Ghostly Encounter

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The surface of Saturn's moon Dione is rendered in crisp detail against a hazy, ghostly Titan. Visible in this image are hints of atmospheric banding around Titan's north pole.

The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 10, 2010. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Dione and 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Titan. Scale in the original image was 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Dione and 16 kilometers (10 miles) on Titan. The image has been magnified by a factor of 1.5 and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.

Roy S. Estess

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NASA remembers Roy Estess, former Stennis Space Center Director, who passed away on June 25, 2010. Estess had a 37-year career at NASA, which began in 1966 where he was a test engineer at NASA's Stennis Space Center, known then as the Mississippi Test Facility, and worked on the engines for the Apollo Program. In 1989, he was named center director of Stennis and served in that role until 2002. He also served as acting center director of Johnson Space Center.

In this image from 2001, Johnson Space Center Acting Director Roy Estess (right) greets the Expedition 3 and STS-108 crews during return ceremonies. Seated (from left) are Nikolai Zubov, Deputy Director for Logistics and Procurement, Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia; Expedition 3 commander Frank Culbertson; and Expedition 3 flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Vladimir N. Dezhurov.

Supersonic Green Machine

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This future aircraft design concept for supersonic flight over land comes from the team led by the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

The team's simulation shows possibility for achieving overland flight by dramatically lowering the level of sonic booms through the use of an "inverted-V" engine-under wing configuration. Other revolutionary technologies help achieve range, payload and environmental goals.

This supersonic cruise concept is among the designs presented in April 2010 to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate for its NASA Research Announcement-funded studies into advanced aircraft that could enter service in the 2030-2035 timeframe.

Rachmaninoff on Mercury

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The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved the name Rachmaninoff for an intriguing double-ring basin on Mercury. This basin, first imaged in its entirety during MESSENGER's third Mercury flyby, was quickly identified as a feature of high scientific interest, because of its fresh appearance, its distinctively colored interior plains, and the extensional troughs on its floor. The basin's name honors the Russian composer, pianist and conductor, Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).

IAU names craters on Mercury after "deceased artists, musicians, painters and authors who have made outstanding or fundamental contributions to their field and have been recognized as art historically significant figures for more than 50 years." The process of proposing a new crater name includes gathering fundamental information about the crater, such as the crater's central latitude, central longitude, and diameter. Justification is provided as to why the crater is of sufficient scientific importance to be named, and details are provided about the name choice, including sources that support the worthy contributions made by that individual. Ten newly named craters join 42 others named since MESSENGER's first Mercury flybyin January 2008.

NASA Day on the Hill

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Exhibits highlight NASA's Earth and space science portfolio, cutting-edge aeronautics research and technology development and continued leadership in human space flight and exploration for NASA Day on the Hill in the Rayburn Foyer, Rayburn House Office Building, on June 23, 2010. Pictured is Scarab, a new generation lunar rover designed to assist astronauts take rock and mineral samples and explore the lunar surface. This lunar rover is being evaluated to demonstrate a combined drilling and science rover platform for lunar exploration.

Light for the Ages

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Today, our sun reaches its northernmost point in planet Earth's sky. Called a solstice, the date traditionally marks a change of seasons -- from spring to summer in Earth's Northern Hemisphere and from fall to winter in Earth's Southern Hemisphere.

In this image from 2007, NASA's Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) satellites provided the first three-dimensional images of the sun. STEREO, a two-year mission that launched October 2006, provided a unique and revolutionary view of the Sun-Earth System.

Launching Into History

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On June 18, 1983, a young physicist from California took her seat aboard the space shuttle and launched into history. On that date, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as a mission specialist on STS-7. In this image Ride monitors control panels from the pilot's chair on the Flight Deck.

From the Beginning

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The bulkhead and nosecone of the Orion spacecraft are joined using friction stir welding at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility. Nondestructive evaluations will validate the strength and integrity of the weld before the spacecraft is prepped for ground testing in flight-like environments, including static vibration, acoustics and water landing tests.

Expedition 24 Heads to the Station

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The Soyuz TMA-19 rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, June 16, 2010, carrying Expedition 24 NASA astronauts Shannon Walker and Douglas Wheelock, and Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin to the International Space Station. Their Soyuz TMA-19 rocket launched at 3:35 a.m Kazakhstan time, or 5:35 p.m EDT.

Shooting for the Moon

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This image from 1967 shows the S-II stage of the Saturn V rocket as it was hoisted onto the A-2 test stand at the Mississippi Test Facility (now the Stennis Space Center). This was the second stage of the 364-foot tall moon rocket, which was powered by five J-2 engines.

Kicking Off the Summer of Innovation

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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden spoke with teachers and middle school students during the kick off of NASA's Summer of Innovation program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Thursday, June 10, 2010. Through the program, NASA will engage thousands of middle school students and their teachers in stimulating math and science-based education programs with the goal of increasing the number of future scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

Blue Like Mars

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This image shows the west-facing side of an impact crater in the mid-latitudes of Mars' northern hemisphere. Like many mid-latitude Martian craters, this one has gullies along its walls that are composed of alcoves, channels and debris aprons. The origins of these gullies have been the subject of much debate; they could have been formed by flowing water, liquid carbon dioxide or dry granular flows.

Many of the other features observed in and around this crater are indicative of an ice-rich terrain, which may lend credence to the water formation hypothesis for these gullies. The most notable of these features is scalloped terrain in and around the crater. This type of terrain has been interpreted as a sign of surface caving, perhaps due to sublimation of underlying ice. Sublimation is the process of a solid changing directly to a gas.

