保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
The last rays of an orbital sunset begin fading in Earth’s atmosphere silhouetting the cloud tops in this June 24, 2023, photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 271 miles above the southernmost tip of South America. The space station makes 16 orbits of the Earth in 24 hours, so astronauts on the orbital outpost see 16 sunrises and...
NASA’s X-59 research aircraft moves from its construction site to the flight line – or the space between the hangar and the runway – at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, on June 16, 2023. This milestone kicks off a series of ground tests to ensure the X-59 is safe and ready to fly. The X-59 is designed to fly faster than Mach 1 while reduc...
A full moon was visible behind the Artemis I SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 14, 2022. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I tested SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. Learn more about observi...
The highly irregular galaxy ESO 174-1, which resembles a lonely, hazy cloud against a backdrop of bright stars, dominates this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. ESO 174-1 lies around 11 million light-years from Earth and consists of a bright cloud of stars and a faint, meandering tendril of dark gas and dust. This image is part of a collection ...
Teams install the heat shield on the Artemis II Orion spacecraft at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 22, 2023. The 16.5-foot-wide shield will ensure the safe return of the astronauts on board as the spacecraft travels at speeds of about 25,000 miles per hour and experiences outside temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. See progress o...
Aerostar’s high-altitude balloon is shown here moments after launch carrying payloads from 20 student teams as part of NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge. Credits: Fresh Produce Students from 20 middle and high schools watched as their experiments launched aboard a high-altitude balloon on June 14 as part of NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge. The flight is pa...
A young alligator rests on a concrete structure at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 25, 2023. Alligator breeding season starts in May when males begin courting females. By June, pairs have mated, and females build vegetation nests in the marsh. Eggs hatch in about 65 days. The mother carries her young to the water and protects them from predat...
Local students take in the sights—and data—at an Earth Information Center student engagement event, Friday, June 23, 2023, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Earth Information Center is a new immersive experience that combines live data sets with innovative data visualization and storytelling to show visitors how our planet is changing. The center gives...
The teeming stars of the globular cluster NGC 6544 glisten in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This cluster of tightly bound stars lies more than 8,000 light-years away from Earth and is, like all globular clusters, a densely populated region of tens of thousands of stars. This image of NGC 6544 combines data from two of Hubble’s instrume...
During the Skylab 2 crew’s final fly-around inspection on June 22, 1973, they saw this overhead view of the Skylab space station. It has a single solar panel and a parasol solar shield, rigged to replace the micrometeoroid shield. A mishap in the original Skylab 1 liftoff and orbital insertion resulted in damage: both the second solar panel and the mic...