NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, shown here in an artist’s illustration, arrived at Mars strapped to the Perseverance rover’s belly. Ingenuity was a technology demonstration, originally planned for just five flights — the first powered, controlled flights by a human aircraft on another planet. But Ingenuity stunned the world, completing 72 flights before breaking a rotor blade during a hard landing.

There are trillions of Phytoplankton in Earth’s oceans. These tiny, varied, plant-like cells draw vast amounts of carbon dioxide—100 million tons a day—into the water and convert some of it into organic matter. Some scientists estimate that about 50 percent of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere was produced by phytoplankton. NASA’s PACE mission is designed to greatly advance our understanding of ocean biology and the relationship between ocean life and our atmosphere. Credit: NASA

Within the Large Magellanic Cloud, in the Dorado Constellation, is an unusual cluster of stars known as NGC 1850. It’s about 160,000 light years from Earth and was first observed in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop. Astronomers today believe the cluster, recorded here in an image from the Hubble Telescope, is uncommon in that it is packed with “young” stars, about 100 million years old. Credit: NASA

Artemis I marks the start of a new generation of space exploration. NASA’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) produces 8.8 million lb/f of thrust at launch. The Orion spacecraft has 316 cu ft of habitable space, enough to house as many as six astronauts on a journey to the Moon. NASA’s Artemis astronauts will establish a long-term presence at the Moon, living on the lunar surface for extended periods and exploring the resource-rich south pole. Credits: NASA/Eric Bordelon

This spectacular view of the International Space Station—250 miles above Earth and surrounded by the light from distant stars—was created by NASA astronaut Donald R. Pettit, a Flight Engineer on Expedition 30/31. Pettit combined 18 images, each with 30-seconds exposure, to duplicate the effect of taking a single, long-exposure image.
Credits: NASA/Donald R. Pettit

Pilot Troy Asher, with videographer Lori Losey in the back seat, flies an F-15D from NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center on a mission near Seattle, Washington. The plane is serving as a chase vehicle, gathering crucial pictorial evidence of research to verify rain and snowfall observations made by a satellite. Credit: NASA

The cockpit of an F/A-18 research aircraft from NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center during a flight that included a quiet supersonic dive maneuver off the coast of Galveston, Texas. The pilot climbed to about 50,000 feet, then executed a supersonic, inverted dive as part of research to gauge reaction to sonic shockwaves of various intensities in advance of X-59 flights later this decade. Credit: NASA

The raucous, 8.5-minute ride into Low Earth Orbit aboard the space shuttle began with the ignition of three main engines and a pair of solid rocket boosters, shown here lighting the night sky at Kennedy Space Center and churning out an impressive 6.6 million pounds of thrust. It feels like a catapult shot off the front of an aircraft carrier,” Commander Robert L. “Hoot” Gibson recalled. Credit: NASA

Beneath a black sky, Apollo 15 Lunar Module Pilot James B. Irwin uses a scoop to dig a trench in the ancient surface of the Moon during the mission’s second moonwalk. Irwin and Commander David R. Scott were the first astronauts to drive a vehicle on the Moon, exploring a much greater area than previous astronauts. Credit: NASA

The Space Shuttle transformed human access to space. NASA launched 135 missions between 1981 and 2011, missions that deployed and repaired satellites, helped construct the International Space Station, and provided a unique platform for scientific research that couldn’t have been accomplished on Earth. Credit: NASA

Between 1969 and 1972, NASA landed 12 humans on the Moon, exploring the lunar surface, deploying research projects, and returning samples of lunar regolith and rocks that are still yielding scientific discoveries 50 years later. The first woman and the next man to land on the Moon are training now to establish a sustained presence there, one that will inform a future mission to Mars. Credit: NASA

The Artemis program will establish a long-term human presence at the Moon that will help NASA learn the lessons about living off the Earth for an eventual human mission to Mars. In this artist’s concept, astronauts have emerged from their habitats on Mars to explore the surface. Credit: NASA

NASA has developed several Robonauts—dexterous humanoid robots—that can help humans work and explore in space, sharing the same workspaces and tools. Robonaut 2, above left, launched to the International Space Station on space shuttle Discovery as part of the STS-133 mission, the first dexterous humanoid robot in space. Credit: NASA

The unique shape and technological innovations of the NASA X-59 are designed to reduce the startling booms of supersonic flight to mere thumps, no longer disrupting people in cities below and opening the door for the development of supersonic flight over land. Final construction and assembly of the X-59, shown here in an artist’s concept, is targeted for 2021. Credit: NASA

Artemis astronauts will travel into space and return to Earth in the Orion spacecraft, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean as the Apollo astronauts did when they returned from the Moon. Orion is shown here about to be recovered in the Pacific Ocean after a reentry test of the capsule’s crucial heat shield and parachutes. Credit: NASA

One of the first images captured by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope reveals this swirling, gaseous cavity in the Carina Nebula. In an area nearby, massive stars are being formed, creating intense ultraviolet radiation and hot stellar winds. The image encompasses a massive area, with the tallest “peaks” in this image about 7 light-years high.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

The massive SGT Super Guppy Transport swallows two retired T-38 trainers mounted on a transport pallet, for a flight to El Paso, Texas, where the trainers were to be disassembled in 2013. The SGT’s hinged nose opens 110 degrees to give access to a cavernous 25-foot diameter cargo bay, capable of carrying Saturn rocket stages or International Space Station modules. Credit: NASA

A new generation of NASA astronauts is training now for Artemis lunar landing missions, armed with a better understanding of the Moon and the resources it contains—resources such as water ice that could help sustain a long-term human presence there. In this artist’s concept, Artemis astronauts work on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA

Six of the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) 18 ultra-lightweight beryllium hexagonal mirrors undergo testing. All 18 of the mirrors combine to form the primary mirror—about 6.5 meters from tip to tip, slightly more than 25 square meters in all—that will enable astronomers to peer farther back into time than the Hubble Space Telescope and see in far greater detail than ever before. Credit: NASA

As NASA works to identify Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars, this artist’s concept imagines the surface of TRAPPIST-1f, one of seven planets orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf sun 235 trillion miles from Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope will give astronomers a much closer look at the TRAPPIST-1 solar system. Credit: NASA

The Hubble Space Telescope has transformed scientific understanding of the universe—from its age, to the rate of its expansion, to the role of black holes within its galaxies. Hubble continues to produce stunning images, such as this one of the Veil Nebula, the visible remnants of a supernova formed by the death of a star 20 times larger than the Sun more than 10,000 years ago. Credit: NASA