NASA's mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.

On Nov. 16, 2022, NASA made history with the launch of our Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft – our newest transportation system that will return humans to the Moon. Relive the powerful moment SLS rumbled away from Earth, beginning Orion’s three-week test flight around the Moon, and watch as we document Orion’s splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, closing the first chapter in America’s next deep space exploration story.

For the first time ever, fresh food grown in the microgravity environment of space is on the menu for NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Expedition 44 crew members Scott Kelly, Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui sampled the red romaine lettuce which was grown as part of the Veggie experiment after it had spent 33 days growing aboard the station. NASA is maturing Veggie technology aboard the space station to provide future pioneers with a sustainable food supplement – a critical part of NASA’s Journey to Mars. As NASA moves toward long-duration exploration missions farther into the solar system, Veggie will be a resource for crew food growth and consumption. It also could be used by astronauts for recreational gardening activities during deep space missions. The higher resolution images and higher frame rate 4K videos can reveal more information when used on science investigations, giving researchers a valuable new tool aboard the space station.

Our senses tell us about the natural world, but our senses cannot tell us everything. That’s why we use tools, and NASA develops some of the most sophisticated, most exciting tools of all. Designed to reveal aspects of the Earth, the Sun, The Moon, these tools gather essential data about the world around us, while other instruments peer way out to much more distant places. When these data are turned into visualizations, we discover a complexity and elegance to the natural world that would otherwise elude our physical senses. Even more important, we uncover vital clues to understand how things work, how they’re changing, and what the implications for those changes may mean. With the advent of Ultra-High-Definition video, more commonly known as “4K Video”, those images take on an enhanced majesty and power. In this video, we present images about our home planet, as well as the life-giving star it orbits, and the mysterious moon that travels with us through space.

This time-lapse imagery taken by NASA astronaut Jack Fischer from the International Space Station in 4K Ultra High Defintion takes us over the Pacific Ocean’s moon glint and above the night lights of San Francisco, Calif. through Denver, Colo.

three minutes to spare for a tour of southern Europe? That’s all the time it takes, when you have a 4K camera orbiting Earth 250 miles up—and we do, on the International Space Station. This Ultra High Definition video was shot in August 2016 as the station traveled nearly 1000 miles, taking in views from above the western coast of France to the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Switzerland, southern Germany and Austria, and southward to the countries of the Balkan Peninsula.

“Sharing the incomparable silent beauty of our planet with all our fellow travelers on this, our Spaceship Earth.” @SergeyISS @Astro_Paolo @Astrokomrade “Our thanks to Mr. Paul Simon and Disturbed.” “Our thanks to all the people within the partnership of the International Space Station who show us daily what heights we can achieve together.” “The Sound of Silence” Written by Paul Simon. SONGS OF UNIVERSAL, INC. on behalf of PAUL SIMON MUSIC. Performed by Disturbed. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records. Captured by astronauts Sergey Ryazanskiy, Paolo Nespoli, and Commander Randy Bresnik, the video features stunning footage of Earth and outer space from the International Space Station in low-earth orbit during the months of August through October in 2017.

The astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station take pictures of Earth out their windows nearly every day, and over a year that adds up to thousands of photos. The people at the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston had the enviable job of going through this year’s crop to pick their top 17 photos of Earth for 2017—here’s what they chose! Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

Take a virtual tour of the Moon in all-new 4K resolution, thanks to data provided by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. As the visualization moves around the near side, far side, north and south poles, we highlight interesting features, sites, and information gathered on the lunar terrain. Music Provided By Killer Tracks: "Never Looking Back" - Frederick Wiedmann. "Flying over Turmoil" - Benjamin Krause & Scott Goodman.

Science gets scaled up with the first 8K ultra high definition (UHD) video from the International Space Station. Get closer to the in-space experience and see how the international partnership-powered human spaceflight is improving lives on Earth, while enabling humanity to explore the universe.

