Explore
Pictures of Spacecraft
Filed under spacecraft, art, ExoMars
Artist's concept of Spirit, stuck in her final resting place at Troy, next to Home Plate, in Gusev Crater.
Filed under art, spacecraft, amateur image processing, Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit
Mars Science Laboratory descends
In this still from a movie of Mars Science Laboratory's landing, the rover descends on cables from the backshell as retrorockets fire to slow its descent.
Filed under Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory), art, spacecraft
Dots and dashes in a rover wheel
A still from a video showing testing of an engineering model of the Curiosity rover shows a pattern of holes -- the "visual odometry markers" in the wheels, which leave a rhythmic pattern in the rover's tracks, which will help the rover determine how far it has traveled using optical navigation. If you're wondering why the pattern appears as it does, they are dots and dashes of Morse code. As the rover drives, it spells out "J-P-L." J: . - - - P: . - - . L: . - . .
Filed under pretty pictures, explaining technology, spacecraft, Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)
The Philae lander is the small blue object perched on the side of the Rosetta spacecraft.
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, Rosetta and Philae
Technicians from Lockheed Martin are inspecting the MAVEN primary structure following its September 2011 completion at the company's Composites Lab near Denver.
Filed under pretty pictures, explaining technology, spacecraft, MAVEN
The Galileo spacecraft atop the inertial upper stage drifts into the blackness of space after deployment from the Space Shuttle Atlantis payload bay during mission STS-34, October 1989.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, Galileo
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, Mars Express
IKAROS self-portrait with Venus
IKAROS took this photo on December 8, 2010, documenting its flight past Venus.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, pics of spacecraft in space, Venus, IKAROS
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, MAVEN
Human mission to an asteroid in an Orion capsule (thumbnail)
Artist's concept of a human asteroid mission using an Orion crew capsule
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, human spaceflight, shuttle successor, future technology
ESA's stricken Envisat satellite was imaged by the CNES satellite Pleiades at a distance of 100 kilometers. Envisat was shown to be intact but oriented in an unexpected position. Ground controllers have not been able to contact the satellite since April 8.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, pics of spacecraft in space, Earth observing missions
The RISAT 1 satellite during processing.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, Earth observing missions
India's Radar Imaging Satellite 1 lifts off aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The April 26 launch took place at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Southeastern India.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, rockets, Earth observing missions
Pioneer 10 exiting the solar system
As the Pioneers exited the solar system, they slowed down more than expected, a phenomenon known as the Pioneer Anomaly.
Filed under Pioneer 10 and 11, art, spacecraft
IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) is a solar sail which gathers sunlight as propulsion by means of a large sail. This spacecraft will be launched in 2010 together with the Venus Climate Orbiter, "AKATSUKI"(PLANET-C), using an H-IIA launch vehicle.
Filed under pretty pictures, IKAROS, spacecraft, art
This artist's concept shows the venerable Voyager 2 spacecraft journeying out of the solar system at 15 kilometers per second (34,000 miles per hour) with the solar wind streaming past it four times faster.
Filed under pretty pictures, Voyager 1 and 2, spacecraft, art
Artist's conception of the Deep Impact spacecraft observing the birth of the new crater on comet Tempel 1.
Filed under pretty pictures, Deep Impact, spacecraft, art
Connect With Us
Facebook! Twitter! Google+ and more…
Continue the conversation with our online community!
