Alan B. Shepard Jr. 1923 1998
24.07.1998

On another Friday (May 5, 1961), at the dawn of the space age, NASA controllers "lit the candle" and sent Alan B. Shepard Jr. arcing into space atop a Redstone rocket. The picture shows...

Planets in the West
18.04.2002

Have you seen any bright planets lately? Chances are if you've been outside under clear skies just after sunset, then you have. Now shining in the west as bright "stars" in the night sky, are all five planets of the solar system known to ancient astronomers - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.

SpaceShipOne
27.06.2003

Slung below its equally innovative mothership dubbed White Knight, SpaceShipOne rides above planet Earth, photographed during a recent flight test. SpaceShipOne was designed and built by cutting-edge aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites to compete for the X Prize.

Solar System Family Portrait
13.07.2024

In 1990, cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back to make this first ever Solar System family portrait. The complete portrait is a 60 frame mosaic made from a vantage point 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane.

Parker: Sounds of the Solar Wind
21.01.2020

What does the solar wind sound like? A wind of fast moving particles blows out from our Sun, and although space transmits sound poorly, particle impact and variable-field data from NASA's near-Sun Parker Solar Probe is being translated into sound.

A Rare Double Conjunction Eclipse
28.04.1998

The crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter all appeared together in the early morning hours of April 23rd. Some locations on Earth were able to witness a rare double conjunction eclipse, where the Moon occulted both Jupiter and Venus at the same time.

Planets Ahoy
30.09.2008

Can you spot the Solar System's four rocky planets? In the above image taken on September 20, all of them were visible in a single glance, but some of them may be different than you think. Pictured above, the brightest and highest object in the sky is the planet Venus.

The Earth and Moon Planetary System
15.10.2001

How similar in size are the Earth and the Moon? A dramatic visual answer to this question is found by combining photographs taken by the Mariner 10 spacecraft that headed out toward Venus and Mercury in 1973.

Dusk of the Planets
29.04.2002

A great grouping of planets is now visible to the west just after sunset. Over the next two weeks, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn -- all the planets of the inner Solar System -- can be seen in a single knowing glance. The image on the left captured them all in one frame.

Moon and Planets by the Eiffel Tower
22.05.2002

The great evening grouping of planets is coming to an end. Before all the planets went their own separate directions, however, the Moon was kind enough to pose with some of them. The planets in the above picture, taken last week, are Venus and Jupiter.