How Do We Launch Things into Space?
You’ve probably seen beautiful photos of Earth and the other planets in our solar system. Those photos were often captured by spacecraft – robotic explorers doing their work far away from Earth. But how exactly do we send these spacecraft so far away? Well, it all starts with a rocket. A really, really big one.
Comprehension Questions:
1. True or False: A rocket needs to get going to 17,800 MPH to thrust into Earth’s atmosphere and stay in orbit.
2. An object in space that orbits around a large object is called a ___________.
3. What is the name of the circular path that satellites follow around Earth?
4. The balance of momentum and _________ can keep a satellite in orbit for many years.
Answer Key:
1. True
2. Satellite
3. Orbit
4. Gravity
Learn more at
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/launching...
Find more fun videos, games, and articles about space and Earth science at https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/
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NASA Astronauts Aboard Space Station Huddle Up for Super Bowl
NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, currently aboard the International Space Station, talk about the similarities between training for space travel and training for the Big Game. Spoiler: It’s all about teamwork.
The crew aboard the orbiting laboratory are studying a variety of microgravity experiments that benefit people on Earth, including research in human heart health, cancer therapies, space manufacturing techniques, and technology demonstrations.
Here’s more information about some of the research happening every day in low Earth orbit: https://go.nasa.gov/3SQdDDF
Learn more on the connections between space exploration and football: https://go.nasa.gov/42zm7lO
Video Producer: Shane Apple
Animation: Mark Hailey
Music: Universal Production Music
Credit: NASA
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2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA
On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will travel through Mexico, cross the United States from Texas to Maine, and exit North America along Canada’s Atlantic coast.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth and briefly covers the full disk of the Sun. This reveals the Sun’s wispy, white outer atmosphere, called the corona.
Not in the path of the eclipse? Watch with NASA from anywhere in the world. We will provide live broadcast coverage on April 8 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. EDT (1700 to 2000 UTC) on NASA TV, NASA.gov, the NASA app, and right here on YouTube: go.nasa.gov/3OI7nLF
Weather permitting, people throughout most of North and Central America, including all of the contiguous United States, will be able to view at least a partial solar eclipse. A partial solar eclipse is when the Moon only covers part of the Sun. People in Hawaii and parts of Alaska will also experience a partial solar eclipse. Click here to learn more about when and where the solar eclipse will be visible: go.nasa.gov/Eclipse2024Map
WARNING: Except during the brief total phase of a total solar eclipse, when the Moon completely blocks the Sun’s bright face, it is not safe to look directly at the Sun without specialized eye protection for solar viewing. Indirect viewing methods, such as pinhole projectors, can also be used to experience an eclipse. For more on how to safely view this eclipse: go.nasa.gov/Eclipse2024Safety
Learn more about the upcoming total solar eclipse: go.nasa.gov/Eclipse2024
Credit: NASA
Producer: Beth Anthony
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Studying the Health of Our Oceans and Climate on This Week @NASA – February 9, 2024
Studying the health of our oceans and climate, a private astronaut crew heads home from the space station, and some mission milestones for our Lucy spacecraft … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!
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The Color of Space: The Series - Ep. 2, Victor Glover
Victor Glover will be the first Black astronaut to travel around the Moon for NASA's Artemis II mission. Victor's journey as a Black NASA astronaut offers inspiration to a new generation, reflecting a legacy of resilience and tenacity —the power of representation and the strength of family.
Watch this episode and more on NASA+, our new no-cost, ad-free streaming service. No subscription required. https://plus.nasa.gov
Producer and Director: Jori Kates
Executive Producer: Rebecca Sirmons
Lead Editor: Sonnet Apple
Additional Editor: Ashlee Nichols Brookens
Recording Engineer : Marcus Smith
Graphic Designer: Mark Hailey
Video Librarian: Sheva Moore
Music Provided by: Universal Production Music
Credit: NASA
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Prelaunch News Conference for NASA Mission Studying Earth's Atmosphere and Oceans (Feb. 5, 2024)
Targeted to launch on Tuesday, Feb. 6, NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite mission will study how our oceans and atmosphere interact in a changing climate. Prelaunch activities include a news conference on Monday, Feb. 5 at 9 a.m. EST (1400 UTC) with the following participants:
NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free
Karen St. Germain, director, Earth Science Division, NASA
Tim Dunn, senior launch director, Launch Services Program, NASA
Julianna Scheiman, director, Civil Satellite Missions, SpaceX
Brian Cizek, launch weather officer, 45th Weather Squadron, U.S. Space Force
Credit NASA
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A Commercial Resupply Mission to the Space Station on This Week @NASA – February 2, 2024
A commercial resupply mission to the space station, preparing to make a delivery to the Moon, and monitoring our changing Earth from space … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!
