Stellary Starry Universe

The Mercury 7 astronauts examine their ‘couches.’ Each astronaut’s couch was molded to fit his body to help withstand the G-loads of the launch. Plaster casts of the astronauts were created in order to properly mold the couches. Left to right are Alan Sheppard, John Glenn, Walter Schirra, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Deke Slayton, Gus Grissom and Bob Gilruth. Gilruth was director of the Space Task Group, which planned and managed the Mercury Project. Image Credit: NASA

The surface of Saturn’s moon Dione is rendered in crisp detail against a hazy, ghostly Titan. Visible in this image are hints of atmospheric banding around Titan’s north pole. The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 10, 2010.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Dione and 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Titan. Scale in the original image was 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Dione and 16 kilometers (10 miles) on Titan. The image has been magnified by a factor of 1.5 and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

NASA remembers Roy Estess, former Stennis Space Center Director, who passed away on June 25, 2010. Estess had a 37-year career at NASA, which began in 1966 where he was a test engineer at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, known then as the Mississippi Test Facility, and worked on the engines for the Apollo Program.

In 1989, he was named center director of Stennis and served in that role until 2002. He also served as acting center director of Johnson Space Center. In this image from 2001, Johnson Space Center Acting Director Roy Estess (right) greets the Expedition 3 and STS-108 crews during return ceremonies. Seated (from left) are Nikolai Zubov, Deputy Director for Logistics and Procurement, Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia; Expedition 3 commander Frank Culbertson; and Expedition 3 flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Vladimir N. Dezhurov. Image Credit: NASA

On June 13th, while flying on an airplane at 41,000 feet, high school students from Massachusetts witnessed and recorded the dramatic breakup of Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft over Australia. Their newly-processed video is a must-see.

This future aircraft design concept for supersonic flight over land comes from the team led by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. The team’s simulation shows possibility for achieving overland flight by dramatically lowering the level of sonic booms through the use of an “inverted-V” engine-under wing configuration.

Other revolutionary technologies help achieve range, payload and environmental goals. This supersonic cruise concept is among the designs presented in April 2010 to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate for its NASA Research Announcement-funded studies into advanced aircraft that could enter service in the 2030-2035 timeframe. Image credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin Corporation