Mount Olympus (on Mars), is the tallest mountain in the Solar System.
Tag Archive: nasa
Planet Mercury, courtesy of the Messenger Spacecraft.
A closeup of Jupiter’s clouds from the Juno Spacecraft.
Jupiter and its Moon IO, NASA.
WARNING – LOUD! Gav plops down the high speed camera next to a rocket engine with 45,000lbs of thrust and the results are epic.
A boy on horseback stops to watch as the Space Shuttle Enterprise is towed across Antelope Valley on January 31, 1977. It was being taken 36 miles from Rockwell International in Palmdale to the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base where it would conduct operational testing.
Keep in mind that when this was taken, no shuttle had ever been launched into space. That wouldn’t happen until 1981. So, to this kid, this is just some funny-looking plane being hauled through the desert atop a 90-wheel transport in a 20 vehicle convoy. It must have seemed so far-fetched to learn what it was.
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Photo by Art Rogers of the LA Times, archived at @uclalibrary
Launchpads are incredible feats of engineering. Unlike NASA, which spends years in planning and engineering, SpaceX uses rapid development cycles and full-scale tests to work toward its eventual goals. They push their hardware to the limit to learn as much as possible, and we get to follow along. They’re betting it will pay off to develop fast instead of carefully. This video compares the Stage 0 launch pad to the historic pad 39A.
The full moon as photographed from on board the ISS, by NASA’s Jeff Williams.
Endeavour’s 26th mission was a lot slower and a lot shorter than the previous 25, but it was still full of fascinating engineering challenges. This October marked the 10-year anniversary of the nearly 3-day trip, so let’s reminisce on this incredible feat and dive into what it took to get the orbiter safely to its final home.
Check Your Premises 