NASA

The Lunar Landing Research Facility was transformed into a site to conduct crash testing of full-scale aircraft.

The M2-F1 lifting body, shown under tow, was designed as a means of landing an aircraft horizontally after atmospheric reentry.

Space Shuttle Atlantis begins STS-86 by blazing through the night sky.

NASA technicians at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory inspect and repair damage inside the Huygens probe before its successful launch.

Two astronauts emerge from the airlock in their space suits after an EVA.

The first aircraft purchased by the NACA.

This technical rendition of Atlantis docked to the Kristall module of the Russian Mir Space Station shows the largest space platform ever assembled.

The Communication Technology Satellite, a high-powered spacecraft resulting from five years of cooperation between NASA and Canada's Department of Communications, was launched in January of 1976.

Astronaut Bruce McCandless II exits the EMU after successful deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope.

This NASA SR-71 completes its first flight at Dryden Flight Research Center.

This color picture of the Martian horizon was taken by Viking 1 on July 24, 1976.

The ground communication terminal for the Brazil/United States communication link via the Relay satellite which was launched late in 1962.

Seymour Schwartz prepares substances to be analyzed for evaporation properties.

A Soviet test engineer drinks from a water dispenser in the Soyuz spacecraft mock-up.

Engineers check out the world's first communication satellite known as the Early Bird.

Two astronauts await recovery after completing the Gemini VIII mission.

An astronaut takes a hot bath on the Skylab space station.

Two astronauts repair the Solar Maximum Mission Satellite during an EVA on STS-41C.

NASA technicians wear cleanroom attire to inspect the Pioneer III probe prior to its trip to Cape Canaveral, FL.

Two astronauts prepare to leave Discovery's airlock for a spacewalk.

This panoramic image is the first photograph taken of Mars by Voyager 1's Camera 1 in 1976.

JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility began with tracking the Ranger 7 mission in 1964 and later collected the tracking and scientific information for the Deep Space Network.

Voyager 2, arriving at Jupiter four months after Voyager 1, was actually launched 16 days before its mate.

Dr. Robert Goddard, namesake for the Goddard Space Flight Center, is known as a pioneer in American Rocketry.

An artist's conception of the ACTS just after release from the space shuttle's cargo bay in September of 1993.