Link to download this video: https://images.nasa.gov/details/A%20C...
Video Producer: Andre Valentine
Video Editor: Andre Valentine
Narrator: Emanuel Cooper
Music: Universal Production Music
Credit: NASA
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James Webb Space Telescope: Secondary Mirror Deployment - Mission Control Live
James Webb Space Telescope experts give real-time updates on deployment of the telescope’s secondary mirror. The secondary mirror is one of the most important pieces of equipment on the telescope, and is essential to the success of the mission.
When deployed, this mirror will sit out in front of Webb's hexagonal primary mirrors, which form an iconic honeycomb-like shape. This smaller circular mirror serves an important role in collecting light from Webb’s 18 primary mirrors into a focused beam. That beam is then sent down into the tertiary and fine steering mirrors, and finally to Webb's four powerful scientific instruments.
About the mirrors: https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/observa...
Where is Webb?: https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/web...
Credit: NASA
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#EZScience: Taking Light Apart with the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is heading to space to explore the universe as no telescope has before. This observatory has both cameras and spectrographs, instruments that take light apart to reveal the chemical makeup of cosmic objects.
Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen and Dr. Ellen Stofan discuss the upcoming launch, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope backup mirror and historical spectrographs on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
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Mission Control Live -James Webb Space Telescope: Primary Mirror Deployment
Watch James Webb Space Telescope experts give real-time updates on the final step in the observatory’s deployment: the unfolding of the second of Webb’s two primary mirror wings. Engineers in mission control will send commands to deploy the wing and latch it into place, a process that takes several hours. The deployment will complete the mirror's golden honeycomb-like structure, and will mark the end of an unprecedented 14-day unfolding process.
Webb launched on Dec. 25, 2021 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. An international collaboration with NASA partners including the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, it's the most powerful and complex space telescope ever built. The mission is managed by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
For about the next six months, Webb will cool down, calibrate its instruments, and align its 18 primary mirror segments so it can begin to #UnfoldTheUniverse.
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What You Need to Know About Europa
Deep beneath the crust of Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa lies a massive liquid water ocean. Exploring this ocean world with our Europa Clipper spacecraft could provide new clues in our search for life beyond Earth.
Scheduled to launch in October 2024, Europa Clipper’s main science goal is to determine whether there are places below the icy moon’s surface that could be habitable.
Here’s what you need to know about Europa: https://europa.nasa.gov/why-europa/ov...
Producers: Jessie Wilde and Scott Bednar
Editor: Matt Schara
Credit: NASA
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Live Mission Control - James Webb Space Telescope: Sunshield Deployment -
James Webb Space Telescope experts give real-time updates in the final stages of the telescope’s sunshield deployment. A major milestone, the successful shield tensioning will ensure Webb’s mirrors stay cold enough to #UnfoldTheUniverse.
The five-layer, tennis court-sized sunshield is a critical part of the telescope because the infrared cameras and instruments aboard must be kept very cold and out of the Sun's heat and light to function properly.
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James Webb Space Telescope described by Peter Cullen
Voice actor Peter Cullen, known for bringing to film and television numerous characters including Optimus Prime of "Transformers",
Disney's Eeyore and many more, describes NASA's next generation space telescope.
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NASA - First Full-Color Images Explained | Never Before Seen View of the Universe
Never Before Seen View of the Universe
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Northrop Grumman’s 20th Cargo Mission to the Space Station
Northrop Grumman’s 20th cargo resupply mission launches to the International Space Station, powered by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff on Tuesday, Jan. 30 is set for 12:07 p.m. EST (1707 UTC). The Cygnus capsule carries over 8,200 pounds (3,700 kg) of cargo, including space station hardware, crew supplies, and research that can only be done in microgravity. Science and technology experiments aboard include a robotic surgery tech demonstration, and tests of a 3D metal printer, semiconductor manufacturing, and thermal protection systems for re-entry.
