. Here, Shimpei Takahashi (center), representative of the Japanese Air and Space Agency (JAXA), talks about the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) on camera. Reporters had the opportunity to see Space Station hardware that is being processed for deployment once the Space Shuttles return to flight, as well as talk with NASA and Boeing mission managers about the various hardware elements currently being processed for flight.

A model of a lunar lander is seen at the NASA exhibit during the 70th International Astronautical Congress, Friday, Oct. 25, 2019, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington.

A model of the Mars InSight lander is on display during a social media briefing, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to study the "inner space" of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core. InSight is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet at approximately noon PST (3 p.m. EST) on Nov. 26.

Perseverance's Cameras, Tallies of Their Images. This annotated image points out the various cameras aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover; the list on the right indicates how many images each camera has taken as of Dec. 6, 2022, the 639th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. (Some of the cameras listed aren't visible in the image, including those aboard the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.) A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, 5th from left, joined by his wife Karen Pence, left, and daughter Charlotte Pence. 2nd from left, view the Vehicle System Test Bed (VSTB) rover in the Mars Yard during a tour of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Saturday, April 28, 2018 in Pasadena, California. NASA Mars Exploration Manager Li Fuk, 2nd from left, JPL Director Michael Watkins, Mars Curiosity Engineering Operations Team Chief Megan Lin, and MSL Engineer Sean McGill, right, helped explain to the Vice President and his family how they use these test rovers.

The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft sits on the bed of the trailer that will take it from KSCs Shuttle Landing Facility to the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility 2 (SAEF-2) located in the KSC Industrial Area. The spacecraft arrived at the SLF aboard an Air Force C-17 cargo airplane that brought it from Denver, Colo.., location of the Lockheed Martin plant where the spacecraft was built. In the SAEF Odyssey will undergo final assembly and checkout. This includes installation of two of the three science instruments, integration of the three-panel solar array, and a spacecraft functional test. It will be fueled and then mated to an upper stage booster, the final activities before going to the launch pad. Launch is planned for April 7, 2001 the first day of a 21-day planetary window. Mars Odyssey will be inserted into an interplanetary trajectory by a Boeing Delta II launch vehicle from Pad A at Complex 17 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The spacecraft will arrive at

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