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Pictures of Spacecraft
Soyuz TMA-08M, carrying the crew of Expedition 36, touches down on the Kazakh steppe on Sept. 11, 2013. The bright orange flash under the vehicle is caused by retro-rockets firing to slow the spacecraft's descent.
Filed under spacecraft, human spaceflight, Russian human spaceflight
Curiosity undergoing environmental testing
In March 2011 the Curiosity rover was housed in a space-simulation chamber to be put through its paces at simulated Martian temperatures and pressures. Curiosity is fully assembled with all primary flight hardware and instruments. The test chamber's door is still open. After the door is closed, a near-vacuum environment can be established, and the chamber walls flooded with liquid nitrogen for chilling to minus 130 degrees Celsius (minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit). A bank of powerful lamps simulates sunshine on Mars. The technician in the picture is using a wand to map the solar simulation intensities at different locations in the chamber just prior to the start of the testing.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)
The Deep Impact Impactor spacecraft, an hour after separation
The bright spot in this photo is the Deep Impact impactor, as seen by the Medium Resolution Imager on the flyby spacecraft. It was taken at 06:58 UTC, spacecraft event time, which is just short of an hour after the two spacecraft separated.
Filed under mission status, pics of spacecraft in space, Deep Impact
MESSENGER as seen from Earth, a year after launch
This image, taken with the TAROT CNES telescope (Latitude: 43.75deg N - Longitude: 6.92deg E) in southeastern France, reveals the position of MESSENGER as a streak of light near the center. At the time that the image was taken, 20:16:39 UTC (8:16 pm), the MESSENGER spacecraft was about 21,640 km above the eastern Atlantic Ocean near the western coast of Africa - due west of Luanda, Angola and due south of Cote d'Ivoire. Photo credit:
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, pics of spacecraft in space, MESSENGER
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, Chang'E program
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, LADEE
In this artist's concept illustration, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander begins to shut down operations as winter sets in.
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, Mars, Phoenix
HiRISE view of Opportunity, sol 3361
HiRISE captured this photo of Opportunity on the rover's sol 3361, July 8, 2013. At the time, the rover was taking advantage of summer sunlight to drive southward along the rim of Endeavour crater from Cape York (at the top of the photo), past Sutherland Point and Nobby's Head (at the center of the photo), toward Solander Point (at the bottom). Opportunity is just past halfway from Nobby's Head to the northern tip of Solander Point.
Filed under pretty pictures, amateur image processing, pics of spacecraft in space, Mars, Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Opportunity took this image of Luis de Torres, a target in the Yuma area along the southeastern rim of Santa Maria Crater. The rover is currently examining the target to determine its content and if these rocks are the source of the hydrated sulfate signal detected from orbit by the CRISM intrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, amateur image processing, Mars, Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity
Opportunity used its navigation camera to record this view during its Sol 2476 (Jan. 10, 2011) from a position close to the crater rim on the southeastern edge. Santa Maria is more polygonal in shape than circular, and is estimated to be from 80 to 90 meters in diameter. Contrast has been enhanced to emphasize the textures.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, Mars, Mars Exploration Rovers, Opportunity
Launching from Earth in 2011, the Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter in 2016 to study the giant planet from an elliptical, polar orbit. Juno will repeatedly dive between the planet and its intense belts of charged particle radiation, coming only 5,000 kilometers from the cloud tops at closest approach.
Filed under pretty pictures, art, spacecraft, Juno
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, Stardust
Shenzhou 10 and Tiangong 1 transit sequence
This combined image sequence shows Shenzhou 10 and Tiangong 1 transiting the Sun on June 17, 2013. The images were captured from Southern France using a Takahashi FSQ-106 refracting telescope, a Coronado SM90 double stack solar filter, and an IDS CMOSIS 4Mp sensor shooting at 38 fps.
Filed under pretty pictures, amateur astrophotos, pics of spacecraft in space, human spaceflight
Shenzhou 10 and Tiangong 1 (detailed)
A cropped selection of Shenzhou 10 and Tiangong 1 transiting the Sun.
Filed under pretty pictures, amateur astrophotos, pics of spacecraft in space, human spaceflight
Tiangong 1 and Shenzhou 10 transit the Sun
China’s Shenzhou 10 spacecraft and Tiangong 1 space station transit the Sun on June 16, 2013. The image was taken from Southern France using a Takahashi TOA-150 refractor, a Baader Herschel solar prism and a Canon 6D camera shooting at 1/4000s, at ISO 100.
Filed under pretty pictures, amateur astrophotos, pics of spacecraft in space, human spaceflight
On sol 292 (June 2, 2013), Curiosity performed some nighttime MAHLI close-up imaging of the drill hole at Cumberland. The scene is illuminated only by the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) next to the MAHLI optics.
Filed under pretty pictures, spacecraft, amateur image processing, Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)
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