Another sign of ice is the presence of parallel lines and pitted material on the crater floor. Parallel linear cracks are also observed along the crater wall over the gullies, which could be due to thermal contraction of ice-rich material.

together, these features are evidence for ice-rich material having been deposited in this region during different climatic conditions, material that has subsequently begun to melt and/or sublimate under current conditions. More recently, wind-blown deposits have accumulated around the crater, as evidenced by the parallel ridges dominating the landscape.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the image on April 13, 2010.

Centaur's Rocket Engine

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In this image, engineers test the RL-10 engine in NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center's Propulsion Systems Laboratory. Developed by Pratt & Whitney, the engine was designed to power the Centaur second-stage rocket. Centaur was responsible for sending the Surveyor spacecraft on its mission to land on the moon and to explore the surface in the early stages of the Apollo Program.

Lagoons of New Caledonia

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In 2008, UNESCO added the Lagoons of New Caledonia to the World Heritage Site list. The Lagoons comprise six marine clusters that represent the main diversity of coral reefs and associated ecosystems in the French Pacific Ocean archipelago of New Caledonia and one of the three most extensive reef systems in the world. These Lagoons feature a remarkable diversity of coral and fish species and a continuum of habitats from mangroves to seagrasses with the world's most diverse concentration of reef structures. The Lagoons of New Caledonia display intact ecosystems, with healthy populations of large predators, and a great number and diversity of big fish. They provide habitat to a number of emblematic or threatened marine species such as turtles, whales and dugongs whose population here is the third largest in the world

With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products.

Rhapsody in Black

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This silhouette of Saturn was taken by the Cassini spacecraft on Feb. 13, 2010. Although the sun is eclipsed by Saturn in this dramatic image, some sunlight scatters through the uppermost part of the atmosphere to reach Cassini's cameras.

This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane.

Preparing for the Shuttle Mission

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The NASA Railroad transported the last space shuttle solid rocket booster segments over the Indian River on the 13-mile trip from the Jay Jay Rail Yard in Titusville, Fla., to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Six cars transported the segments along the Florida East Coast Railway, which began at the ATK solid rocket booster plant in Promontory, Utah. The booster segments will be used for shuttle Atlantis on what currently is planned as the "launch on need," or potential rescue mission for the final shuttle flight, Endeavour's STS-134 mission.

Expedition 23 Returns to Earth

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The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, June 2, 2010. NASA Astronaut Creamer, Russian Cosmonaut Kotov and Japanese Astronaut Noguchi are returning from six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 22 and 23 crews.

On Guard

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At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an adult osprey guards its young in a nest built on a platform in the press site parking lot, backdropped by the 209-foot by 110-foot American flag painted on the side of the Vehicle Assembly Building. The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge coexists with Kennedy Space Center and provides a habitat for 330 species of birds, including the osprey, and a variety of other wildlife. Kennedy's press site is located at the turn basin in Launch Complex 39, making it an ideal osprey nesting place.

ISS Transits the Sun

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Thilo Kranz, a staff member at DLR, the German Space Agency, took this image of the transit of the International Space Station ISS with Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-132 mission.

Kranz photographed "the ISS as it passed across the solar disk in just 0.51 seconds ... At this time, preparations for undocking of space shuttle Atlantis during its final mission, STS-132, were ongoing. You can see the still docked shuttle in the 11 o'clock position. Also, you may recognise the solar panels and the large radiators. In the full resolution version of this image, you can also see the Soyuz capsule. Close to the centre of the sun, a group of sunspots is visible."

Visit the DLR News Blog for more information.

Homecoming for Atlantis

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Space shuttle Atlantis' main gear touched down on Runway 33 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:48 a.m. EDT, completing a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. On board were Commander Ken Ham, pilot Tony Antonelli, Garrett Reisman, Michael Good, Steve Bowen and Piers Sellers. The six-member STS-132 crew carried the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 to the International Space Station. STS-132 is the last planned flight for Atlantis.

The Blackness of Space

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Spacewalker Michael Good, barely visible in his white spacesuit against the station, participated in the STS-132 mission's third and final spacewalk. During the six-hour, 46-minute spacewalk, Good and fellow NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman completed the installation of the final two new batteries for the B side of the port 6 solar array.

Another View

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Astronauts Michael Good (left) and Garrett Reisman look through the aft flight deck windows of space shuttle Atlantis during the mission’s third aspacewalk. During the spacewalk, Good and Reisman completed the installation of the final two of the six new batteries for the B side of the port 6 solar array. In addition, the astronauts installed a backup ammonia jumper cable between the port 4 and 5 trusses of the station and transferred a power and data grapple fixture from the shuttle to the station.

Earth's Horizon

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Earth's horizon and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for Atlantis' aft section while it was docked with the International Space Station during the STS-132 mission.

Docked at the Station

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This image features the Atlantis' cabin and forward cargo bay and a section of the International Space Station while the two spacecraft remain docked, photographed during the STS-132 mission's first spacewalk.

Poised for Success

Anchored to the Canadarm2 mobile foot restraint, Garrett Reisman performed construction and maintenance activities outside the station during the STS-132 mission's first spacewalk. During the seven-hour, 25-minute spacewalk, Reisman and NASA astronaut Steve Bowen installed a second antenna for high-speed Ku-band transmissions and added a spare parts platform to Dextre, a two-armed extension for the station’s robotic arm.

Reisman's Self-Portrait

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NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman takes a self-portrait visor while participating in the first of three spacewalks scheduled for the Atlantis crew and their Expedition 23 hosts. Though three spacewalks will involve only three astronauts (two on each occasion) who actually leave the shirt-sleave environments of the two docked spacecraft, all twelve astronauts and cosmonauts have roles in supporting the work. Part of the space station and the blue and white Earth are among the objects seen in his visor. Fellow spacewalker Steve Bowen, mission specialist, is out of frame.