SPACE Exploration

Wildflowers in Bloom at Kennedy Space Center

With wildflowers surrounding the view, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) Moon rocket carried atop the Crawler-Transporter 2 arrives at Launch Pad 39B at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 6, 2022.
The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I will test the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and using the Moon as a steppingstone before venturing to Mars.

Read more about the Artemis I mission.

Image Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky

Orion Spacecraft
Space Launch System (SLS)
Artemis Program

Artemis 1 is a planned uncrewed test flight for NASA's Artemis program. It is the first flight of the agency's Space Launch System super heavy-lift launch vehicle and the first flight of the Orion MPCV. As of May 2022, Artemis 1 is expected to launch no earlier than August 2022

Artemis I is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars.

An Expanse of Light

This gallery provides examples of the ways that different types of light from telescopes on the ground and in space can be combined. The common thread in each of these selections is data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, illustrating how X-rays — which are emitted by very hot and energetic processes — are found throughout the Universe.

R Aquarii:
This object is, in fact, a pair: a white dwarf star that steadily burns at a relatively cool temperature and a highly variable red giant. As they orbit each other, the white dwarf pulls material from the red giant onto its surface. Over time, enough of this material accumulates and triggers an explosion. Astronomers have seen such outbursts over recent decades. Evidence for much older outbursts is seen in the spectacular structures observed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (red and blue). X-ray data from Chandra (purple) shows how a jet from the white dwarf is striking material surrounding it and creating shock waves, similar to sonic booms from supersonic planes.

Cassiopeia A:
Chandra's observations of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant have shown how individual elements from the exploded star are being cast off into space. In this image, X-rays reveal silicon (red), sulfur (yellow), calcium (green), and iron (light purple). The blue around the rim of the remnant reveals the blast wave from the explosion as it travels outward. This image also adds a layer of radio data of Cassiopeia A from the National Science Foundation's Karl Jansky Very Large Array (dark purple, blue, and white) and an optical image from Hubble (orange). Like X-rays, radio waves can pe*****te thick clouds of gas and dust that lie between Earth and Cassiopeia A, providing additional information about this famous stellar explosion.

Space Station Silhouette on the Moon

What's that unusual spot on the Moon? It's the International Space Station. Using precise timing, the Earth-orbiting space platform was photographed in front of a partially lit gibbous Moon last month. The featured composite, taken from Payson, Arizona, USA last month, was intricately composed by combining, in part, many 1/2000-second images from a video of the ISS crossing the Moon. A close inspection of this unusually crisp ISS silhouette will reveal the outlines of numerous solar panels and trusses. The bright crater Tycho is visible on the upper left, as well as comparatively rough, light colored terrain known as highlands, and relatively smooth, dark colored areas known as maria. On-line tools can tell you when the International Space Station will be visible from your area.

Image Credit & Copyright: Andrew McCarthy