Gallery: 50 Years in Space
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Sputnik 1 A model of Sputnik 1 at NASA’s Air and Space Museum. Sputnik 1 – launched on October 4, 1957, by the former Soviet Union – became the first artificial satellite to successfully orbit the Earth. Image Credit: NASA |
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Yuri Gagarin The first man to orbit the Earth on April 12, 1961. Image Credit: dpa / AstroArts.org |
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Astronaut John Glenn During His First Orbit in Friendship 7 John Glenn became a hero when his Atlas rocket blasted off on February 20, 1962, and he orbited the Earth three times in his Mercury capsule, which he nicknamed “Friendship 7″. Image Credit: NASA / Kennedy Space Center |
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First American Spacewalker Astronaut Edward White, pilot of the Gemini 4 flight, floats in space while performing America’s first spacewalk on June 3, 1965. The photograph was taken by commander James McDivitt. Image Credit: NASA / Johnson Space Center |
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Gemini 6 Views Gemini 7 NASA successfully completed its first rendezvous mission with two Gemini spacecraft – Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 – on December 15, 1965. This photograph, taken by Gemini 7 crewmembers Jim Lovell and Frank Borman, shows Gemini 6, crewed by astronauts Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford, in orbit 257 kilometers above Earth. Image Credit: NASA / Johnson Space Center |
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Earthrise The crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to witness the Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon on December 24, 1968. Image Credit: NASA; Astronaut photograph AS8-14-2383 |
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One Giant Leap The pictures from Apollo 11 are among the most famous ever taken, especially this one of astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Image Credit: NASA; Astronaut photograph AS11-40-5903 |
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The one, the only, photograph of Earth This full-earth snapshot taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts on December 7, 1972, has become one of the most widely recognized and requested photographs of all time. It represents not only a milestone in space exploration but also a giant stepping-stone in the quest to understand and protect our home planet. Image Credit: NASA; Astronaut photograph AS17-148-22725 |
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First Mars Surface Photo The first Mars surface photo, taken by the Viking 1 Lander on July 20, 1976. Image Credit: NASA / Planetary Data System (PDS) / AstroArts.org |
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Viking 2 Picture of the Martian Surface A picture of Utopia Planitia on Mars, taken by the Viking 2 Lander on November 23, 1976. Image Credit: NASA / JPL |
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Sagan and Viking Famous for his television series “Cosmos”, Dr. Carl Sagan poses with a model of the Viking lander in Death Valley, California. Image Credit: NASA / JPL |
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Jupiter’s Great Red Spot This dramatic view of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and its surroundings was obtained by Voyager 1 on February 25, 1979. The Voyager project is one of the most successful space missions ever undertaken. Image Credit: NASA / JPL / AstroArts.org |
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Io Plume Discovery Image Volcanic eruptions on Io, taken by Voyager 1 on March 8, 1979, looking back 4,5 million kilometers. This is the original image in which Linda Morabito Kelly, a former JPL engineer, discovered the first evidence of active volcanism beyond Earth. Image Credit: Calvin J. Hamilton (www.solarviews.com) / AstroArts.org |
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STS-1 Launch The first launch of a space shuttle on April 12, 1981, carries astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen into an Earth orbital mission, ending with landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Image Credit: NASA / Kennedy Space Center |
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Pillars of Creation This Hubble Space Telescope image of the Eagle Nebula (M16), a region of star formation located in the constellation Serpens, was released in 1995. A combination of timing, compelling science story, and striking aesthetics made this picture one of the most famous astrophotographs in history. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Jeff Hester & Paul Scowen (Arizona State University) |
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Mars Pathfinder “Presidential Panorama” 360 degree panorama of the Mars Pathfinder landing site, taken on July 18, 1997. Pathfinder was an exceptionally successful and very popular mission to Mars featuring a little rover named Sojourner that wheeled around the Martian surface. Image Credit: NASA / JPL |
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Global image of Io Mosaic of the highest resolution images of Jupiter’s moon Io taken by the Galileo spacecraft on July 3, 1999. Image Credit: NASA / JPL |
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The Great Galaxy in Andromeda This stunningly detailed color mosaic of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) was captured by amateur astrophotographer Robert Gendler in 2002. It required almost 90 hours of exposure time, and the original image is 21.904 x 14.454 pixels in size! The version here has been downscaled. Image Credit: Robert Gendler (www.robgendlerastropics.com) |
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Hubble’s Deepest View of the Universe This Hubble image represents the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind. Called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, it reveals the first galaxies to emerge from the so-called “dark ages”, the time shortly after the big bang when the first stars reheated the cold, dark universe. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and the HUDF Team |
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Titan Surface Composite view from images taken by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) after the landing of the Huygens probe on Titan’s surface on January 14, 2005. Objects near the centre of the picture are roughly the size of a man’s foot. Objects at the horizon are a fraction of a man’s height. Image Credit: ESA / NASA / JPL / University of Arizona |
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Two Worlds, One Sun: Sunset on Mars On May 19, 2005, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev Crater on Mars. Image Credit: NASA / JPL / Texas A&M / Cornell University |
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Ringside with Dione This awesome image of Dione in front of Saturn was obtained by the Cassini spacecraft on October 11, 2005, at a distance of nearly 39.000 kilometers. Image Credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute / AstroArts.org |
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Fountains of Enceladus This Cassini image of Saturn’s moon Enceladus backlit by the sun shows towering plumes of ice particles erupting from the moon’s south polar region. The image was taken on November 27, 2005, at a distance of 147.488 km. The discovery of active eruptions on a third outer Solar System body (after Jupiter’s moon Io and Neptune’s moon Triton) is one of the great highlights of the Cassini mission. Image Credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute |
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Victoria Crater This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, taken on October 3, 2006, shows “Victoria Crater”, an impact crater at Meridiani Planum, near the equator of Mars. The crater is approximately 800 meters in diameter. Five days before this image was taken, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity arrived at the rim of Victoria Crater, after a drive of more than 9 kilometers. The rover can be seen in this image, at roughly the ten o’clock position. Image Credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona |