sonicbloom

Curiosity Self-Portrait Panorama 
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS - Panorama by Andrew Bodrov

Explanation: This remarkable self-portrait of NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover includes a sweeping panoramic view of its current location in the Yellowknife Bay region of the Red Planet’s Gale Crater. The rover’s flat, rocky perch, known as “John Klein”, served as the site for Curiosity’s first rock drilling activity. At the foot of the proud looking rover, a shallow drill test hole and a sample collection hole are 1.6 centimeters in diameter. The impressive mosaic was constructed using frames from the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Mastcam. Used to take in the panoramic landscape frames, the Mastcam is standing high above the rover’s deck. But MAHLI, intended for close-up work, is mounted at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. The MAHLI frames used to create Curiosity’s self-portrait exclude sections that show the arm itself and so MAHLI and the robotic arm are not seen. Check out this spectacular interactive version of Curiosity’s self-portrait panorama.

(via ifuckinglovespace)

ifuckinglovespace:

Landsat 8 on the launch pad.

Watch it live.

GARDEN CITY, KANSAS

Center pivot irrigation systems create red circles of healthy vegetation in this image of croplands near Garden City, Kansas.

This image was acquired by Landsat 7’s Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) sensor on September 25, 2000. This is a false-color composite image made using near infrared, red, and green wavelengths. The image has also been sharpened using the sensor’s panchromatic band.

Credit: Image provided by the USGS EROS Data Center

(via earth-as-art)

pbsthisdayinhistory:

Jan. 28, 1986: Space Shuttle Challenger Breaks Apart After Launch

On this day in 1986, Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after launch. Seven crew members were lost, including Teacher-in-Space payload specialist Sharon Christa McAuliffe.

After the Challenger explosion, President Ronald Reagan spoke to the public, especially to young children who had been watching the liftoff on television:

“…I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle’s takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them…”

Read President Reagan’s full speech here.

Photo Credit:  Photo from Jan. 9, 1986 - the Challenger crew takes a break during countdown training at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (NASA)

The space shuttle Challenger lifts off Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., at 11:38 a.m., EST, in this January 28, 1986 file photo. The entire crew of seven was lost in the explosion 73 seconds into the launch. The circumstances were different, they were coming home, not vaulting into space, but again there was the familiar jolt to the gut. Space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames 200,000 feet over Texas on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts just minutes before they were to glide to a landing in Florida.

(AP Photo/NASA, File)

(Source: ifuckinglovespace)

ifuckinglovespace:

Title:
Astronaut Ronald Evans photographed during transearth coast EVA

Description:
Astronaut Ronald E. Evans is photographed performing extravehicular activity (EVA) during the Apollo 17 spacecraft’s transearth coast. During his EVA Command Module pilot Evans retrieved film cassettes from the Lunar Sounder, Mapping Camera, and Panoramic Camera. The total time for the transearth EVA was one hour seven minutes 19 seconds, starting at ground elapsed time of 257:25 (2:28 p.m.) and ending at ground elapsed time of 258:42 (3:35 p.m.) on Sunday, December 17, 1972.

AS17-137-20979 (12 Dec. 1972) —- A close-up view of the lunar roving vehicle (LRV) at the Taurus-Littrow landing site photographed during Apollo 17 lunar surface extravehicular activity. Note the makeshift repair arrangement on the right rear fender of the LRV. During EVA-1 a hammer got underneath the fender and a part of it was knocked off. Astronauts Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt were reporting a problem with lunar dust because of the damage fender. Following a suggestion from astronaut John W. Young in the Mission Control Center at Houston the crewmen repaired the fender early in EVA-2 using lunar maps and clamps from the optical alignment telescope lamp. Schmitt is seated in the rover. Cernan took this picture.

(Source: ahttp, via ifuckinglovespace)

The Last Moon Shot 
Credit: Apollo Program, NASA (image scanned by J.L. Pickering)

Explanation: In 1865 Jules Verne predicted the invention of a space capsule that could carry people. His science fiction story “From the Earth to the Moon” outlined his vision of a cannon in Florida so powerful that it could shoot a Projectile-Vehicle carrying three adventurers to the Moon. Over 100 years later NASA, guided by Wernher Von Braun’s vision, produced the Saturn V rocket. From a spaceport in Florida, this rocket turned Verne’s fiction into fact, launching 9 Apollo Lunar missions and allowing 12 astronauts to walk on the Moon. As spotlights play on the rocket and launch pad at dusk, the last moon shot, Apollo 17, is pictured here awaiting its December 1972 night launch.

(via ifuckinglovespace)

A rare gag photo taken in November 1965, the Gemini 8 prime crew — David Scott and Neil Armstrong (front row) — is seen with their backups, Richard Gordon and Charles Conrad (who would fly together on Gemini 11 and Apollo 12).

(via ifuckinglovespace)

Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, waves to the crowd during a ticker tape parade up lower Broadway in New York, on August 13, 1969. 

(AP Photo/ETA)

(via ifuckinglovespace)

nedhepburn:

Dead at 82, Neil Armstrong. 

(via theatlantic)