Top NASA Photos of All Time 50 indelible images from the first 50 years of spaceflight

The Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum has published its top 50 NASA photos of all time in honor of NASA's 50th anniversary.

Visitors to: http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Top_NASA_Photos_of_All_Time.html can view the top 31 images.

The following is from the Air and Space Magazine website.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which began its operations on October 1, 1958, we offer this list of the 50 most memorable images from NASA’s history . We recognize that any such ranking is inherently subjective. The rationale for why any one image ranked two slots higher than any other combines several factors, including our attempt to balance the list between human spaceflight, satellite imaging, and planetary exploration. Many wonderful images did not make the final cut—we couldn’t convince the editors to give us 20 pages instead of 10.

The list omits significant events from space history that were not NASA achievements, such as the famous 1958 photograph of Wernher von Braun and the other architects of the Explorer 1 satellite celebrating their success by holding a model of the satellite over their heads, an event that occurred months before NASA existed. Photos from the Apollo moon program predominate, as well they should—it remains the agency’s crowning achievement. We also recognize that, even though the first “A” in NASA stands for “aeronautics,” our list is light on aeronautical breakthroughs (see Moments & Milestones, p. 84). Our only excuse is that the ranking reflects the affinity of the division of space history staff for space topics. (http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Top_NASA_Photos_of_All_Time.html)

Launch Fest at Goddard Space Flight Center

We are all recovering from Launch Fest, an open house that was held at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) on September 13. According to estimates from our Public Affairs Office, 13,000 people came to see what GSFC is all about! Each of our projects were represented in some way:

• LRO had exhibits and displays outside of the white room, where the spacecraft was prominently on display
• Aura had banners and activities that discussed the role of uv radiation in the processes that control the stratospheric ozone hole
• SAM opened its doors to the Mars atmosphere simulation chamber and showed animations of the Mars Science Lab doing geochemistry on Mars
• LOLA displayed the engineering model of the instrument along with the heritage instruments MOLA and MLA (aboard MESSENGER), as well as animations of what data from LRO will look like
• New Horizons had animations of the spacecraft and science results from the Jupiter flyby
  

Our scientists and engineers did a wonderful job talking about the work they do at GSFC as well as how Goddard contributes to exploration.

Astrobiology 2008 - The first music video about Astrobiology

This is a rap video about astrobiology - The search for life in space, particularly on other worlds called exoplanets.

The video has references to:- the origin of life, Genes, DNA and species, Space age, NASA, Lunar Travel, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)and ET life, Frank Drake, Goldilocks (Habitable) zone, Astronomy, Doppler shift, biology VS mythology,

NASA Edge Visits LRO

NASA Edge heads into the LRO cleanroom
Originally uploaded by geosteph

The team from NASA Edge came to Goddard Space Flight Center on August 14th to prepare for a vodcast on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. They spent the day over in building 7 - where LRO was built, had it's six instruments integrated, and is now undergoing a series to tests in preparation for a late February launch.

The Edge guys spent time in the LRO cleanroom chatting with folks responsible for integration and testing. They also interviewed several Goddard scientists about the mission.

What a great team! We really enjoyed hosting NASA Edge at Goddard and hope they come back to visit again soon.