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James Webb Space Telescope Launch — NASA Broadcast
With revolutionary technology, Webb will observe a part of space and time never seen before, providing a wealth of amazing views into an era when the very first stars and galaxies formed––over 13.5 billion years ago.
It can explore our own solar system’s residents with exquisite new detail and study the atmospheres of distant worlds. From new forming stars to devouring black holes, Webb will reveal all this and more! It’s the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope ever built.
Webb is an international collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). Thousands of engineers and hundreds of scientists worked to make Webb a reality, along with over 300 universities, organizations, and companies from 29 U.S. states and 14 countries!
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Photons Received: Webb Sees Its First Star
The James Webb Space Telescope is nearing completion of the first phase of the months-long process of aligning the observatory’s primary mirror using the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument.
The team's challenge was twofold: confirm that NIRCam was ready to collect light from celestial objects, and then identify starlight from the same star in each of the 18 primary mirror segments. The result is an image mosaic of 18 randomly organized dots of starlight, the product of Webb's unaligned mirror segments all reflecting light from the same star back at Webb's secondary mirror and into NIRCam's detectors.
What looks like a simple image of blurry starlight now becomes the foundation to align and focus the telescope in order for Webb to deliver unprecedented views of the universe this summer. Over the next month or so, the team will gradually adjust the mirror segments until the 18 images become a single star.
Music credit: Universal Production Music -Transitions Instrumental by Cotton Niblett
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Producer
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle): Lead Animator
Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Animator
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Writer
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Videographer
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Editor
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Lead Motion Graphics
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The Launch of the James Webb Space Telescope
the James Webb Space Telescope was launched by an ArianeSpace Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket and launch site were part of the European Space Agency's contribution to the mission.
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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope – Official Mission Trailer
We don’t yet know what the James Webb Space Telescope will uncover. Will we get answers? Will we have more questions? One thing’s certain: The story of us is a never-ending quest for knowledge.
As Carl Sagan said: “We can’t help it.” #UnfoldTheUniverse
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov
Produced by Lindeman & Associates
Voice of Carl Sagan courtesy of Druyan-Sagan Associates, Inc., used with permission
Imagery courtesy of NASA and ESA, with Druyan-Sagan Associates, Inc., used with permission
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The cockpit video from the Blue Angels is both awe-inspiring and spine-chilling.
The Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy's flight demonstration squadron, exhibits a level of skill that borders on the supernatural. Precision and attention to detail are not just requirements but reach laughable proportions when describing their aerobatics. The mission of the Blue Angels is to highlight the teamwork and professionalism of the United States Navy and Marine Corps through flight demonstrations and community outreach, all while fostering a culture of excellence and service to the country.
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French Rafale fighter jets
IONIAN SEA (Nov. 23, 2022) French Rafale fighter jets land, launch, and perform touch-and-goes aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) during multicarrier operations, Nov. 23, 2022. The George H.W. Bush CSG is on a schedu
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James Webb Space Telescope (Official NASA Broadcast)
It’s time to #UnfoldTheUniverse. Watch as the mission team reveals the long-awaited first images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb, an international collaboration led by NASA with our partners the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, is the biggest telescope ever launched into space. It will unlock mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.
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First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA revealed the first five full-color images and spectrographic data from the world's most powerful space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). The world got its first look at the full capabilities of the mission at a live event streamed from the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on July 12, 2022.
The event showcased these targets:
- Carina Nebula: A landscape speckled with glittering stars and cosmic cliffs
- Stephan’s Quintet: An enormous mosaic with a visual grouping of five galaxies
- Southern Ring Nebula: A nebula with rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions
- WASP 96-b: A distinct signature of water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet orbiting a distant Sun-like star
- SMACS 0723: The deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date
The full set of the telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data are available at: https://nasa.gov/webbfirstimages
Full-resolution images can be downloaded at: https://webbtelescope.org
Credit: NASA
Download Avail Link:
https://images.nasa.gov/details-First...)
Production Credit:
Producer/Editor: Amy Leniarthtt
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NASA Explorers- The Artemis Generation
It’s not rockets and satellites that make NASA soar. It’s people. On season 5 of #NASAExplorers, “Artemis Generation,” meet the scientists and engineers who are studying Moon rocks, building tools, working aboard NASA’s International Space Station, and training astronauts in preparation for landing humans on the surface of the Moon through NASA’s Artemis missions. #S5E0
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