[Shadowmuse Blown]

^Fascinating.  That would be cool if they find it again when they return to the Moon.  I wonder about the other LMs?  Are they orbiting the Moon, too?  Maybe some are and some have crashed. 

[solvegas]

A Lunar Rover left at the Moon. 

[TheZookie007]

A Lunar Rover left at the Moon. 

That's one sweet ride!

[Shadowmuse Blown]

Since we were talking about Lunar Modules before, here’s a neat shot of Apollo 9’s LEM, “Spider” before the command module “Gumdrop” attempted to dock with it and retrieve it.  This was all dress rehearsal for Apollo 11, so Apollo 9 never got beyond Earth orbit. 

This LEM are-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 10/23/1981 and burned up.

[solvegas]

A Moon landing training machine from the 1960's. 

[TheZookie007]

Since we were talking about Lunar Modules before, here’s a neat shot of Apollo 9’s LEM, “Spider” before the command module “Gumdrop” attempted to dock with it and retrieve it.  This was all dress rehearsal for Apollo 11, so Apollo 9 never got beyond Earth orbit. 

This LEM are-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 10/23/1981 and burned up.

Roughly twenty years later. A good run.

[solvegas]

Gemini IV space capsule at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. The Gemini program was the predecessor of the Apollo Moon mission, and it was the program that taught NASA how to dock two spacecraft, how to do space walks safely, How to navigate more precisely and other skills necessary for the Apollo Program.

[Shadowmuse Blown]

Perseverance River pointed one of its cameras to the sun with a filter and captured Mars’ moon Phobos as it transited the Sun.

[TheZookie007]

Perseverance Rover pointed one of its cameras to the sun with a filter and captured Mars’ moon Phobos as it transited the Sun.

Your tax dollars at work! And excellent work at that!

[solvegas]

A photo taken on the successful 5th anniversary of SpaceX landing their Falcon rockets. 

[Shadowmuse Blown]

The Mars Ingenuity helicopter found the protective backshell and parachute that were used during the Perseverance Rover’s descent to the Martian surface.

Ingenuity’s shadow is at the lower left.

[solvegas]

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. I remember it well. I was stationed at San Diego's Point Loma Submarine Base doing some repairs on a submarine when all of a sudden I was told to come to the messroom and see CNN on the TV and it was a few minutes earlier the shuttle had blown up. In this photo you can see a flame spouting of the solid rocket booster literally burning through the main liquid fuel tank due to a rubber O-ring which had unsealed since it was cold in Florida and contracted. 

[TheZookie007]

Don't stare at this video too long—you might get pulled in

This visualization simulates the appearance of a black hole as seen on its edge, where inbound matter has collected into a thin, hot structure called an accretion disk. The black hole’s extreme gravity alters the paths of light coming from different parts of the disk, making rings of matter visible above and below. At the center lies the black hole's shadow, an area roughly twice the size of the event horizon — its point of no return.

This visualization was first published in September 2019, about six months after scientists with the Event Horizon Telescope released the first actual image of a black hole and its shadow. There's plenty more for us to learn about these mystifying objects, though—join us at @NASAGoddard through May 6 as we celebrate #BlackHoleWeek!

Credit: NASA/Jeremy Schnittman

[solvegas]

Supposed to fly in the near future for space tourism.

[TheZookie007]

Supposed to fly in the near future for space tourism.

Any ETA on the first flight, or the cost of a ticket?