Water in space behaves… differently. Surface tension and capillary flow can be harnessed to move fluids in more efficient ways. What looks like fun could actually help us improve systems for moving fluids in microgravity, in things like fuel tanks for space travel. Find out more about fluid physics in space in our researcher’s guide:

This video uses data gathered from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft to recreate some of the stunning views of the Moon that the Apollo 13 astronauts saw on their perilous journey around the farside in 1970. These visualizations, in 4K resolution, depict many different views of the lunar surface, starting with earthset and sunrise and concluding with the time Apollo 13 reestablished radio contact with Mission Control. Also depicted is the path of the free return trajectory around the Moon, and a continuous view of the Moon throughout that path. All views have been sped up for timing purposes — they are not shown in "real-time." Credits: Data Visualization by: Ernie Wright (USRA) Video Produced & Edited by: David Ladd (USRA)

While Apollo placed the first steps on the Moon, Artemis opens the door for humanity to sustainably work and live on another world for the first time. Using the lunar surface as a proving ground for living on Mars, this next chapter in exploration will forever establish our presence in the stars. ✨ We are returning to the Moon – to stay – and this is how we are going! Actress Kelly Marie Tran of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” lent her voice to this project.

In this artist’s rendition, we explore a metallic world named Psyche, an asteroid that offers a unique window into the building blocks of planet formation. The NASA Psyche mission launches in 2023 and will arrive at the asteroid Psyche, which orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, in 2026. The spacecraft, also named Psyche, will spend 21 months orbiting the asteroid, mapping it and studying its properties. The mission is led by Principal Investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies is providing a high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.

For Earth Day 2021, we explore the connections of Earth systems and NASA's ability to observe them in a changing world, highlighting the links between dust transport, vegetation, water quality, conservation and human health, the cryosphere, and disasters.

This visualization uses a digital 3D model of the Moon built from global elevation maps and image mosaics by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. It was created to accompany a performance of Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune by the National Symphony Orchestra Pops, led by conductor Emil de Cou, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on June 1 and 2, 2018, as part of a celebration of NASA's 60th anniversary. Clair de Lune (moonlight in French) was published in 1905, as the third of four movements in the composer's Suite Bergamasque, and unlike the other parts of this work, Clair is quiet, contemplative, and slightly melancholy, evoking the feeling of a solitary walk through a moonlit garden. The visuals were composed like a nature documentary, with clean cuts and a mostly stationary virtual camera. The viewer follows the Sun throughout a lunar day, seeing sunrises and then sunsets over prominent features on the Moon. The sprawling ray system surrounding Copernicus crater, for example, is revealed beneath receding shadows at sunrise and later slips back into darkness as night encroaches.

This 4K visualization shows the Moon's phase and libration at hourly intervals throughout 2022, as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere. Each frame represents one hour. In addition, this visualization shows the Moon's orbit position, sub-Earth and subsolar points, and distance from the Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites, maria, and other albedo features in sunlight. Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Data visualization by Ernie Wright (USRA) Producer & Editor - David Ladd (AIMM) Music provided by Universal Production Music: “Build the Future” – Alexander Hitchens

chronicles solar activity from Aug. 12 to Dec. 22, 2022, as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has steadily imaged the Sun in 4K x 4K resolution for nearly 13 years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system. With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This 133-day time lapse showcases photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength that shows the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer: the corona. Compiling images taken 108 seconds apart, the movie condenses 133 days, or about four months, of solar observations into 59 minutes. The video shows bright active regions passing across the face of the Sun as it rotates. The Sun rotates approximately once every 27 days. The loops extending above the bright regions are magnetic fields that have trapped hot, glowing plasma. These bright regions are also the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields snap together in a process called magnetic reconnection. While SDO has kept an unblinking eye pointed toward the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. Some of the dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. Other blackouts are caused by instrumentation being down or data errors. SDO transmits 1.4 terabytes of data to the ground every day. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO was calibrating its instruments. SDO and other NASA missions will continue to watch our Sun in the years to come, providing further insights about our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe.