NASA - Image of the Day

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• Transporter-18 SmallSats Encapsulation

  Three NASA-supported small spacecraft, shown along with many commercial payloads, before being encapsulated in a SpaceX Falcon 9. The rocket launched the payloads into low-Earth orbit at 11:32 a.m. PDT Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, as part of the company’s Transporter-18 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

• Cosmic House of Mirrors

  This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features galaxies in incredible detail that have been warped and multiplied like they’ve stepped into a house of mirrors.

• Crew-12 Returns to Earth

  The SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft is seen as it lands with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev aboard in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles, Calif., Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026.

• Artemis II Crew Moon Photo Annotations

  A visualization of a dark Moon eclipsing the Sun is marked with handwritten notes in this April 6, 2026, screenshot from an Artemis II crew member's tablet.

• Astronomers Solve Cosmic Cold Case with NASA Hubble Data

  This artist’s concept depicts a possible explanation for the unusual chemical abundances NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope detected in the HS 0209+0832 system: a second-generation planet orbiting the white dwarf star.

• NASA Astronaut Christina Koch at Eagles vs. Rams

  NASA astronaut and mission specialist of the agency's Artemis II mission, Christina Koch, led the fans in singing the Eagles Fight Song from the field at an NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in Philadelphia.

• NASA's DAVINCI Probe Can Stand the Heat

  An engineering model of NASA’s DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) descent probe passed a key test that ran from Aug. 28 to Sept. 10, showing it can survive the extreme temperatures of Venus.

• NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 Launches

  A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov aboard, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

• Star Trails

  This long-duration image shows star trails above Earth and the blue lights of fishing boats and the yellow lights of Indonesian cities stretching below the International Space Station as it orbited 258 miles above the Banda Sea.

• Crew-13 Rocket and Spacecraft at Launch Pad

  Ahead of launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon spacecraft atop, is vertical at the launch pad of Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026.

• Space Station View of Earth at Night

  This nighttime view of the United States, dotted with city lights looking toward New York City (center), was taken at approximately 3:40 a.m. local time from the International Space Station as it orbited 259 miles above Earth.

• Hubble Spots Chaotic Secret in Galaxy

  Though the spiral galaxy in this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month seems serene, it hides a chaotic secret.

• Practicing for Safe Landings on the Moon and Beyond

  An Alta-X drone flies an advanced guidance and navigation system known as the Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) experiment near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026.

• NASA's Hubble Telescope Reaches Milestone, Looks for Elusive Supernova

  An image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of galaxy cluster MACS J0417 is part of repeated observations to monitor for the reappearance of supernova Athena, which can help astronomers measure the expansion rate of the universe.

• NASA's Chandra Finds Unusual Objects in Pinwheel Galaxy

  Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have discovered a new class of objects behaving unlike any they have seen before.

• NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman Attends Ravens vs. Saints Game

  NASA astronaut and commander of the agency’s Artemis II mission, Reid Wiseman, a Baltimore native, takes a selfie with fans at an NFL game between the New Orleans Saints and the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Baltimore.

• COSI Telescope Comes Together

  UC Berkeley engineers and managers watch as the COSI (Compton Spectrometer and Imager) detector assembly is slowly raised from a table in this July 8, 2026, image.

• NASA Unveils Enterprise, the First Space Shuttle

  The rollout ceremony for NASA’s first space shuttle, OV-101, coincided with Constitution Day of the nation’s bicentennial on Sept.17, 1976. Although the orbiter was originally planned to be named Constitution, Star Trek fans successfully convinced President Gerald Ford to name it Enterprise after the series’ fictional starship.

• Indonesia's Anak Krakatau

  Anak Krakatau erupts ash and volcanic gases in this image acquired with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 on Sept. 5, 2026.

• Artemis III Crew Visits NASA Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building

  NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik (left) and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano view progress on the solid rocket booster integration in High Bay 3 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026.

• NASA Kicks Off Inspiration Tour with Steelers vs. Falcons Game

  Fans pose for a photo with an astronaut in the NASA Experience Zone at an NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Atlanta Falcons at Acrisure Stadium, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

• NASA's Chandra Spots Galactic Gem

  Galaxies are like cosmic gems, each with characteristics including size and shape that make them distinct. A gallery from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes displays a collection of galactic images that showcase this variety.

• Dust and Water in Sagittarius A*

  Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers have discovered that dust and water can form and survive surprisingly close to the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

• Artemis II Crew at NASA Marshall

  The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission visited NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama on Sept. 1, 2026.

• Superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud

  N44 is a complex nebula filled with glowing hydrogen gas, dark lanes of dust, massive stars, and many populations of stars of different ages. One of its most distinctive features, however, is the dark, starry gap called a “superbubble,” visible in this Hubble Space Telescope image in the upper central region.

• Lunar Occultation of Venus

  On Wednesday, June 17, skywatchers across the United States—and parts of Canada—enjoyed a rare event: a daytime lunar occultation of Venus. A lunar occultation occurs when the Moon moves directly in front of another celestial object from our viewpoint on Earth, briefly hiding it from sight.

• Igniting Roman's Journey

  Now on a three-month, million-mile journey to its final orbit, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon reveal the universe’s darkest secrets. The mission launched at 7:26 a.m. EDT on Aug. 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

• August Lunar Eclipse Rises Over Louisiana

  A lunar eclipse is visible over southern Louisiana. The lunar eclipse was visible throughout much of North and South America and part of Europe and Africa between Aug. 27-28. The Full Moon slipped through Earth’s shadow on Aug. 27, continuing into Aug. 28 for some parts of the world, resulting in the lunar eclipse. At maximum eclipse, the Moon takes on a dramatic dark, ruddy or coppery tint along the covered edge. New Orleans is home to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, where stages for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and structures for Orion spacecraft are produced for the Artemis missions.

• Artemis III RS-25 Engine Processing: #3 Lift

  Technicians prepare to transfer the #2 RS-25 SLS (Space Launch System) rocket engine (front) to the work stand with the #3 engine (back) for integration with the Artemis III core stage rocket on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During Artemis III, the four RS‑25 engines will launch the Orion spacecraft and its crew of four into low Earth orbit, generating more than two million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

• NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Launches

  A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope on board is seen transiting the sun during launch from Launch Complex 39A, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.